Healing with Music: Lighthouse Pioneers Groundbreaking Music Program
Posted 08/19/2011
Cate Sharp marches to a different beat – literally.
The self-taught percussionist, guitar player and blues singer thinks outside the box when it comes to working with clients in their darkest hour. Sharp runs group therapy during the day at the Lighthouse Acute/Crisis facility at Parkside. Sharp has worked for Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group for ten years and in 2004 she decided to mingle her passion for music with her passion for helping those in crisis recover.
After reading “Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina & Richard Farina,” Sharp was intrigued by a nonprofit founded by Mimi Farina called Bread and Roses. It provides live music to those confined to institutions serving the disabled and the elderly in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sharp thought the program was a great idea and could translate well in a mental health environment.
“It occurred to me I know a lot of professional musicians,” Sharp said.
And Music for Mental Health was born.
What started out with a handful of musicians has blossomed into a pool of 36, and more than 100 music sessions to date. In the beginning, the sessions were performance only, but now Sharp brings in an assortment of percussions from her private collection: Box drums, Djembes, Tambourines, and several other drums from exotic places. The clients sing and play along with classics such as “Tangled up in Blue,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Me and Bobby McGee,” and other classics from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
“Musicians were so psyched about the program that they spread the word. I no longer had to recruit, musicians were calling me,” Sharp said.
In October, Director of Acute Services Sonia Jackson saw the value of program and offered to fund the music sessions. Now, the musicians receive a small stipend and Sharp has enlisted researchers from
“The results have been far more positive than I ever could have imagined,” Sharp said. “It affects their willingness to participate in groups in general, opens up people resistant to treatment and there is usually a dramatic change in mood.”
Local musician Joe Uveges is a regular to the program. His enthusiasm for music is infectious and he relates to the clients in a very real way. “I have suffered from manic depression,” Uveges said at a recent session. “I can relate with where you are at.”
After the session, a young woman suffering from post-partum depression said it was the most fun she had in weeks: “I’m a little happier now than I was earlier today.”
For more information about Music for Mental Health, contact Sharp at cate.sharp@ppbhg.org. Also, stay tuned to the Intranet for updates and videos from Sharp’s sessions. Click here to see more photos.
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