Music and Media Focus

Healing with Harmony
www.healingwithharmony.com

Healing with Harmony is a non-profit organization that provides custom configured healing music programs to health care providers. They do this by making available what they call a Harmony Kit.  Each kit includes a collection of specifically chosen music and spoken word CD’s, players, and accessories. The CD’s are selected individually for each kit based on a comprehensive assessment form, which provides information about patient demographics and the type of facility represented. This gives Healing with Harmony a precise picture of their needs. They also encourage a long-term relationship to update each kit and to honor specific CD requests that meet the intent of their mission. Best of all, Harmony Kits are provided free of charge to qualified providers, such as hospitals, cancer treatment facilities, nursing homes, hospice, dialysis centers, and more.

According to founder Mark Lindemer: “Through Healing with Harmony, we all have a great opportunity to comfort people with music in their individual health care settings. With fingertip ease, patients can choose from the best comforting, relaxing and uplifting music the world has to offer. We make it simple for patients to listen to a variety of compact discs with personal CD players and headphones. Until today, music for individual, private listening has been unavailable to the health care community. Healing with Harmony changes all of that. Now, patients can close their eyes and be surrounded by the comfort of music, thereby replacing potential stress and anxiety with the joy of music. It is our honor to share the gift of music with those who may need and benefit from it most.”

The organization’s  director is Wendy Bartlett who sees  their mission as aimed at addressing the body mind and spirit needs of those facing difficult, serious, and life-threatening medical challenges as well as those facing end of life issues. In her words: “As we know music treats illnesses with success, enhances moods & calms agitation. We always tell those receiving Harmony Kits to share them with caregivers, because as we all know…caregiving is incredibly stressful and music will help them cope with their daily stressors. I’m continually moved by the depth of sincerity I’ve witnessed within the health care community in searching for methods to enhance the overall well-being of their patients. What greater pleasure could there be than to be a part of a foundation that strives to help them in that effort. My hope is to continue as Director of Healing with Harmony and help evolve it from a local program to one that also becomes available on a national level.”

I first became aware of this organization through staff member Kathryn Toyama, the organization’s internet publicity coordinator, and a classically trained pianist, whose Hope For Harmony CD is part of their extensive catalog. She closely follows the latest research that confirms the undeniable healing effects that positive musical vibrations have on all living beings. For her, music is a sacred calling and serves a higher purpose. She shares: “Crossing paths with Healing with Harmony awakens me from what has until now only been a dream, and defines my new reality. I look forward to creating an awareness of Healing with Harmony’s mission with the hope that more musicians will also feel drawn to this cause.” A number of the musicians who are currently involved in this program and donate their music are artists I have written about in Music and Media Focus, such as Jeff Pearce, Heidi Ann Breyer, Joe Bongiorno, and Kathryn Toyama. Others I’m familiar with include Daniel Kolbialka, Shoshanna, Paul Adams, David Hoffman, and more.

As mentioned earlier, Healing with Harmony is a non-profit (501-C) organization. Their staff is all- volunteer and their work is supported by donations. Aside from absolute essentials (e.g. phone, web site) they have no administrative costs, and virtually 100% of all donations go directly to purchasing Harmony Kit components. For more information on their services, or to donate either funds or music, you can visit their website. They also have a Facebook page with personal stories, articles, links to music, and more. It is inspiring to see the dedication and humanitarian efforts witnessed in this growing organization, especially in a field like the health care industry, where profit is often a primary consideration. And it is gratifying to see the healing effects of music getting the recognition they deserve in the mainstream. Hopefully, this is the wave of the future.

Harmony Kit: