For some patients, therapy is music to their ears

By Jenny Staletovich of McClatchy Newspapers - 01/15/2008

In this undated photo, music therapist Joe Goelz, a board-certified music therapist, sits outside the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital. Miami Herald / MCT

MIAMI — When Joe Goelz tickles the ivories at the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital, playing “Fly Me to the Moon” or “Return to Me” isn’t just entertainment. It’s what the doctor ordered.

Goelz, 38, is a board-certified music therapist who plays the keyboard, guitar or percussion instruments. Because the brain’s musical muscles reside deep in the brain, patients who suffer from dementia, stroke or other brain injury are still able to respond to music. Music as therapy can actually help some patients communicate, while for others it can ease depression or help with feelings of isolation or loss of control.

“It’s like concurrent therapy to complement what the psychiatrists and psychologists are doing,” Goelz explained.

Goelz, who graduated from Miramar High in Florida and trained classically on the piano, began studying music therapy at the University of Miami. Initially, he wanted to be a doctor but had a falling out with organic chemistry, among other things. (The business end of medicine also soured him on the profession.) When a piano professor suggested he combine the two fields, Goelz found a calling.

Goelz completed his internship at Miami Children’s Hospital, then worked at several clinics and in the Miami-Dade County school system before coming to the Miami Jewish Home eight years ago.

Music therapy, he explained, can be used to treat all ages. In children, it can ease crying, increase weight and develop the brain. At Miami Children’s, Goelz had one patient, a young girl suffering from AIDS, whose parents were reluctant to treat her because they considered her illness shameful.

“Her parents felt she did something wrong and was being punished,” he said. So Goelz learned a song well-known in her homeland in Haiti and played it for the girl and her father.

“I learned it in Creole. He talked to me and talked to her and when push came to shove, he ultimately let the medical staff start treating her,” Goelz said. “I didn’t heal her, but I made a way for traditional medicine to do what needed to be done.” Requirements: A bachelor’s degree in music therapy from an American Music Therapy Association-approved university; 1,200 hours of clinical training including an internship; completion of the Certification Board for Music Therapists national exam.

Salary: Between $50,000 and $200,000.

Perks: Providing an alternative treatment that is cost effective and noninvasive; establishing relationships with patients.