Canada Lutheran: January/February 2013

I met an angel a while ago. I'm pretty sure about this because my Webster's dictionary says an angel is a person of exceptional goodness or loveliness. The absolute proof for me, however, was that traditionally, angels carry harps. This one has three!

Marilyn Bulger is a Certified Therapeutic Harp Music Practitioner, one of only three in Alberta, and eleven across Canada who are graduates of the International Harp Therapy Program out of San Diego, California. I visited with her in Hinton, AB, where she lives with her husband, Bill Bulger, Lutheran pastor, photographer and craftsman.

I asked her three things … what she does, how she does it, and why?

"Harp therapy facilitates healing," said Bulger. "The resonance of the harp is unique because it's very close to the resonance of the human body. It makes people feel good."

Harp therapy has a broad range of applications, from supporting the breathing and rhythms of women in childbirth, to palliative care, pre-surgery, and post-surgery patients. Bulger works with cancer patients as they receive chemotherapy. She plays at senior's lodges, and works with Alzheimer's patients. She plays at a day program for handicapped adults, and works one on one with school children who have special needs such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and autism.

"Whatever the situation," said Bulger, "I start where the people are. For instance, if a patient is agitated, I begin playing music that's fast and wild and expresses that agitation at about the same rhythm of their breathing and heart rate. It's a way of saying, 'I understand where you're at and we can move together to a better place.' Then I alter the music to take them to that better place, gradually slowing it and they just come with me. It's called entrainment."

Each experience is unique and memorable in it's own way, bringing satisfaction or joy, and sometimes amusement or amazement.

"One time," she said, "I went to an extended care facility to visit and play for patients who had a variety of things going on in their lives. One woman sang a Ukrainian folk song at the top of her lungs whenever she opened her mouth …often at the wrong time. Everyone would get annoyed because she'd drown out whatever else was going on. So, when I visited her, I started playing her folk tune. She was delighted! It was like … finally! Somebody gets it and is working with me instead of against me! We did the folk tune together until she was quite satisfied."

The story of William was the most dramatic. When Marilyn was taking the course in San Diego, part of the training was conducted at a hospice where patients are within two weeks of the end of life. Outside William's door, Marilyn and a fellow student were told that he was in the final stages of MS, that he was blind, deaf and in a catatonic state.

"We went in," said Bulger, "and he was sitting up in bed staring straight ahead. We leaned close to his ear and introduced ourselves. He moved toward the sound of our voices, so we knew he was hearing something. Then we put his hand on the pillar of the harp and I started to play. If he couldn't hear, he could at least feel the vibrations. After the first tune was finished, he said, ‘So … how long have you been playing the harp?' And then he had twenty questions! He had been a woodworker when he was well, and wanted to know everything about the harp. He was blind, he was almost deaf, but he certainly wasn't catatonic anymore. When we came the next day, he was waiting for us. A lot of times you'd swear it's magic."

The "How" part can be boiled down to the big "M" word … money. In Hinton, the women's group that Marilyn belongs to at Grace Lutheran helps sponsor the Harp Therapy Program. Since the program is available to everyone regardless of financial status, cost is never mentioned. Instead, the group relies on grants and donations to the Hinton Health Care Foundation for Harp Therapy. Bulger once gave a concert to educate and increase awareness about the program and as a result, $5000.00 was donated. An additional $3000.00 was received through a matching grant applied for by the Hinton Foundation. The search for funding never stops, and they are hoping to get more local businesses and other church groups on board as well. Most recently, in 2012, the foundation applied for and received a grant of $5000.00 from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Women of Faith fund. Funding is a challenge because this service tends to fall between "art" and "health". They are grateful for each donation because it helps to carry on the work.

"As soon as I heard there was such a thing, I knew it was right for me. I love playing the harp, have played for 13 years, and knew from experience that playing for people was very special. When I learned it could be used to promote healing and facilitate well-being, I just wanted to do that! I took the course and graduated in 2004."

Even though results aren't always predictable, they are never negative. One young man, a cancer patient with four small children, wrote to her. "When I come here I'm just angry. I hate having cancer. I hate going through all this and having my family worry. But when the harp is there, it relieves my anxiety and I can forget my troubles for a while."

There are many similar stories and that's why Marilyn loves what she does. Sometimes it's little more than a concert. "I go to the senior's home to help people relax at night. One time in the Alzheimer's lodge, I looked around after I'd been playing a while and everybody was asleep! I thought …'Well, I've lost my audience. I guess I've done my job!'"

Sometimes, it's much more. "When I play for palliative care patients I go into music that doesn't have a beat and has no familiarity to the person. A beat, particularly a strong beat, holds us to the earth. It grounds us and you don't want that if you are trying to say goodbye. So I play music that's drifting and ethereal with big, open intervals that give the sense of space. It gives them permission to make their choice, to let go, and it doesn't work against what they need to do. I have to be open and sensitive to what's going on. Palliative care is one of my favourite things because I am so focused on one person and the people around them. It gives them a little happiness at the end."

Contact Marilyn by calling 780-865-4148 or visit her website at: hintonjasperharp.ca

By Colleen McGinnis, Editor