Passion for music

Her love of music and instruments is a disease, Mary Stevens said jokingly, while sitting in her studio filled with pianos, harps and various other musical instruments.

This disease, though, comforts others through her work in vibroacoustic harp therapy, which uses the vibration of notes to relax muscles. Twice a month, Stevens plays the therapeutic music for Northern Montana Care Center residents, as well as periodically performing music for group gatherings and playing bedside music for residents and patients in hospice care. She also gives harp lessons and organizes a harp circle for other area harpists.

Stevens' passion for music and serving others through it began in third grade when she started piano lessons.

After only a short time of playing, Stevens said, she realized music was more than notes.

"It was an emotional expression," she said, struggling to describe music's power.

"So I've always felt the effect of the music," she said.

At the suggestion of her music teacher, Iris White, a high-school-aged Stevens started playing in church, which she still does today.

For more than three decades, she also has been a private music instructor, while

teaching herself several other instruments, including the harp.

Her work in therapeutic music has earned her the distinction of Montana Health Care Association's volunteer of the year in 2011. The care center received the association's innovative care award in 2015 for the Heart Strings program, which provides therapeutic music for its residents and hospice care patients.

Before she even knew what vibroacoustic therapy was, Stevens was introduced to the concept of therapeutic music by her father, who played with some friends at the Chester care center. His stories showed how music could positively influence a person, she said.

As a way of serving others, Stevens did the same at Northern Montana Care Center and at other care centers along the Hi-Line, and she noticed a marked difference in residents' moods.

While playing guitar for a former neighbor at the care center, Stevens said she could see the impact of the music in his face, and that she intuitively knew to change the music as he went through the dying process.

"My only real regret in therapeutic music is that my father died before I had the training or skills to play for him. My neighbor reminded me of my dad, so playing for my neighbor was almost like playing for my dad," Stevens said.

The experience inspired Stevens to find a way to better help people as they aged and died and led to her volunteer work with hospice care, which led to the discovery that she could become trained in therapeutic music.

In 2004, Stevens bought her first harp and by 2010 she graduated from the Harp for Healing program, which she now owns and directs. She also is a certified clinical musician, vibroacoustic harp therapy practitioner and certified harp therapy practitioner.

Most people don't know what vibroacoustic harp therapy is when they first hear about it, but nearly everyone is glad they tried it, Stevens said.

"This is very much more of an art form than a science," she said, while she demonstrated how it works.

Her harp is connected to an amp, which is connected to a bed with speakers in the cushions.

When she plays the harp, the notes vibrate through the bed. Stevens also has a portable system of pillows that she uses in care center residents' rooms.

Some people only feel five or six notes, while others feel one-octave worth of notes or more. Different notes resonate in different parts of different people's bodies.

While Stevens was careful to say that therapeutic music is not a miracle cure, the result is almost always the same: relaxation.

The vibrations ease muscle tension, which alleviates pain and can help people with issues such as back pain, headaches, emotional grief and tension.

"It gives them that moment of peace to process and detox and just work through things," Stevens said about sessions.

Care center resident Cindy Vaile has experienced pain relief and relaxation from the therapeutic music.

"Chronic pain can really keep you from doing things," said Vaile, a quadriplegic who has suffered from chronic pain for about a year.

After a session with Stevens, her pain is alleviated enough that she is able to socialize with other residents and participate in activities, much improving her quality of life, Vaile said.

"There's so many things that you can say about her," Vaile said, praising Stevens.

Ila McClenahan echoed Vaile's sentiments.

"I never see Mary. I only see what she's doing for other people and that's what she wants," said McClenahan, the care center's pastoral care and activity director.

"(Residents) are able to enjoy life so much more when they're painless. Their quality of life just excels," McClenahan said.

"It's almost like a spiritual experience, too," she added.

Debbie Langel, an LPN at the care center, has seen the calming effect of the harp in action while and after Stevens plays.

"She'll play that harp and they'll be calm for a period afterwards," Langel said, adding she has been inspired to learn the harp herself.

Emotionally, Stevens said, she has seen her music bring joy to care center residents, which is part of the pleasure she gets from her work.

"It's like it puts the day right," she said.

While her music entertainment sessions at the care center are volunteer, donations designated for Harp for Healing help Northern Montana Hospital Foundation pay for vibroacoustic therapy sessions for residents. Stevens said she would like to expand the program and number of residents who benefit, as well as form a Harp Corps of volunteers who could play music in various capacities throughout the hospital.

"It's just this one-on-one reward. It's astounding," Stevens said about the impact of her work.

To learn more, visit http://www.harpforhealing.com.

(This story originally ran in the July Living Magazine publication.)