The first thing that oncologist and healthcare speaker Steven Eisenberg wants you to know is that he’s proud of you. “It’s never easy,” he said. “But you’re going to get through it.”
In his long practice at California’s largest private cancer facility, he’s seen that there’s no perfect treatment, however, he does feel that one practice has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on his patients’ day-to-day experiences… music.
Here are some reasons why Eisenberg encourages his patients to take a daily dose of music during their cancer treatments:
Music helps manage emotions.
“Your dopamine receptors mold and change when you listen to something that highly inspires you,” says Eisenberg of those moments when music gives you the goosebumps. He says listening to meaningful music increases the pain threshold, and that depression and anxiety can also be alleviated.
He says that if patients spend a mere five or ten minutes a day listening to their favorite songs it’s likely to have a positive effect because the exercise helps divert a patient’s attention away from their treatment and fears. “Music transports people away from the hospital machines, medications and unpleasant nausea that is often experienced during the anticipation of chemotherapy,” he said.
Music inspires celebration.
Eisenberg uses music to inspire patients to remember their long and happy life. “It’s about a celebration of life and remembering that someone has battled through it,” he said.
Eisenberg has a naturally calming and soothing voice and he uses it as part of his treatments when he sits down individually with patients and asks them what moves and touches them about life. Then he takes notes as he learns about how they were as a child, who they are as an individual, and what shapes their family relationships. These notes then become the lyrics to a personal song that he writes and performs for them.
“It’s the humanness of reaching out and connecting,” he says of the practice and how they will often sing and perform together. “It becomes a rallying song for them.”
Music gives family a way to connect.
“There’s a deep sense of peace and validation,” he said of his how his personalized songs inspire family members to reach out and connect. “The family loves to see them come back to themselves.”
Bringing the entire family to the table to heal creates an opportunity where the doctors, families, and patients are all able to work together through difficult days.
Music reduces trauma (in patients and doctors).
Personalized music selections help address the fact that just as every patient is unique, so is their treatment experience. “You’re not a statistic, you’re a human being,” says Eisenberg of how music helps remind patients that they are on their own journey. “It’s a very pleasant feeling for them to be recognized.”
Doctors are also joining the musical treatment practice for their own benefit. Eisenberg says that when oncologists better connect with a patient through their own self-expression it helps them avoid burnout. “Many doctors build up a wall and become numb,” he said of the difficult work that doctors face. “With this method, the patients end up giving back to the doctors with this method.”
Carolina Starin is a reporter, storyteller, and television, radio and podcast producer. Her varied work has been seen on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Medium, KCRW and The Moscow Times. She holds a master’s in international business policy from Columbia University.
