For the Pediatric Patient

Music Therapy is available for inpatient and outpatient children and their family members. Music therapists bring a variety of melodic and rhythmical instruments to children to help ease fear and anxiety, to enhance creative expression, to help manage symptoms and to promote relaxation and comfort. Children are invited to play the instruments, sing songs, participate in song-story writing or just listen to the music. Music Therapy can be done one on one in the child's hospital room or in a group music therapy session.

Pediatric patients are taught various relaxation techniques to help them manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Treatments, such as guided imagery, meditation and self-hypnosis, can help:

• Decrease pain, nausea, headaches, and insomnia
• Facilitate relaxation during procedures, treatments, and during long or isolated in-patient stays in the hospital 
• Manage anxiety, stress, and depression
• Improve eating habits
• Decrease phobic reactions (ie: needle phobias, claustrophobia)
• Facilitate better coping with body image changes (e.g. hair loss, amputation)
• Enhance overall coping skills for patients and caregivers

Even beyond symptom management, these skills build children's self-confidence and endow parents with concrete ways to support their child and themselves during stress/crises.

This program is based on the principle that body and mind are interrelated. By observing the expression of movement in an improvisational atmosphere, the Dance Therapist gains insight into the emotional state of each child. The aim of this program is to help pediatric patients use their bodies through dance and movement to express experiences, while encouraging socialization.

Dance & Movement Therapy can help:

• manage pain and other symptoms
• improve self-esteem and body image
• develop effective communication skills and relationships
• help to create new options for coping with problems

The expressive quality of movement, when combined with other traditional forms of treatment, has been the greatest facilitator for change and therapeutic intervention.

Yoga is a gentle exercise system that combines movement and simple poses with deep breathing and meditation to promote healing, relaxation, and to improve sleep. Yoga is provided in a group setting for pediatric outpatients and one-on-one at the bedside for inpatients, where the children explore the poses of yoga through animals and nature, as well as creative expression.

Black belt martial art instructors empower young patients to partner in their healing - physically, spiritually and emotionally. Martial arts moves are accompanied by imagery, meditation and breathing techniques that teach how to push away pain, fear and anger. Patients are taught to develop the true inner power that is the focus of this ancient art. Sessions are offered in group and individual settings at bedside. Karate forms are developed to maximize the potential of each student so that he or she can use these techniques wherever and whenever needed the most.