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The Quiet Soldier: Sickle Cell Anemia

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The Quiet Soldier provides excellent examples of music therapy in practice with a patient that has sickle cell anemia. The patient tends to keep to himself and not tell how he feels inside. The therapist’s technique begins by interviewing the client with simple, broad questions to attempt to open him up to express how he feels. The therapist later changes discussion to talk about which instruments and how music distracts him from the pain he constantly feels. The technique is unique because of its simplicity in nature, that by asking questions such as, “what was the worst pain you have ever experienced?”. Questions such as these make the client open up to the therapist and explain how he feels and eventually how music itself is a method of treatment that he uses to distract himself throughout the day. …show more content…

“And now [hits cymbal] … to the hospital [hits the tom drum]”, is significant because he describes his worst pain that he was feeling in comparison to the school bell ringing, symbolized by hitting the cymbal. He doesn’t want to miss school, but realizes that even if he does go to school, he will be in constant pain and eventually have to go to the hospital for relief after school anyways. He hits on the cymbal and drum to relieve himself of the painful memories that he is reliving. The next quote states, “At first when I played… rhythm encouraged me”. Walter has trouble playing notes on the recorder, due to only taking small breaths. However with the help from the piano’s rhythm, he is able to find ease in taking longer breaths. Thus Walter was encouraged to play more and found joy in it. He even continues to explain that his mother taught him ways to “encourage myself to take my mind off the pain”. Music had been one of the many ways that Walter found escape from the endless pain that he suffered from the sickle cell

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