A Music Therapist From Home

Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberg and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. Now if you hear a little bit of noise here on this particular block, it's because I have switched locations and I'm doing this live from the hospital. It's going to get Gracie to speak a little bit on it, but she can't right now. And so I've asked someone very special to come on the show and talk a little bit about her journey. We were sitting here in her hospital room and here comes this young woman in with a guitar.

And all kinds of devices and musical devices. She's a music therapist. And she graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, where Gracie and I met and attended school. We were both music majors there.

So as you can imagine, that was kind of cool. This is Sophie Gastel. Where are you originally from, Sophie? I'm originally from Rockford, Illinois.

Can you understand me the way I talk? Yes, those years in Nashville really helped. Tell us a little bit about music therapy. Why you got into it, what you hope to accomplish. Yeah, music therapy. I originally got into it because I have two major passions, people and music. And my suitemate freshman year at Belmont was actually a music therapy major.

And so I kind of just stumbled upon it and fell in love with it from there. And the reason I got into this internship, I really want to work with adults, especially in addiction medicine, but I'm embedded in the palliative care team, as well as the general hospital. And we go around and see patients all around the hospital with different diagnoses with ranges of goals and definitely ranges of interventions that we do too. What has surprised you about this? The amount of storytelling that happens in this job.

It's so much about learning about people's stories and where they've come from, and how that plays into their lives and how they got into the hospital as well. Talking about where you're from, Ed, you found out we were both Belmont students, you know, where Gracie and I met right there at the student center where you went to school. What was that like for you? Because we're not here in Denver. We're a long ways from Nashville. We're out here in Denver. So what was that like for you?

It was a major shock for sure. Because anytime I say Belmont University, they're like, where? And so when Gracie gave me the big old smile and the laugh that she did when I said Belmont University, it just, it felt like a piece of home because I don't really get to meet a lot of people from Nashville.

Especially not people from Belmont. So it was a really, really special thing for me. Alright, now, you play the guitar. What else do you play? I'm a vocal principal, but I can play the piano, the ukulele, and we've got a ton of different percussion instruments that I'm not very good at. Well, I saw one and I thought it was a tambourine, but it turns out it was just a stool that collapses. And I was afraid you were bringing a tambourine into the room and I thought, dear Lord, a tambourine.

No, say it ain't so. It was not a tambourine. So everybody rest assured it was not a tambourine. What are the more meaningful things that you feel like music therapy brings to people, people who are dealing with significant trauma or challenges or whatever? But what are some of the things that you feel like the music therapy can do that almost nothing else could do?

Yeah, I'll actually give you an example. I had a patient. Actually, he passed away two weeks ago, but I worked with him for over four months. And we did songwriting for four months. And he was a tough cookie.

He is not somebody that would just trust you right off the bat. So I spent a month just getting to know the guy. And then all of a sudden, he started rapping for me. And we took all those raps that he did and turned them into three different songs. And I got to share those with his family before he passed away. And I spent some time with with his mom.

And she said, wow, I've never heard of any of this stuff that he put into these these songs. So it was a really, really special moment. That must have been and you know, music's able to transcend so many things. And we sat here the other day with you, and just played some songs on your guitar. Gracie sang with you. It was just really meaningful. Then you brought a keyboard up here to me, which was kind of cool.

And I got to go fight a pedal for this thing. But it's very meaningful to be able to have that and it just it just felt for a moment, we just kind of left all the craziness of the hospital. And we just played some music and music. Music has been the one thing that Gracie and I have been able to have during all this lengthy journey that started long before you were born.

And we've been able to play music together, sing. It's kept us from going into some darker places, because it is her life is filled with pain. And we're going to have her on in just a minute. But she was just having a rough afternoon. And Sophie comes in and she just lights up a room.

Even with a mask. And she carries her guitar around and all this gear. Bless her heart.

I told her she needs to get like a little trailer or something and pull it around. I want you to know how much it means to us, Sophie, just to have a little taste of Nashville, a little taste of home there. And the music especially that you bring and just the joy. And she was very gracious to ask, you know, how are you doing? How are you feeling? Which of course you all know as listeners of this program.

That's the question we ask. So, Sophie, thank you. Any last words? No, just thank you, Peter, for allowing me to get to hang out with you guys and share music together.

It is our pleasure. Alright, we're going to do some more music with Sophie, with Gracie, a little bit later. But she has more patience to see. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife, Gracie. And recently, Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envisioned doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country, that you put out the plea for, and they're disassembling. You see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms.

And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry.

Because I see the smiles on their faces. And I know, I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. These men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea. You know, I thought of peg leg. I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that.

I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there, what does that do to you, just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave, I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them. And I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that CoreCivic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome. And I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and other ones like it, but I know about this one, is just an amazingly low rate. Compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much.

That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limb, whether from a loved one who passed away or, you know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Oh, please go to StandingWithHope.com slash recycle. StandingWithHope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.