President Obama salutes the power of music therapy to heal

On November 6th 2014, President Barack Obama attended “A Salute to the Troops:  In Concert at the White House” in which he gave a speech to salute and pay tribute to American troops and veterans.  Many well known musicians were in attendance including Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Mary J. Blidge, Daughtry, Romeo Santos, and more.

In his remarks, President Obama shared a story of Captain Luis Avila and his wife Claudia.  Almost three years ago (at the time of the article) Luis was in his fifth deployment in Afghanistan when he was severely injured in an explosion. He lost his leg, fractured his spine, suffered two heart attacks and a traumatic brain injury. Two weeks after the explosion, he arrived in the United States in a coma and on life support. His wife Claudia had to make a decision to let him pass or keep him on life support.

Claudia had faith that Luis would recover and began praying for him some of his favorite songs:  Ode to Joy, military marches, and the Beatles.  In his story, Obama said that after this Luis began twitching his facial muscles, opened his mouth, and then moved his tongue on command.  It was during this time that Claudia played music day and night.

After Luis finally awoke he couldn’t see, eat, or talk but he heard the music his wife played.  In the months and years that followed, he kept fighting back with the help of hundreds of hours of music therapy.  The article doesn’t state who Luis’s music therapist was but only the success that today he can see again, eat again, and speak again. And every night, he still goes to sleep with music playing.

Obama continued to say that he honors Luis with the beauty of music because “it has the power to inspire us and fill us with pride, and, yes, sometimes to help us heal.”

I was blown away to find this jewel of an article.  To even hear President Obama mention that music therapy helped in the process to heal Luis Avila gives me such pride in our profession and an example that people are paying attention and recognizing our hard work and efforts to improve the lives of our clients.  I hope this article was inspiring to you as well as it is yet another proof of the healing power of music therapy!

Here is a transcription of the President’s speech.