Are you a musician with a compassionate heart ready to learn how to use your gifts as a form of palliative and therapeutic comfort care? This summer, Longy is delighted to collaborate with the Music for Healing and Transition Program^TM, Inc. to offer an intensive, scientifically-based summer institute, through which musicians can become Certified Music Practitioners® (CMPs)^TM. Students gain in-person experience with teachers and medical professionals in the historic, cosmopolitan, and intellectually stimulating City of Cambridge—right across the river from Boston.

Longy’s summer institute offers a stimulating and inclusive format for this training in a world-class medical and collegiate environment. All five of the required modules are in-person and interactive. Classes are offered as a residential study on Longy’s campus, with Modules 1 and 2 in one week, Modules 3 and 4 in a later week, and Module 5 on a weekend. Participants in this program may be vocalists or instrumentalists. Both skilled amateur and professional musicians are welcome.

The Music for Healing and Transition Program trains and certifies musicians in the art and science of providing therapeutic music. Certified Music Practitioners create a healing environment by offering live acoustic music at the bedside, one-on-one. The music is provided as a service, not as entertainment, and is curated to address each patient’s in-the-moment condition with the aim of providing comfort and promoting healing. MHTP is accredited by the National Standards Board of Therapeutic Musicians.

MHTP’s program consists of:

• 80 classroom hours, divided into five lively and inspiring modules
• An Independent Practicum (45 hours of direct bedside musical work for approximately 100 patients)
• The reading and review of two books for each module (books chosen from an extensive, pertinent reading list)
• Development of 90 minutes of appropriate repertoire for various patient conditions
• A 30-minute recording of music demonstrating your proficiency in providing therapeutic sessions

The five modules are presented as follows:

Module 1: May 31-June 2 Patient Assessment for Live Therapeutic Music, Injury Prevention for CMPs

Module 2: June 2–4 Music as a Language

Module 3: July 26–28 Paradigms of Healing, Music, Sound and Healing

Module 4: July 28–30 Etiquette and Internship, Profession of Music Practitioner

Module 5: November 6-8  Care of the Dying, Alterations in Health, and Clinical Practicum