The music therapy clinicians of the Louis Armstrong Department of Music Therapy are compassionate experts in meeting the advanced needs of patients and families in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Research and clinical experience indicate that hearing functioning remains intact even when patients require sedation. Music therapy can create a means of connection for patients and their families. We use music therapy to complement the acute medical and psychosocial needs that often accompany hospitalization for this patient population.

Music therapists who work in the ICU provide personalized care for patients and their family on a daily basis. In this way, music therapy interventions can best support treatment needs as they arise, such as pain management, respiratory distress, fatigue, hypertension, anxiety and depression. We are able to provide compassionate environment in which patients and families can freely process and express their emotions.  Emotional reactions that patients and their family members may experience include feelings of: