Many people turn to music as a form of medicine, a healing companion for whatever they may be facing in life. Whether it lifts us into joy, helps us release tears or sorrow, or guides us into quiet, meditative spaces, music touches us in many ways.
Music also unites us. In moments of celebration and in times of mourning, it brings communities together, creating connection through shared emotion.
“Music is medicine, as to me my origin story dates back to about 25 years when my second son experienced a near death accident. The first night that he was in extensive care I actually brought my guitar in because I have been playing for him throughout his life. When I went into the room and I played the first cord for him, he opened his eyes through his pain and smiled at me. I saw how this was affecting him and helping him. The next day when he transferred to his own room, we had a harpist come in, a therapeutic harpist and she played for us, my wife and family and we all just started crying. It was a cathartic release of release and fear lost, and it was really very powerful. At that point, I started to develop more and more solo instrumental guitar music to bring peace to myself and those who will listen,” said Raphael Groten, a Vermont composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in music as medicine.
Groten has practiced sound healing for more than 25 years.
“In 2005 I began to intensely study sound healing which has become very popular over the last couple decades,” said Groten. “In my sound healing work I employ everything from the guitar, bamboo flutes, crystal bowls, bells, rattles, drums so in my experience every instrument affects each individual differently but for me certainly the guitar and the flute I witness often bringing people into these deeper states of relaxation and really being touch by that.”
Music is a universal language that shapes our daily lives.
“As we approach music with more presence, lets say we have emotions that we want to tap into, finding a piece of music that’s simply speaks to us that we can sit with quietly, that we can listen to, in a new way open our heart or emotional feel that absorb what the music is doing to us letting it take us where it will, letting it carry us away,” said Groten.
Through his work in sound healing, Groten continues to create spaces where people can gather, release, and reconnect.
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