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Article as found in the Pittsbirgh Live, The Herald:
Woman shares benefits of music
By Sharon Drake
Contributing writer
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Music has always been part of the life of Susan Bednar-Haynes. Now her mission is to make it part of everyone's.
Her business is Music and Motion, designed to train trainers in healthcare, education, and corporate situations. Music will aid the individual in "healing, to accelerate the learning process, and to manage stress," she said.
Bednar-Haynes said there is "hard data" to support the medicinal help provided by music. Making the immune system work better, aiding pain management and helping to control stress are attributed to music.
Bednar-Haynes is working on a research project in conjunction with the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Burn victims choose music to listen to while their dressings are changed. The study will quantify the help provided by music.
The Kerrwood Drive resident is providing training for the personnel at the Highland Avenue Veterans' Hospital, too.
"My vision is to spread the guidelines on how to develop these music interventions," Bednar-Haynes said.
Her company is just in the beginning stages, but she is working nationally. Other parts of the country are more advanced in mixing music and medicine than the local scene.
The professional musical therapist, trained with a bachelor's and master's from Ohio University, worked for a decade and a half in Austin, Texas. Along with working in clinical settings, she worked for the Texas Association of School Boards.
Music and children are a natural combination. She claims increased concentration, better cognitive functions and increased learning for children on music. And Bednar-Haynes practices what she preaches, making music part of child rearing.
"My children did not have a choice," she said. "It was just like eating."
Starting a business, working as a music teacher and parenting take a lot of time. Bednar-Haynes keeps up with help from her friends.
A graduate of Divine Providence Academy, the musician relies on her schoolmates for support. Christine Noonan and Cathy Sterling, her "right-hand who picks up the pieces," are important to the many strings Bednar-Haynes plays.
While Music and Motion grows, Bednar-Haynes teaches music. As part of her music therapy degree she plays just about every instrument. However, her lessons are specialized in voice, piano, and guitar.
With her students she emphasizes some of the same concepts as her business. She works with her students to manage stress and deep breathe, and she shares her philosophy about the importance of music.
For the O'Hara woman, music "gives words to feelings."
In her very melodious voice, Bednar-Haynes said there is no secret about music.
"Everyone's musical. The heartbeat is rhythm. The voice is sound."
At the heart of her beliefs is a quote from Wayne Dyer, a leader in the musical therapy field: "Don't leave this world with the music still in you."
For her, there is a belief she must share her skills -- and the music within.
Article as found in the Pittsbirgh Business Times
Music therapy helps people deal with burn-out
Pittsburgh Business Times - August 25, 2000 by Tim
Schooley
Go ahead -- relax. Nobody's stopping you. Just relax ... Not easy, is it?
In a just-do-it world of high-caffeine career tracks, the task of sitting down, taking a deep breath, and relaxing is a lost art that can often lead to lost productivity, lost concentration, and, at the furthest workaholic extreme, lost life.
It's also a practice that has helped Susan Bednar-Haynes develop a 30-year career helping to teach relaxation and music therapy to corporate employees with high-stress jobs.
"My experience has been trying to promote relaxation as a skill to be learned. It's not something that is natural for us as adults," said Ms. Bednar-Haynes, whose consulting firm is called Music and Motion. "It's natural for us as children."
In fact, relaxation can be so unnatural for adults that the don't realize how little they're able to relax until they begin to experience physical warning signs such as high blood pressure or heart problems.
"There is a denial that seems to occur," said Ms. Bednar-Haynes, who moved back to the Pittsburgh area last year to help care for her aging parents after living in Austin, Texas. "Often our bodies are the first indicators of stress before the mind."
To help aid relaxation, Ms. Bednar-Haynes said she includes music in everything she does.
To best aid relaxation, Ms. Bednar-Haynes said music that averaged between 60 and 80 beats per minute is best.
Based on the theory that the body's heart rate entrains to the sounds around it, music between 60 and 80 beats per minute matches the heart rate of a person at rest.
While music has been considered a healing source throughout the ages, Ms. Bednar-Haynes got her first hands-on experience of the therapeutic value of music in her early work in psychiatric hospitals.
Susan
Bednar-Haynes,
11508 Queens Way
Austin, Texas 78759
512-914-3614
susan@bednar-haynes.com