How can music help you heal PTSD?

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

November 29, 2020

Oh, give me the beat boys, and free my soul
I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away
Beginning to think that I'm wastin' time
I don't understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
So I'm countin' on you to carry me through
If you haven't guessed by now, the feature video on PTSD Patrol is Dobie Gray Drift Away.

Hopefully by now, with all the music being shared, you've noticed how you mood does change, even if it is just for a little while. This is why music therapy works on PTSD. It takes your mind away from your problems and helps to teach your body to calm down again.

This is one of the best songs to explain that.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

go to PTSD Patrol for the rest of this

Warriors Rock with another way to heal PTSD in South Dakota

Warriors rock out

Brookings Register
By: John Kubal
Posted Dec 24, 2019

“I don’t feel like it’s fair that veterans who are not into hunting or outdoors not get the same opportunity through recovery with something that fits them more specifically.” Connie Johnson

Connie Johnson and Cole Hennen strum some guitar chords during a Warriors Rock session on Tuesday evening in the Christmas tree-decorated room at the Brookings Arts Council. Johnson, a combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, is working with Kristina Gindo, a certified music therapist, in putting together a program aimed at teaching veterans the basics of playing guitar. John Kubal/Register

BROOKINGS – Connie Johnson, coordinator for Veterans Services at South Dakota State University and herself a combat veteran (Purple Heart recipient) who has battled post-traumatic stress disorder, is open to exploring avenues that have the potential for making life better for military veterans.

One of those avenues she’s now exploring and using to help others explore is music.

After she partnered with several local organizations and individuals, the end result is a new guitar-based music program for veterans called Warriors Rock.
read it here

Michael and Tanya Trotter...sing of healing and hope

The War and Treaty: Songs of healing

CBS News
May 26, 2019

May 30, 2004, Captain Sheetz was killed by an IED...Trotter wrote a song for Scheetz's memorial service. When his commanding officers saw how his performance inspired others, they saw an opportunity: "The powers-that-be decided that that is what I would do; I would literally write songs about the fallen for memorials."

On stage, Army veteran Michael Trotter Jr. is fearless. Together, he and his wife Tanya perform as the duo The War and Treaty. But 15 years ago, when Trotter deployed to the war in Iraq, he was understandably terrified.

"I was afraid, I wanted everybody to know I was afraid," he said. "Because I hoped that that fear would say, 'All right, let's send him back home,'" he laughed. "The Army's like, 'You signed up, you're here. Let's fight.'"

Trotter dropped out of high school at 16. At 19, he became a father. He enlisted in the Army as a way to support his baby daughter. "I thought, like, wow, I have really made the mother of all mistakes. But then you meet the boys and the gals, and if you're lucky you meet your missing family members. And you connect."

One of Trotter's commanding officers, Captain Robert Sheetz Jr., could tell that he was struggling. He'd heard Trotter liked music, so he suggested he learn to play a piano that had been discovered in the palace where their unit was based.

(Tanya Blount in Sister Act)

Tanya insisted that Michael go to a veterans hospital. "They told him that he had PTSD," Tanya said. "And we went home and I said, 'You are a wounded warrior.' He was like, 'Well, I'm not wounded. I'm not shot up, I didn't lose a limb.' And I said, 'But that doesn't mean you're not psychologically wounded.'"
read more here

Marine veteran lives on streets at 73

He plays guitar downtown for money. What he really wants is a shower and a home
SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE
BY MONICA VAUGHAN
September 24, 2018

If you’ve recently strolled through downtown San Luis Obispo in the afternoon or Pismo Beach in the evening, you’ve probably seen or heard Jon Akeman. He’s the guy with long white hair, a patriotic bandana, guitar strapped over his shoulder and harmonica braced around his neck.

Known to locals as Dr. Jon the Citizen, Akeman, 73, serenades pedestrians with classic songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young or the Eagles.

“I get a thrill of people going by, smiling at me when I play. Plus, I get a little money on the side,” he said, sitting on a bench in front of Ross Dress for Less on Higuera Street on a recent Thursday afternoon. “That’s my job, to make people happy.”
read more here

Montana Veterans "Hero Sound Project"

Hero Sound Project helps Montana veterans heal through music
KRTV News
December 4, 2017

MISSOULA - Statistics show that roughly 10% of Montanans are veterans and for some, dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a pressing issue.

The Treasure State lost 53 veterans to suicide in 2016, but a project in Missoula is working to reduce that number. The Hero Sound Project features a group of veterans who meet weekly to help mend the mind through music.

The music being played in the basement of the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) is helping to heal the psychological wounds of war. The Hero Sound Project is the brainchild of Iraq war veteran Clinton Decker who had an idea to help those struggling with the trauma of war.

“When I'm playing guitar nothing else really matters and it just kind of hit me one day this is really powerful stuff it's really helping me," Decker said.

“This is proven to be invaluable. it's been great stress relief, it's great for camaraderie. We just come here and have fun," said veteran Daniel Coleman. "There's no expectations anybody can come and play it doesn't matter if you plan instrument and we'll teach you.”

" Guys might walk in the door and, you know, might not be having a great day or whatever. But usually by halfway through everybody's loosened up and enjoying themselves and shrugged off whatever it is they brought in," Decker explained.

When the project was started two years ago, it was held in the back of the VFW bar in Missoula. "We're the back of the bar. I want this to be a legitimate therapeutic program. [So] we gotta get out of a bar," Decker recalled.
read more here

Amy Grant and Vince Gill Share Healing PTSD With Music

How these veterans are using music to win the fight against PTSD
The Tennessean
USA Today
Jake Lowary
November 16, 2017

Music therapy isn't really a secret, but it's one of a litany of new treatment programs like meditation breathing, medical marijuana and cannabinoid oil, that are attracting attention and support that just a few years ago would have been cast aside.

Deep in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, on land owned by two of country and gospel music’s most-acclaimed stars, is one of the most recent examples of how American veterans are taking control of their battle against their own demons.

Michael Smith, Danny Williams and Howard Spier are among the dozen gathered here on an unusually hot, early October day. Each are veterans who have fought for their country, but are now using music to overcome the stress they brought home from war.

With them on Amy Grant and Vince Gill’s secluded farm in Williamson County are songwriters associated with some of the biggest country hits, like Bob Regan, who are helping the veterans write the latest versions of country songs to help them cope and move beyond their struggles.

They stayed here for a few days, fully immersing themselves in the experience organized by Challenge America, which supports extending arts programs to under-served communities.

Veterans, still conflicted, see a bright future
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Came Home With PTSD and Music

How music is healing the wounds of Richmond Veteran with PTSD
WTVR 6 News
BY GREG MCQUADE
MAY 12, 2017

RICHMOND, Va. -- In his darkened, cluttered basement Steve Koslowski finds sheer bliss with a beat.

Koslowski immerses himself in song.

“Most days I am down here for five, six seven hours,” said Koslowski. “You name it. It runs the entire gambit.”

From the Bee Gees and Bach to Chopin and Shaft.

“I can go back and listen to Isaac Hayes if I want to,” he added.

“Eighteen of us went in country North Vietnam 30 miles west of Hanoi. Four of us came out,” he said.

The experience in his late teens scarred him on the outside and in. Koslowski showed reporter Greg McQuade the scars of three bullet holes he says were from the enemy in Vietnam.

“I have bullet holes here. Here and here. They went in there. Came out there. Bounced off,” said Koslowski.

PTSD led to a string of unsuccessful jobs driving trucks and a failed first marriage. He was at the end of his rope. But rediscovering music is slowly pulling Koslowski out of his dark place.
read more here

Music to the ears of wounded veterans recuperating at Walter Reed

Trio Galilei: Music to the ears of wounded veterans recuperating at Walter Reed
Washington Post
By Rebecca Ritzel
December 20 2013

Lt. Col. Samantha Nerove, U.S. Army, retired, remembers the day she started recovering from PTSD as the same day she stopped and listened to the music. Since being airlifted out of Iraq in September 2008 with a badly mangled ankle and severe psychological distress from close-range mortar shellings, she’d been living at Mologne House, a retrofitted hotel on the grounds of what was then the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest D.C.

Two months into Nerove’s stay, she noticed that every Friday at lunchtime, a trio of musicians — playing a harp, guitar and something that looked like a cello — had started performing in the Mologne House lobby. They developed quite a fan base: The sofas in the lobby were filled with wounded patients, their weary relatives and mesmerized children who wanted to take turns playing a spare harp. If the musicians were between songs, they’d always smile warmly at Nerove, say hello and urge her to join them.
read more here