Healing harp on the road…to share experience in Honduras and Guatemala
Lies (Lisa) Joosten will be traveling as volunteer to Honduras and Guatemala in January 2023, to share knowledge and experience with musicians and medical professionals, to promote the role of music in healtcare and welness settings.
Lies is core team member of IHTP Europe, mentor, co founder of the Healing Harp Foundation. She works with her therapy harp in elderly homes, at the ICU units with Muz-IC and at the neonatal care unit. She worked and lived in Honduras untill 2009 and now her cultural network is joining in the organisation of this educational tour.
In Honduras, she will be teaching workshops to professional musicians as well as music students of the national music academy on the therapeutic aspects of music. Also, seminars are being organised to discuss and assess the possibilities and opportunities to integrate live music in healthcare settings in Honduras.
After that, she takes the bus to visit the Arpas en Armonia (Harps for Harmony) groups in Guatemala, that was set up by Patrice Fisher (New Orleans) and is being led by Guatemalan folk harpist and outstanding music teacher Brendy Boj. Lies will provide and introduction workshop on harp therapy for 2 days for Brendy and her students.
In both countries, elderly homes and hospitals will be visited with live music.
The project is being supported by Stichting Helende Harp / Healing Harp Foundation and the purple harpsicle will travel with Lies and stay in Guatemala.
Donations to support workshop materials, harpstrings and travel costs will be appreciated:
NL60RABO0375711112 tnv Stichting Helende Harp mentioning Honduras/Guatemala.
Donations for harptherapy
It is not yet self-evident that healthcare organizations have a budget for music in healthcare. Fortunately there is a growing
familiarity with the effect of sound on health and human well-being.
Beside research in the rest of the world the Dutch professors Dick Schwaab and Erik Scherder have done a lot of research in recent years into the effect of music on body and mind. It is extremely large and deserves a place in healthcare. It turns out that patients recover faster in an ICU, less medication is needed, pain reduction, heart rate and blood pressure regulation takes place and the patients feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually supported. This fits extremely well with the holistic vision of Positive Health, developed
by Dutch GP Machteld Huber.
We are happy to offer professionally trained therapeutic harp players the opportunity to work in healthcare.
Do you have a warm heart for this? Then we invite you to make a one-off or regular donation for this beautiful and rewarding work.
You can deposit your donations to bank account number:
NL60RABO0375711112
attn. Stichting Helende Harp