What an Orchestra of Health-Care Workers Can Teach Us About Healing

What does healing sound like?

It can sound like being welcomed home from an unexpected hospital stay by the voices of family and friends, a doctor sharing good news, or a caregiver offering reassurance.

These sounds can bring patients comfort, hope, and connection, reminding them they are not alone and helping them feel whole.

Recently Richard Hickam, executive director of music and the arts at AdventHealth, expanded on this idea in his TEDxOrlando talk “Healing Comes From Creating Art in Community.”

Members of the AdventHealth Orchestra joined Hickam onstage and performed music by Edward Elgar and Georges Bizet. Together they gave the audience a glimpse of Hickam’s message: When people listen and create together, something restorative can happen.

A Broader View of Healing

Medical care can treat illness and injury, but healing involves more than just the body. Music and the arts can help people face fear, loss, uncertainty, and change by giving them space to process what they feel, connect with others, and reconnect with themselves.

“Art does not replace medicine, but creating something meaningful with other people can restore connection, voice, meaning, and belonging,” Hickam said.

His broader view of healing helps show why the arts, including the AdventHealth Orchestra, have a place at AdventHealth and can help people move toward wholeness in body, mind, and spirit.

Why Connection Belongs in Care

During COVID-19 many health-care workers around the world faced fear, grief, isolation, and exhaustion. Amid such challenging times, a small group of string players with various roles at AdventHealth began preparing a virtual performance for their patients and communities across the country. It quickly grew into a full orchestra composed of physicians, nurses, administrators, and other AdventHealth team members.

The orchestra gave these team members and their patients a place to listen, create, and reconnect. It also affirmed why the arts belong in health care: people who care for others need connection and support too.

A Shared Rhythm

Hickam explained that an orchestra and a care team work in similar ways.

“Each person brings a different skill, but everyone must listen, make room, and work toward a shared goal,” Hickam said. “It has been so moving so see the parallels between the unity of this orchestra and how these doctors, nurses, therapists, and other team members work together to provide whole-person care for patients.”

When the team works together, a patient can feel heard, supported, and more confident about what comes next.

A Path Toward Wholeness

At AdventHealth, whole-person care means caring for the body, mind, and spirit. Art and music therapy can help patients find comfort, reduce anxiety, and reconnect with hope, making room for all three as part of a larger healing journey.

The journey looks different for everyone, but connection, meaning, and belonging can help people heal and move forward in their journey to feel whole.

The original version of this story was posted on the AdventHealth news site.