Heal your body, mind, and spirit using the profound power found in music. This research-based approach to wellness will help you to feel better. Learn to use music to manage your stress and reduce your physical suffering, whether due to the everyday stresses of life or emotional and physical pain. Dr. Hanser and Dr. Mandel share uniquely effective music therapy strategies, learned from many years of research, clinical practice, and personal experience. The accompanying CD provides musical selections with guided relaxation and imagery to enhance your wellbeing.

You will learn how to:

Prepare yourself to cope with stressful and painful situations
Feel better, using music in research-based, scientific approaches to wellness that can complement and improve your medical care
Recognize the mechanisms and manifestations of pain and stress, and identify how music can be used to alleviate symptoms
Dr. Suzanne B. Hanser is founding chair, Music Therapy Department at Berklee College of Music, and is affiliated with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. She is past president of both the World Federation of Music Therapy and National Association for Music Therapy.

Dr. Susan E. Mandel is a consultant to Lake Health in Ohio, where she manages the music therapy program and music therapy research investigations. She is on the faculty of the School of Advanced Studies at University of Phoenix.

"Whether or not we realize it, we all use music therapy in our daily lives—every time we crank up the car radio on a sunny summer day, or wallow in a sad, slow song when we're feeling low. Hanser and Mandel take this one step further by illustrating how, with a little music, we can effect significant change in our minds and our bodies. With clear writing and simple instructions, this book offers a protocol for beginners who want to use music in a therapeutic setting—and very compelling evidence of its success."

—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of House Rules and Sing You Home.

"This book and its accompanying CD will be incredibly useful to my patients, their caregivers, and the medical personnel who care for them both in the hospital and the outpatient setting. The authors are expert, compassionate practitioners who have used the most sophisticated techniques in their carefully constructed, clear exercises that will help anyone who uses them decrease stress, tension, and pain. The CD is a delight, flowing intuitively from exercise to musical selection and back again. Both it and its accompanying text and worksheets enable readers and listeners to create flexible, practical programs that will help them regain the quiet and peace they need to unravel the sources of their own stress, escape from the everyday, and heal."

—Janet Abrahm, MD, FACP, FAAHPM (Division Chief, Adult Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School)

"The authors, two gifted artists and music therapists, have composed an enjoyable musical program that will benefit our path to wellness by managing our pain and stress."

—David S. Rosenthal, MD (Henry K Oliver Professor of Hygiene, Harvard University)