tami_briggs

Tami Briggs, therapeutic harpist, brings a unique set of skills and an experiential approach as a health educator and speaker. After experiencing numerous profound and deeply spiritual experiences playing the harp at the hospital and hospice bedside, Tami Briggs created a lecture series on the healing power of music. A pioneer in the harp therapy field, she weaves together powerful stories and practical tips with live musical examples (bringing her lap or folk harp to each presentation), demonstrating how the harp and therapeutic music can change the medical environment, especially how we experience illness and death.

Tami Briggs is the founding principal of Musical Reflections, whose mission is to provide therapeutic music to the health care environment and the health-conscious community. She is a certified harp practitioner and has played the harp at the bedside of hundreds of hospital and hospice patients. Tami is also a composer and recording artist and has released 12 CDs for relaxation, comfort, and stress reduction. Grace Notes: Reflections on the Harp and Healing is her first book about using therapeutic music at the bedside.

Areas of Expertise:

Healthcare Professionals, including nurses and doctors, social workers, chaplains and pastoral care, and bereavement and grief/loss counselors, etc

Health-conscious Community (e.g., spiritual communities, women’s groups, support groups, survivor’s groups, etc.).

Patients, families, and health care professionals are seeking complementary care to answer the need for comfort during the heightened stress of serious illness. Healthcare systems are looking for ways to expand safe and efficacious options of care for their patients, enhance their healing environments, and reduce costs. As more patients and families ask for complementary care, health care professionals will need to be well versed on what works and how. This session discusses music’s power and its role as a complementary care healing modality.

According to the medical profession's own survey, one out of three Americans is seeking complementary healing methods. Several factors—our fast-paced culture, the aging population, and massive changes in our healthcare system—have precipitated us to explore different options, such as music. While other cultures have used complementary care modalities for years, the United States is just beginning to recognize how music (and other complementary care therapies) can augment the healing process. This session explores how sound and musical applications can change the medical environment, specifically how we experience illness and death.

Music, as a complementary care modality, can help address the need for comfort during the heightened stress of serious illness and end-of-life care. Music contributes to creating an environment—an intimate space—for the transitioning person, the family, and the attending medical staff. The harp, in particular, has been called “the perfect instrument” when working with grief and the dying process. This presentation demonstrates through story and harp performance how music brings richness, depth, and tenderness to the sacred experience of dying.

“You were the BEST presentation at ANA! It was awesome!” American Nurses Association; Minneapolis, MN

“You created a new way of thinking here.” Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network; Allentown, PA

“I have been bored in the past with presentations on music therapy and other complimentary or alternative therapies, but your presentation was excellent and very relevant to our work. Thank you.” Trauma Nursing; St. Paul, MN

“This teaching was sacred—healing—and the most powerful self-care lesson I have ever experienced.” Health Ministries Association; Philadelphia, PA

“Wow! Very moving, knowledgeable speaker. I could have listened to her for hours—not only her music, but she speaks from the heart as well as from her knowledge base.” Mayo Clinic Clinical Nurse Specialists; Rochester, MN