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Music Engagement for Health

The Music Engagement for Health Collaborative is a group of interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians with a shared interest in the use of music to address the health needs of children, adolescents/young adults (AYA), and families experiencing treatment for pediatric cancer and blood disorders.

Our vision is to better understand how music interventions work to mitigate treatment-related stress and improve positive health outcomes in patients and families, to develop meaningful, evidence-based interventions, and to ensure translation of our findings into clinical care.

Meet the team

About the Work

The collaborative’s work centers across several areas:

a music therapist at Riley Hospital sings and plays guitar for a baby in a hospital bed.

Contextual Support Model of Music Therapy

Learn more about the theories that guide our work.

A music therapist in scrubs and mask plays the guitar. A young patient with her head wrapped in bandages sits in a hospital bed and sings along while holding a stuffed toy dog.

Active Music Engagement

Learn more about our research centered on the needs of young children and parents.

A teen girl with a bald head holds a guitar while she sits in a hospital bed surrounded by valentine's day balloons. She is high fiving a music therapist who also holds a guitar.

Therapeutic Music Video Intervention

Learn more about our research centered on the needs of adolescents/young adults with cancer.

Photos credited to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (photographer Matt Haas) and the Riley Music Therapy Program.