When Dev Jarrett picks up a guitar and begins to play chords, healing takes place.
“It’s a way for me to focus. I can push everything aside, and the music helps me relax,” said Jarrett, the newest member of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center’s guitar ensemble who meet weekly.
The guitar ensemble is comprised of about a dozen veterans who’ve gone through more individualized music therapy sessions. Many of them had never picked up a guitar before therapy, but they are now a more experienced group of musicians.
Jarrett served a couple of combat tours and came home from one on a stretcher, he said. He’s dealt with PTSD, and the music therapy helps him process anxiety.
MORE: Help Available for Veterans With PTSD
Stephen Montgomery, a music therapist at the VA, said music immediately opens doors that might take longer in traditional therapy.
“When you ask someone what type of music they like, it’s an easy way to talk to someone,” he said.
Finding a common ground of genre or style creates a bridge between two people.
Montgomery and Sheri Smith, who has been a music therapist at the VA for 30 years, see patients in various phases of dealing with PTSD or mental illness.
Cheryl Adams is another member of the guitar ensemble.
“It helps me focus,” she said. “I love music, and I really love the guitar.”
Not all people want to have the level of socialization the guitar ensemble has. Montgomery said the group has bonded. Members are concerned if someone doesn’t show up for the weekly meeting. They check on one another.
Some don’t want to have any socialization. They don’t want to be around other people, but the therapists subtly work to break down barriers. The therapy suite at the hospital where Montgomery and Smith have their offices is filled with musical instruments and employs soothing lighting.
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Patients enjoy the peaceful atmosphere created there and don’t want to leave, Smith said.
Montgomery said he recently had a patient who had those issues. The patient didn’t want to be around people. After only a few sessions of working one-on-one with a guitar, Montgomery said he was able to touch the patient without any resistance to help with finger placement on the instrument. Within a few more weeks, Montgomery, the patient and another person were in the recording studio.
It was a tight space for three people, said Montgomery, but the patient didn’t mind.
The guitar ensemble is for veterans who’ve progressed and want more socialization.
In conjunction with the Augusta Symphony’s Community Chords’ program, the ensemble has played at the Miller Theater prior to symphony performances.
Playing in front of an audience can be stressful even to people who aren’t dealing with PTSD, but the process of confronting that anxiety and overcoming it helps in the PTSD treatment process.
Montgomery said the veterans haven’t been able to play in public since the pandemic began and are itching to do it again.
MORE: ForcesUnited Offers Programs to Help Veterans
Other music therapy avenues at the hospital include a drum circle, a ukulele group, a relaxation and meditation program with Smith or Montgomery playing live music, songwriting and recording.
Adams has been part of multiple facets of the program.
“It’s rewarding,” she said.
One of the highlights of the guitar ensemble for Adams has been learning “Under the Boardwalk.”
“It’s my favorite,” she said. “I never thought I’d actually learn to play it.”
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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