Arts & Healing Arts

for Military Veterans

By Amber Robinson

Music, the Universal Healer

The power of music. It is said to be one of the most powerful, if not most powerful, healing art. Music has a special ability to soothe us, elate us, motivate us to move or move us to tears. It evokes emotion in the most stirring of ways, taking us back to moments in time complete with the smells and feelings. Music can also be a place to hide, a place to find refuge when days seem dark.

As a Soldier deployed to Afghanistan I found that sort of comfort in music. Every night of each of my three deployments I would hit the gym, retreat into my headphones and let music carry me away from the war. During my second tour I discovered artists like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and XXY. I’d stay on the treadmill and stationary bike for miles upon miles, letting the music and the rhythm of my body carry me away. My next tour I was still hooked on the same bands, just their new albums. These musicians became my daily saviors.

This inspired me to reach out to fellow veterans locally to see what album, band or song has kept them going during war, training or just hard times in general. Whether certain music gave them a laugh, good memories or helps them to heal and grow now, it’s obvious music and military service have a close relationship.

San Diego Army veteran and artist, Brian Meyer, says he used to listen to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin during his service, but has a particular memory of a Zeppelin knock-off group.

“I remember when the ground war started in Desert Storm and we just got finished changing frequencies and call signs for our Log Base. They played over the radio station “Dread Zepplin”, a reggae cover band playing “Stairway to Heaven”, but the lyrics were to Gilligan’s Island.,” said Meyer.

“Just the thought of all our tanks driving into Iraq listening to “Stairway”, and how the lyrics were just completely wrong, but still fitting, had to have made a few listening, chuckle.”

“[The] Stone Temple Pilots [album], ‘Core’, settles me,” said Navy veteran Eric Trigg.

“One of my go-to songs is “Beautiful” by Carol King,” said Naval officer, Theresa Louise Carpenter. “Every time I hear it, I get inspired. It’s lyrics remind us that your attitude is a choice, one that we must take control of and decide to choose to be positive, no matter what crap life throws at us.”

I then asked musician Floyd Smith, founder of local 501(C)3 nonprofit, Music Therapy for Veterans, what he thought it was about music that could makes it so powerful in coping and healing.

Although Smith is not a veteran, his father was a three-time combat veteran who served during World War II, Vietnam and the Korean War. He exhibited classic PTSD symptoms for most of Smith’s life. But, as a kid, Smith recalls him bringing home a different 45 (record) each Friday and getting lost in the music.

“It was the only time he ever seemed peaceful,” said Smith. “He was doing music therapy on himself and he didn’t even realize it. Music was the only thing that brought him back.”

Smith, part of the five-time Grammy-winning group 5th Dimension formed his nonprofit after a performance at a VA facility in 2011. He recalls everyone looking so sad and the facility being devoid of a very important healing element. Music.

From that moment he decided to find a way he could bring veterans the magic of music therapy. His nonprofit raises funds to link veterans up with professional music therapists. It is a San Diego-based nonprofit but Smith hopes to expand his services nationally.

When I asked Floyd what he thinks it is about music that helps those of us affected by PTSD heal, he had a profound answer.

“Music has the power to literally take us back to who we were before the bad things happened,” he said. “It has the power to grab that part of your brain from when you were alright.”

If you are a veteran interested in Smith’s music therapy program, you can sign up for free at their website at www.musictherapyforveterans.org.