Music and Drama Offers Physical and Emotional Benefits for Patients with Parkinson’s

Twice a month a jam session takes place on the third floor of Northwestern Memorial’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. A diverse group of men and women, ranging in age and ethnicity, gather in a circle with instruments in hand and sing together. This is no ordinary jam band; all its members have Parkinson’s disease. They are participating in Creative Arts for Parkinson’s, a music and drama therapy program offered through Northwestern’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center lead by specially trained music and drama therapists from the Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA). The participants are asked to reach deep into their emotions and to push themselves physically to achieve the therapeutic benefits which address both the symptoms of the disease and its psychological burden.