Christine Stevens, the notable music therapist in the US and one of the founders of REMO HealthRHYTHMS, visited Hong Kong to host a workshop on Drum Circle and Health Rhythms on 30th July 2005 at the Lecture Hall, Christian Family Service Centre, Kwun Tong.

Amongst the participants of this workshop there were music therapists, social workers, teachers, medical practitioners, etc. Having different backgrounds did not bother their enthusiasm to this workshop, because they all were true music-lovers! Their common goal was to understand more how HealthRHYTHMS helps people improving their health.

HealthRHYTHMS primarily uses drums and percussions for their protocols (or programs as you may easier to understand) so what are the differences between HealthRHYTHMS and other community drum circles?

Christine explained that the focus of HealthRHYTHMS lies on your health rather than music itself. In fact there is no right or wrong in HealthRHYTHMS and drumming technique is not its focus and is therefore not commented. Instead, it is all about participants’ self-expression, through a set of pre-defined protocol – different from drum circle, which is spontaneous. If you wish to learn more about their differences, please click here.

At the beginning of this workshop, Christine listed out 4 goals: 1) enjoying music; 2) understanding HealthRHYTHMS from the aspect of its scientific basis; 3) getting a primary understanding in HealthRHYTHMS protocol from a group of seniors; 4) trying out how HealthRHYTHMS helps on their own, and understanding more how HealthRHYTHMS may apply to other individuals.

Goals were stated, and it came to the very first protocol exercising on a group of seniors from the Christian Family Service Centre. These seniors in fact had different degree of disability and needed extra care. In light of their disability, drumming was a difficult task for these seniors and they needed to receive instructions from a stranger – Christine, who did not speak Chinese at all.

We could observe that these seniors were quite nervous and too shy to join and enjoy in the protocol. Yet, under HealthRHYTHMS’s protocol with different elements such as Support, Camaraderie, Self-expression, we were able to see a dramatic change on their faces and hand movements of these seniors. Some of them had forgotten about their disability and happily moved their hands or danced according to the rhythms as well as finally able to express themselves and laughed. When asked about their feeling, they told us “very happy”, “enjoyable” and “feeling well”. The staff of the Center also said that they had understood more on these seniors through this Protocol demonstration and would consider adopting HealthRHYTHMS in their rehabilitation program in the future.

Christine later showed a summary of papers on the study of HealthRHYTHMS. Christine and Dr. Bittman had conducted research for multifarious aspects such as relief on emotion, economic issues (how much money was saved from HealthRHYTHMS implementation), and their recent findings was how HealthRHYTHMS affect human’s health from genome level. Meanwhile, they are conducting researches on the relationship between HealthRHYTHMS and subjects like obesity and heart health. For more information about the scientific research on HealthRHYTHMS, please click here.

Christine then moved to the last section of the workshop guiding all participants to join the Protocol. Using a special percussion instrument, Christine created a very silent and peaceful environment to carry out Wellness Exercise. We were able to imagine that we were listening to the running river and our mind became calm. Then she guided us to have 7 different activities according to the protocol, such as Ice-Breaking, Inspiration Beats, Guided Imagery Drumming, etc.

In some occasions, participants exchanged their instruments with others; sometimes all people followed to beat drums according to a rhythm self-created by one of the participants. In Guided Imagery Drumming, Christine even asked us to close our eyes and she described a story to us and we played the drum according to our heart feeling. The room was filled up with tradition melody coming from Christine’s flute and everybody seemed to forget their own sadness and worries and enjoyed the drumming from heart indeed!

At last, we had another Wellness Exercise again. It was very important for the whole protocol, as participants were able to compare their mood below-and-after the protocol was conducted. Many participants said that it was easier to get their mind much more peaceful than before and they were able to concentrate their spirit easily.

The workshop came to the end after 5-hour discussions and demonstration. Every participant was able to understand more about HealthRHYTHMS and was presented a certificate. After the workshop, some participants stayed behind and discussed with Christine about HealthRHYTHMS and other issues relating to music therapy. It seemed that it had really aroused their interest on HealthRHYTHMS!