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A Story of Music and Healing
by Claire Oppert
A celebrated art therapist plays the cello for her patients—and offers a moving reflection on the extraordinary power of music to enrich our lives, all the way to the very end.
When Claire Oppert plays the cello, miracles happen. Children with profound autism, patients in extreme pain and distress, even people on the threshold of death smile, cry, laugh, sing and dance. "When you play, I'm not sick anymore," one man tells her. "I feel happy, I feel alive."
In The Schubert Treatment, Oppert recounts her remarkable story of healing suffering through music, alongside portraits of the many people she has helped. Born into a family of doctors and artists, Oppert trained as a classical cellist and began playing at a center for autistic youth, where she witnessed how music could connect with even the most difficult-to-reach patients. Later, she began working as an art therapist with people with neurodegenerative diseases and palliative care patients, eventually conducting clinical trials that proved the effect of her "Schubert treatment": using music as a counter-stimulation to reduce pain and anxiety during stressful procedures.
Oppert's crystalline, lyrical vignettes of the patients whose lives she has touched are punctuated with anecdotes from her own life as a musician, as well as reflections on the meaning of art and the human need for connection and creativity. Compassionate, uplifting, and deeply humane, The Schubert Treatment is a testament to the incredible power of music to heal our bodies, minds, and souls.
"Oppert, a classical cellist and art therapist, debuts with a luminous ode to the 'mysterious ways music... moves' patients with such conditions as dementia and autism… Assured and lyrical, this impresses." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Compassionate, intriguing, often uplifting vignettes delivered in crystalline prose." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"These healing musical encounters at the frontiers of 'unimaginable lands'—the lands of profound dementia and non-speaking autism— resonate in the heart like chords on Claire Oppert's cello." —Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes
"In astonishing encounters with Oppert's cello, music becomes a lifeline for those who lack memory, language, hope, or trust. Raw and lyrical, The Schubert Treatment sparkles with insight and faith in the human spirit." —Adriana Barton, author of Wired for Music
"A cello is a musical instrument, but in the right hands it can also be an invaluable medical instrument. Claire Oppert shows on every page of The Schubert Treatment just how indispensable the music she makes is for her patients. Her passion for music and healing shines through, bringing the reader into each room and bedside. This is an important book, helping to bring music back to its ancient role as an integral part of medicine." —Andrew Schulman, author of Waking the Spirit: A Musician's Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul
This information about The Schubert Treatment was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Claire Oppert is a classical cellist and art therapist. For over twenty years, Claire has been working as an art therapist, in particular for children with autism, people with neurodegenerative diseases, and palliative care patients. Along with teaching music, she speaks at medical schools and universities, and she has authored several scientific publications, focusing on the links between art and care. She has recorded seven albums and won prizes in numerous international competitions. She lives in France.
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