Music Therapist Tunes Into Youths at Group Home

A 9-year-old girl at Pasadena’s Five Acres group home for children would often be heard through the music room’s wall singing, “duck, duck, goose.”

“You’d hear her all day singing all these joyful children’s songs,” said Diane Beekman, supervisor for the day rehabilitation program. “She didn’t get that as a young child. The songs were nurturing.”

Such is the value of music, children’s psychologists say. It allows youngsters with painful memories and scarred psyches to release their emotions through a familiar medium.

With a $15,000 gift from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Fund -- which raises money for nonprofits in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties -- Five Acres has hired a music therapist for the next year.

In 12 weekly, 45-minute sessions, therapist Mollie Boltinghouse encourages one or two children at a time to let their guards down and trust adults again. This can be done in simple opening exercises, such as singing greeting songs. Boltinghouse has opted for pop classics like “Good Day Sunshine” by the Beatles and “Hello, I Love You” by The Doors.

“It lets them know I recognize them,” she said.

Then the bongos, shakers and the keyboard come out. The children tap out the same rhythm Boltinghouse beats, suggesting a willingness to work in a group. Musical experience is not a requirement, but instructors often discover that some youngsters have respectable talents.

One of the most popular tools is the karaoke machine, which already has had a microphone damaged and replaced. Some children were so consumed by the exercise, they impersonated pop stars by swinging the mike by the cord, Beekman said.

Five Acres has an art therapist, a cooking therapist and a movement therapist. Each provides different advantages in helping children develop, said Cathy Clement, director of development.

Art encourages children to think creatively. Movement helps children who have been victims of abuse to become comfortable with their bodies again. And cooking shows children how to think sequentially and how to stay involved in a task.

“We look at the children and see which therapy would seem like the best choice,” Beekman said. “It’s individualized.”

Five Acres, which opened in downtown Los Angeles in 1888 and later moved to Pasadena, is home to 80 children ages 6 to 13. An additional 650 children and their families visit the campus for services each month. The residential children stay 18 and 20 months on average.

Some have deceased parents, others have parents in jail. The children average six to eight placements in other homes before they make it to the spacious grounds at Five Acres. One 6-year-old girl had 24 different homes before coming here.

“We want to find permanency as soon as possible,” Clement said, “whether it’s with the child’s immediate family or at an adoptive home.”

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HOW TO GIVE

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