Mega Doctor News
Marisa de Leon grew up the daughter of baby boomers, listening to the music of the Beatles and knowing from an early age how “music is woven into our identity.”
“Music affects every part of who we are,” she said.
De Leon also grew up playing music. At Mercedes High School, she played viola in her school’s orchestra, calling it her “safe space.”
De Leon saw a “60 Minutes” report during her high school years which featured the recovery of former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. The report detailed Giffords’ long and arduous recovery from a gunshot wound to the head after an assassination attempt on her life in early 2011. She was struggling to recover her capacity to speak and was using intensive musical therapy to regain the ability to form and speak words again. Singing songs by Tom Petty were helping Giffords regain her ability to speak.
De Leon was taking all of this in watching the television story from her home in Mercedes. Watching the story was a life-changing event for her.
“That’s it,” de Leon said in thinking back to that day. “That’s for me. It’s what I’m going to do.”
She was familiar with healthcare since her mother is a healthcare administrator. Marisa’s path to health care would go in a different direction from standard physical examinations and prescribing prescriptions. It began at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, where she earned degrees in the health sciences with a specialization in music therapy. National certifications in music therapy would follow. She then utilized that expertise to start her own business in 2017 – the RGV Music Therapy and Wellness Center.
De Leon bases her business in Mercedes, of which she says, there was never any doubt that she would do so.
“It’s really important for me to be in Mercedes,” she said. “This is my community and it’s really special to do it from here.”
Music reaches everyone.
De Leon has seen musical therapy reach patients suffering from cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, and “we get them back for a moment.” This is when patients who are having trouble recalling the names and faces of loved ones suddenly have magical moments and begin singing songs from their youth.
Music is connected to memory, de Leon said, and can be an integral part of a person’s identity.
“It’s incredibly meaningful to watch how music takes them somewhere and they’re able to connect again with their memories,” she said.
Some of the key elements of music therapy as described by de Leon are:
- Receptive: The memories and emotions of actively listening to favorite songs.
- Composing: Taking the feelings associated with music and then being creative in that art form.
- Improvising: Expressing ideas and thoughts and being inventive to make something new.
- Playing an instrument: The bodily aspects of using fingers, hands and feet to regain physical movements.
Music therapy can be cognitive, neurological, behavioral, and spiritual, she said.
“It affects so many aspects and it can be such an accessible tool in providing therapy,” de Leon said. “Music is very welcoming and can reach anyone.”
Cultural Aspects
In the Rio Grande Valley, music can also be cultural with the corridors and cumbias that are revered by so many families.
De Leon’s musical therapy strategies include instruction and therapies which connect to the cultures and values of the Valley. Her RGV Music Therapy center offers a three-credit course entitled, “Mexican American Values & Therapeutic Alliance in Music Therapy.”
The de Leon-designed course trains music therapists to “understand how cultural values and social expectations” in South Texas can be used in clinical settings to help patients. She referred to one iconic Mexican-American singer whose work is a mainstay in South Texas musical therapy.
“A day won’t go by without playing Selena’s songs,” de Leon, referencing the late artist known as the queen of Tejano music.
From Laredo-to-Brownsville, de Leon and her staff of therapists fan out across South Texas to work with clients, be at their homes or at RGV Music Therapy offices in Mercedes in the industrial park which are adjacent to Expressway 83.
“Logistically, we can serve everyone from being in the middle (of the Valley), from Brownsville to McAllen and Mission,” de Leon said. “It’s really convenient with all of the home health care we do across the Valley. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
- Ric Cavazos
