4 Celebrating Allied Health Professionals
SUPPLEMENT TO THE FREE PRESS • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2026
MUSIC THERAPIST
Cecilia Bellingham says music therapy can be tailored to the individual needs of a child to help ease their pain and stress. Supplied Instrumental healing MUSIC THERAPIST LIFTS THE SPIRITS OF YOUNG PATIENTS
By Sherry Kaniuga S eeing a child’s whole face light up when she enters their hospital room will never get old for Cecilia Bellingham. As a music therapist in the Child Life department at HSC Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg, Bellingham provides babies, children and teens with a welcome musical break from the noisy hospital environment. Meeting with them one-on-one or in group settings, she uses her guitar, her voice and a collection of rhythm instruments to engage young patients, lift their spirits and help them feel at ease. “Music is such a natural, peaceful, magical way to connect with a child. It’s different from just listening to music on the radio or on their phone because it’s about the relationship as well,” explains Bellingham, who founded the music therapy program at HSC – the first of its kind in an acute hospital – in 1998. “With live music, it’s the connection and the fact we can tailor the music and what we’re doing for maximum benefits for that child, in that moment, to ease their pain and their stress.” Knowing young patients may feel alone, apprehensive or afraid, and may have gone through traumatic experiences, Bellingham will start off slowly at first, playing and singing a familiar tune to assess how the child responds to music. “Do they look at me? Do they start to dance? Maybe they try an instrument? It's just about seeing what they’re familiar with to try to gain their trust and develop a rapport with them in a short amount of time,” she says. Bellingham loves when a patient will join in on singing, strum the guitar along with her or try out one of the other instruments she brings to her sessions, like tambourines, drums or shakers. She has taught children to play the fiddle, ukelele or guitar and even given voice lessons. She has also learned hundreds of songs that appeal to kids of all ages, from Baby Shark to Linkin Park. A binder of her repertoire
includes songs by artists popular among older kids in the hospi- tal’s mental health units. “When Hotline Bling by Drake was really popular, I had it on my list and every week someone would ask me to play it just to see if I could really do it. I kind of surprised them when they found out I could pull it off,” she laughs. Beyond the benefits of human interaction, the music therapy visits also contribute to developmental skills, such as reaching, grasping and holding something, sitting up or head control. Music therapists sometimes work alongside a physiotherapist or occu- pational therapist, providing a welcome distraction or encourag- ing movements the child might not have been as keen to do with- out the music. A violinist who played in the Winnipeg Youth Orchestra as a teenager, Bellingham stumbled upon a few books about music therapy on a serendipitous library visit during her first year at the University of Manitoba’s School of Music. It clicked: here was something that would marry her passion for music and her inter- est in pursuing medicine. “It just felt like a calling,” she recalls. She added some psychology courses, completed her Bachelor of Music and spent some time teaching Suzuki violin before head- ing west to pursue her Music Therapy degree in British Colum- bia. Returning to Manitoba, she landed a six-month, 1,000-hour required clinical internship at HSC Children’s Hospital, which had no music therapy program at the time. Thanks to her research and training, Bellingham was able to demonstrate how the service she could provide complemented the hospital’s existing programs. Nearly three decades after being hired and establishing the music therapy program, she’s humble when discussing her own talents. Still, she knows what she does makes a difference. “I feel strongly about what music can do and what I can offer, along with the colleagues I work with,” she says. “I love what I do. It’s so rewarding.” ■
Music is such a natural, peaceful, magical way to connect with a child. It’s different from just listening to music on the radio or on their phone
– Cecilia Bellingham, music therapist in the Child Life department at HSC Children’s Hospital
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