PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
JESSICA STURGEON
Age: 25
Residence: Port St. Lucie
Family: Husband, Jon, 26
Education: Bachelor’s degrees
in music therapy and music
education from University of
Evansville
Occupation: Pediatric music
therapist at Treasure Coast
Hospice Little Treasures Pediatric Care Program
Hobbies: “I love my job so much I feel it’s like my hobby. I
also love the beach.”
Something most people don’t know about me: “I’m such
an open book, I feel everyone knows everything already. I’ve
had 11 ear piercings, but only three holes on each. When I was
little I was afraid to put the earrings back in so the holes grew
over. When getting them redone, I flinched and one hole was
way off so once those grew back in, I had them redone.”
FORT
“Cabasas are a Latin American instrument helpful for children
with limited engagement who need sensory input. It can
be rolled on their arms,” Sturgeon says. “It helps calm autistic
children who have overstimulation and helps with desensitizing
them to touching, because touching can be so hard for
them. An instrument making sounds is a lot less threatening.”
During her practicum, Sturgeon quickly realized music could
soothe, comfort and carry a child’s soul gracefully from this
realm to the next.
“One child on life support died recently after the father arrived,”
teammate Diane Felter recalls. “Our entire Little Treasures
team sat with the family the whole day. Jessica played
for their dying child for 10 straight hours.”
“It’s not just playing music,” Sturgeon says. “I have to get
in tune with the child’s body rhythms to sense what and how
to play.”
Though it might sound spiritual, the more than five years
of clinical study help her know what each patient needs,
along with discerning the fluctuating emotions of those in
the room. Beyond the musical aspect, she also has to know
psychology, anatomy, physiology, occupational therapy and
speech therapy.
Sturgeon points out that there are very few music therapists
in the United States and many people don’t understand
their importance. It’s an uphill battle to get music therapy to
places that deserve this service.
“I have triumphs every day and they are all completely different,”
she says. “That’s one reason I love my job so much.
Because every day I see progress.”
In her first job as a board certified music therapist, Sturgeon
was working with an autistic boy who loved music. He
couldn’t speak, but remarkably could sing an entire song.
“So I would sing questions to him and he would respond
singing,” she says. “One session, I stopped singing, continued
playing the guitar and began speaking to him, and he answered
back speaking. We had a conversation for about two
minutes until he got distracted. That was my first experience
where I could see this amazing transformation happen within
that moment.”
Sturgeon explains some cases take time – such as working
with a teenager in the Bronx. “Because, well first I’m a white
Jessica Sturgeon models a ‘Diamonds by Terry’ jewelry donation at a fundraiser
to benefit Treasure Coast Hospice Little Treasures Pediatric Care Program.
Port St. Lucie Magazine 61
PIERCE
girl from Indiana and he was a teenage boy, so we played
video games, and not much to do with music for a while,”
she says.
“He was having a bad day, so I said I’m going to rap for
you and asked him to pick out a singer. He told me to look up
J. Cole. So the next session I came and rapped for him and he
couldn’t stop laughing. He said, ‘OK, I’m going to write my
own rap with you, I’ll even write about my feelings.’
“He died before finishing, but his close friends and family
finished the song for him. Therapy went from additional support,
to end of life care, to bereavement with his loved ones.
Music therapy was for him, but affected everyone close to
him. They also thought it was hilarious that I was rapping. I
can throw down some rap if I need to and then go to another
house and sing Mustang Sally.
“I’ve helped a lady poop. Sitting outside the bathroom playing
Come to the Garden and I’d hear her say, ‘Hallelujah!’ It
was in the Bronx,” Sturgeon says. “She was an elderly Baptist
woman with lung cancer. The disease and pain medication
caused constipation, so she’d call and I’d go to her room and
play until she relaxed enough to go. I have so many moments
like that where I can look back and just laugh.”
But there are sad days in this line of work, too.
“We lost two children within two hours of each other and
calling to tell my husband, I just broke down crying. Looking
back now, I think what it would have been like if they didn’t
have our team. The moms and dads would have been way
less prepared. The second child was in our hospice house >>