AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF) – For a lot of us, therapeutic music is what helps us get through a day. 

“I think it’s a big impact cause that gives them, like it improves their sense of self in that moment– like it’s bringing them back to who they were before they started with that disease,” Music Therapist at Brandon Wilde Anna Seiger said.

But for residents at Brandon Wilde, music therapy helps them on another level. 

“These are people who, on a daily basis, it might be hard to even interact with them,” Seiger said.  

Anna Seiger helps residents each week during music therapy sessions. 

“Once I start playing guitar and I like sing the song that maybe they’re familiar with, suddenly they’re looking at me in the eyes or like they might be tapping their fingers to the beat,” Seiger said. 

She says the art of music therapy is special.

“You can use music to help retrain the speech and like with people with memory issues, with dementia or Alzheimer’s, music is all over your brain– it’s so deeply in there that it can help bring back memories that other things like just talking to someone wouldn’t,” Seiger said.

On Wednesdays at 11 in the morning, the Windsor House sets up for music class. 

“Well, they come out, they enjoy it, they know what to look for, we’re helping them to do exercise, we’re helping them with their memories, we have themes that they can Identify with things that they used to do growing up. And it also gives them hope that we’re coming back next week,” Brandon Wilde Emily S. Baumann said.