Author: Dr. Sydelle

I love to sing. When I was a child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, I told my parents that I would become a singing doctor. While pursuing my professional courses of study, I continued to sing but purely as a hobby. I became a board certified anesthesiologist and later sub-specialized in pain medicine and palliative care. Once I started forming meaningful therapeutic relationships with persons who were living with chronic, life-threatening/life-limiting illnesses, I felt compelled to offer more of myself. Knowing that I always had a passion for music and singing, I decided to create a therapeutic alliance between music and medicine that I would offer to my patients. I have sung at the bedside of my dying patients, sometimes in private and at other times in the setting of a small bedside concert. These experiences have kindled a desire to share more of my gifts and talents with others. I became a volunteer singer with an organization that offers healing arts to people residing in long-term care facilities. I hope to work with healthcare professionals of various disciplines (music therapists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychologists) to design a scientific, evidence-based initiative that integrates music into the practice of medicine.