Stephen K. Peeples -- A Perfect Circle: HealthRHYTHMS Drum Therapy: The Signal, Dec. 8, 2005

It was the loudest thing he'd ever heard or seen, Bittman remarked. Few to none of the 600 had any musical experience whatsoever. But it wasn't about the performance skills. "I also saw the metaphor, the sense of community, the creative expression, and I was fascinated with it from a musical perspective," he said.

A few years went by before Bittman revisited the idea of group drumming as therapy. "The CEO of our hospital, the Mind-Body Wellness Center, began looking into strategies that would enable people to an active and meaningful role in their well-being," Bittman said.

"One day I had an opportunity to put a group of hand drums, made by REMO, in fact, in front of a group of people facing the challenges of chronic lung disease," he continued. "Lo and behold, people gravitated toward the drums. And before I knew it we had this magnificent interchange of rhythms. We had no protocol or strategy for this at that point, but I could see people were willing to do it. It took them back to a more jubilant time of their life and gave them the opportunity for creative expression."

Bittman connected with Valencia-based REMO Drum Co., whose founder, Remo Belli, recognized the larger potential of group drumming. Belli's company provided the drums and other percussion instruments and helped fund some of Bittman's initial research.

"The question was: 'Could an hour of group drumming reverse the human stress response in a way that would cause or elicit positive changes in the immune system?'" Bittman said.

He conducted his first study of the biological effects of group drumming in 2000, and the results were published in The Journal of Alternative Therapies.

Along with Christine K. Stevens, then with REMO and also a medical social worker, Bittman began developing a protocol, or set of steps for a session, to extend the benefits of group drumming to anyone - even people who have never touched a musical instrument.

After much experimentation and trial and error, they arrived at a seven-step protocol they dubbed HealthRHYTHMS. "The seven steps are stress reduction, exercise, self-expression, camaraderie and support, nurturing, spirituality and music," noted Alyssa Janney, who now manages REMO's HealthRHYTHMS division (Stevens, a Stevenson Ranch resident, went on to found Upbeat Drum Circles but remains a music therapy and wellness consultant for REMO).

"Dr. Bittman was able to show that this particular group drumming technique boosted the immune system and increased the natural killer (NK) cells, the circulating white blood cells that seek out and destroy cancer and viral cells," Janney added. "There was also significant reduction of stress and burnout, and an improvement in mood among the study participants. So there was demonstrated positive psycho-social impact."

"Through this came the definition of what we call 'recreational music-making' - that's the basis for all the studies we've done," Bittman said. "The protocol enables people to feel comfortable and relaxed, and express themselves in a non-pressured way. It provides opportunities for individuals regardless of age and prior musical ability to come together and enjoy the nurturing support, camaraderie and creative non-verbal expression that occurs in this kind of a group music-making activity. Our subjects aren't interested in playing a recital at Carnegie Hall. The focus of recreational music-making is on people and their needs, not becoming better musicians."

Bittman and Stevens and began training others to facilitate HealthRHYTHMS group drumming sessions and spread the word to other people who could benefit from them. REMO established Thursday night HealthRHYTHMS sessions at its Recreation Music Center in North Hollywood, and Bittman and Stevens conducted intensive weekend training sessions in major cities around the country.

Joan O'Brien, a Santa Clarita-based holistic health practitioner, also became a HealthRHYTHMS facilitator after a training session last summer. She'd wanted to be a drummer since childhood, and wanted to see if this group drumming protocol would help her clients.

"From the moment I stepped into the training program, I knew this was exactly where I should be," O'Brien said. "There were about 75 of us. We went into a large room with all our drums and opened up by just playing randomly but all at the same time. That was fun. Then Dr. Bittman and Christine started telling us about HealthRHYTHMS and explaining the research that has been done, that shows how this does help the body and the immune system."

The actual training covered each of the seven steps in depth, O'Brien said. "We would get up in front of the group and practice each step, and go through it over and over again. Then they taught us every aspect of taking HealthRHYTHMS out to the public, including writing letters, marketing, you name it, so we can teach it to others. I've never encountered a training session that was so beautiful and so much fun."

O'Brien described a typical HealthRHYTHMS session. "We have everybody play their name on a drum, in the rhythm they think their name would sound like. And you can be anybody with that name, you can play any type of beat. People really get involved in that part.

"Then we play what we call an 'inspiration beat,'" she continued. "Was there something going on this week in your life that you'd like to get out? Say it on the drums. After the people play it, they have the option of sharing what inspired what they played."

Toward the end of the session, O'Brien leads the group in some guided imagery. "I talk the group through a journey while they close their eyes and drum softly. I tell them to imagine walking on the sand at the beach. I'm very descriptive: 'Feel the wind, the sun, the sand between your toes.' I guide them usually toward the ocean and let them feel and sense all that as they go on this journey."
At the end of the session, the facilitator leads a grounding exercise. "When you play the drums, you're kind of transported to another place, so we do an exercise to bring everyone back into the room," O'Brien said.

But the benefit doesn't end with the session. "You're still carrying that beautiful rhythm," she said. "Drumming raises your vibration. The key for all of us in all of our lives is to keep our vibrations up. That's the energy that enables you to walk through all the stress in your everyday life a lot more easily. The idea is to being your body back into harmony, the way nature intended. HealthRHYTHMS helps you to stop and connect with your own natural rhythm."

O'Brien said some people are a little leery at first. "They say, 'Oh, gosh, I have to know how to play a drum.' but they don't. So of course my job as facilitator is to take that fear away from them. Once they start playing and start feeling it, they just open up. People who haven't talked in a long time open up and start sharing and then you see their feet tapping and the laughter coming. It's just beautiful what drumming does for people."

O'Brien said the protocol works for all ages. "I've worked with kids and seniors, too. For seniors, just to be in contact with other people was a plus."

O'Brien usually works with adult clients, and adults who visit REMO's Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood, where she often co-facilitates the Thursday night HealthRHYTHMS session with Stevens. But one of O'Brien's recent workshops was with a group of 5-year-olds at an elementary school in Parker, Ariz., in a class taught not coincidentally by O'Brien's eldest daughter, Tina Lewis.

"The kids were all native American, so drumming was something they were familiar with," O'Brien said. "But Mrs. Lewis had no clue how involved they'd get or how well they'd connect with each other. It was so beautiful."

In October and November, REMO's Janney presented a six-week workshop at Three Rivers Church in Saugus to introduce the HealthRHYTHMS protocol to the SCV. Lauren Daniels and Sharon Horton served as facilitators each Sunday night for the 25-30 participants, who ranged in age from 6 to 90, and included a few families.

"What makes the drum circle unique is that you can't do it alone," said Jim Urbanovich, pastor of Three Rivers Church and session attendee. "When any group of people come together to share something, they have a common purpose, whether it's a meal or a service or to pound on a drum. There's something mutually beneficial. The circle is a microcosm of every other group that exists and responds to each other."

Stevie Urbanovich, age 10, a fifth-grader at Mountain View Elementary, attended two of the six sessions at Three Rivers, and said it helped him. "I was in the middle of football season and it was hard for me, because there's so much commitment. But the drum circle helped relieve my stress, it was relaxing. I'd definitely want to do it again."

Rene Urbanovich, who teaches voice privately and for the city of Santa Clarita's Parks & Recreation Department, added, "When the facilitator went around the room asking everyone how they felt, Stevie said he liked feeling 'soft.' He'd been having a tough time with tackle football, which is harsh. He ended up not quitting, and finished his first season, so he's really proud of himself."

Bill Guthrie, a local Aflac representative, and his son Grant, 9, made most of the sessions. "Grant and I both enjoyed the freedom to express what was on our minds and/or holding us back in the moment and in life," Guthrie observed. "Grant was able to open up and share his feelings with everyone through the drums. So was I. The drumming gave us permission to let go of our stress as well as have other people reach out and care enough to share about what it was I was 'saying' with my rhythms."

One family was represented by three generations - Gary and Charlotte McBroom; their daughter Shana Cunningham and her son Ryan, 8, a second-grader at Plum Canyon Elementary, and daughter Sierra, 11, in sixth grade at Plum Canyon; Charlotte's daughter Kara Tull and her daughter Hailey, 6, a second-grader at Rosedell Elementary. They went to all six sessions.

"We do everything as a family," Charlotte McBroom said. "We found the drum circle relaxing and fun at the same time. Some of the people were very interesting, and the age range went from Hailey, who's 6, to a lady named Dorothy who was 90, and there for every session. The leaders, Alyssa Janney and Sharon Horton, were well-trained and well-informed and kept everything in control. I also found it therapeutic in relieving the everyday stress of living and working."

"I thought it was fun and very relaxing, and it did help me relieve stress a lot with school and everything," Sierra Cunningham said. "When we shared our feelings in the circle, we would use the drum to beat out how we felt or what we were thinking, and everyone shared the experience and it just felt good. We all got to do our own thing, when we drummed we did our own beats and didn't have to stay on the same thing. That was a fun way to express myself. It didn't matter to me or anyone else that I wasn't a drummer. I'd like to do it again!"

For more info, visit mind-body.org, remo.com, and ubdrumcircles.com. HealthRHYTHMS sessions take place 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at the REMO Recreational Music Center, 7308 Coldwater Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood 91605 (a half block north of Sherman Way). The next facilitator
training session is slated for February in San Diego.
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*This is the original version prior to being edited for space for the print version of The Signal.
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