Eliette Roslin knows the healing power of music. Growing up, it was her “therapy” in dark days of nearly losing her father to cancer and fighting for her own life after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a teen.
“Music for me has been an escape” she says. “It was my way to grieve, to find peace and strength. Through any hardship, my dad has always said, ‘Write a song’ and so I would.”
Now aged 28, Eliette is the director of Auckland-based The Green Room Charitable Trust, which encourages children aged eight to 17 to play music to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The Green Room came about from Eliette’s Music Academy, where she discovered some of her students were struggling with their mental health. “So we decided to start a music programme that was available to youth who might not be able to afford private lessons. Everyone is welcome to pick up a guitar, bang on a drum, sing or listen.
Fully recovered, Eliette is now singing the praises of music.
“This group setting gives them the opportunity to meet other youth with similar struggles, to understand they’re not alone and don’t need to isolate themselves, as well as discovering other ways to express their emotions.”
When the young singer and pianist was diagnosed with GBS, an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness, numbness and in severe cases paralysis, at the age of 16, she describes it as being locked in her body unable to move, breathe or speak.
“Within 24 hours of arriving in the emergency department – only 72 hours after I was showing symptoms – they were prepping me to be induced into a coma and put on life support,” recalls Eliette. “My entire body was shutting down, and I could no longer walk, talk or see. It was a very dark period of my life where again, I found strength in music. We would play music all day in the ICU. It’s what gave me the will to live.”
Several weeks later, Eliette was told she would spend two years in a wheelchair. At that moment, she realised she had to work “extremely hard” to recover from the disease. She was walking after three months.
On her feet again 10 weeks after being in a coma.
Eliette continued her musical studies when she moved to Amsterdam at the age of 18.
She recently asked her Green Room participants how they felt after their music sessions together.
“One replied, ‘It has made me feel really calm when I leave,’ while another said, ‘It has made me feel prepared for anything that’s going to happen, even if it’s bad.’ To me, that sums up the power of music.”
For more info, visit greenroom.org.nz
