Former nun, renowned author and more, Pauline Grogan says, “the music of my lifetime has enabled me to endure physical, psychological and deep emotional pain.” With this in mind, her latest book, Miss adventure: healing with music, is compelling and wise.
A tale which began with her bestselling memoir, Beyond the Veil, Pauline Grogan’s Miss adventure traverses her roles as a nun, mother, actor, teacher, celebrant and author with fresh insight.
Opening with the reality of life following two strokes in 2020, Miss adventure has been described as an odyssey of the human spirit.
Despite being trapped in a body tormented by chronic neuropathic pain, Pauline’s deep belief in affecting positive change for others is woven throughout as she connects with taxi drivers, medical specialists, neighbours, former students, old friends and mentors.
It demonstrates the power of music as therapy to bridge generations, soothe chronic pain and assist in the treatment of dementia and stroke survivors.
After Pauline’s friend, Colleen, suffered a stroke in 2009, she was unable to recognise many of those around her. So, in 2013 Pauline wrote her a song and sang it to her during a weekly visit.
“Suddenly, she [Colleen] stirred, making slow, almost static movements…She peered into my face, scrutinising it with full focus and intention…in a clear voice she said, ‘It’s you, it’s you, it’s you, it’s you,” Pauline recalls. “I realised I had witnessed an extraordinary shift in her: she was present to me in the music, then was gone when it ceased. Something bigger than us had happened.”
Miss adventure shows how music can reach patients in ways some treatments can’t.
“Music activates every area of our brain,” Pauline says. “When I listen to my music, sufficient opioids are released to lower the intensity of pain I am experiencing.”
This book offers much to those living with chronic pain and to their caregivers, therapists and clinicians as well as those with a love of inspirational life stories.
A Diverse Life
Growing up with a mother who contracted polio and later taught the piano, Pauline Grogan has lived and breathed music’s healing power all her life.
As a Catholic nun for 12 years, she was thrown into teaching and discovered a lifelong passion for educating children. On leaving the convent and later marrying, her book, Beyond the Veil, published in 1996, propelled her into the public eye, with speaking tours, a one-woman play and as a marriage and funeral celebrant, alongside relief teaching.
Her degree included a thesis on the impact of strokes on families and she contributed to Life After Stroke: NZ guidelines in best practice for rehab after stroke (1995). She also worked as a music therapist at the Wilson Home in Auckland.
Pauline launched, My Music Ignites My Soul in 2020, a collaborative project which bridges the divide between generations with institutional care and she has been recognised by NZ Rotary with two esteemed Paul Harris awards.
