Felice Heffenger gently tapped her foot on the floor, keeping a slow, steady rhythm.

“Ok, we’re going to draw for two beats and blow for two beats,” she said.

She and her trio of students put their plastic harmonicas to their lips and filled the air inside the health and healing center at Lafayette’s Good Samaritan hospital with the warm, melodious tones of the blues harp.

Heffenger and the group are working their way through learning “You Are My Sunshine,” but the goal is not to train the next John Popper.

The harmonicas are at the center of a new therapy Heffenger introduced at the hospital to help people suffering from chronic pulmonary illnesses improve their lung function.

“When you have to do a series of inhalations and exhalations it is going to increase your lung capacity,” Heffenger, a respiratory therapist, said of bringing the instrument into the healing center. “What happens is you are using your diaphragm and intercostal muscles and these are the muscles meant to be used for respiration.”

Heffenger leads six different therapy groups at the hospital, all populated by patients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and other chronic lung ailments. A significant portion of the session is dedicated to guiding patients through aerobic exercises on treadmills and other equipment, but teaching breathing techniques and pacing is also important.

With COPD, Heffenger explained, patients’ lungs are often inflamed and enlarged, pushing down on the diaphragm and preventing proper muscle use. People then start using “accessory muscles,” such as their trapezius, the scalene muscles in the neck and even their shoulders to help force out air and mucus that is clogging up their airways.

“When you use your accessory muscles you typically consume more oxygen than you can create,” she explained. “Then you are more likely to get out of control and out of breath.”

Heffenger said she first heard about harmonica therapy from a colleague in the respiratory therapy field at a seminar earlier this year. That colleague, now retired, used harmonicas with some COPD patients at University Hospital in Aurora, Heffenger said.

Heffenger said she got a 10 percent discount from Lafayette Music when she stopped in to buy 50 harmonicas. She introduced the soulful therapy technique last month.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Ruth Ross, manager of Good Samaritan’s Health and Healing Center said as she watched Heffenger lead her patients through the opening phrases of “You Are My Sunshine.” “It’s something that is innovative. It’s fun. It’s a way for these patients to use their respiratory muscles in a way that they might not have thought about.”

Heffenger says her family has a history of lung disease which guided her career choice. Her mother was diagnosed with COPD at the age of 30.

COPD patients can never be cured, Heffenger pointed out, but with steady exercise and effort it has been shown they can improve lung function and their quality of life. She hopes her patients take their harmonicas on the road.

Thursday’s therapy group was a bit shorthanded because of the cold, but the three patients in attendance all raved about their weekly harp lessons.

“I think it really helps,” Northglenn’s Keiko Brokenleg-Kinn said. “Actually my doctor was surprised I was doing so well.”

Though Brokenleg-Kinn said she enjoys the harmonica therapy, she stressed that her improved lung function wouldn’t be possible without Heffenger and exercise physiologists Natalie Allinson and Jessica Stutzman.

Bill Miller, regarded as the best harp player among the trio, said the new therapy is helpful, and his dogs, which he calls his babies, seem to enjoy his new musical pursuits as well.

“When Felice first gave it to me and I brought it home my dogs started singing,” the Lafayette resident said with a chuckle. “I think it’s great. It helps loosen your phlegm up.”

Thornton resident Deb Lytle has been taking part in respiratory therapy at Good Samaritan for five years and said she has noticed an improvement in her breathing since the harmonicas have been introduced. She said is looking forward to mastering “You Are My Sunshine” and moving on to some bigger and better tunes.

“We’re going to get some country songs going in here,” she said. “How about some ‘Friends in Low Places?'”

Joe Rubino: 303-473-1328, rubinoj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/rubinojc