Playlist of the Grief Journey: Humanizing Bereavement Through Music
Phase: NA
Conditions: Music Therapy, Bereavement
Sponsor: Brown University

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Playlist of the Grief Journey: Humanizing Bereavement Through Music 
NCT # Unassigned 
5/29/2024 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Background 
The death of a loved one is a universal experience and one of life’s greatest stressors. 
Although most bereaved individuals navigate through a period of intense acute grief that lessens 
with time, approximately 10% will develop a prolonged grief condition (PGD). For these 
individuals, experiences of unrelenting bereavement responses result in functional impairment 
beyond cultural norms, and is characterized by elevated and persistent mental distress including 
maladaptive thoughts (e.g., blame), avoidance behaviors, an inability to manage painful 
emotions, differences in health and social status, and lack of social support that interferes with 
adaptation to loss. In addition, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 
potential increase in PGD cases. Altogether, wherever individuals are on the grief spectrum, from 
low grief to PGD, these emotional states put individuals at different degrees of risk for other 
medical issues including intense distress, poor physical health, shortened life expectancy, 
suicide, and other psychological comorbidities like anxiety disorder, PTSD, and depression. 
Considering that PGD has only been recently added as a mental illness in the DSM-5 in 2022 
and how proper guidelines about effective and comprehensive bereavement strategies are 
lacking, research in this field to develop effective therapeutic protocols is of tremendous interest. 
 
Notably, the use of music-based interventions has been well-established to enhance the 
recovery process in individuals in all walks of life. For example, in the cancer setting Rossetti et 
al. showed that curated music therapy services significantly lowered patient anxiety and distress 
during radiation therapy. Another population that has benefited greatly from music intervention 
is individuals with dementia-related disorders. Active music therapy with these individuals can 
help in treating cognitive and/or behavioral symptoms of the disease by engaging existing 
auditory-reward functional connections in the brain. These individuals simultaneously engage in 
social interaction when utilizing active music therapy which itself provides acute benefits. 
However, even without a trained music therapist present, studies have shown that passive music 
listening (e.g., musical playlists) can also ease psychosocial symptoms associated with dementia. 
 
Only recently have studies begun to explore the role of the expressive arts in the setting 
of bereavement. When examining the impact of a 12-week closed group art and narrative therapy 
program in Ontario for individuals experiencing a grief or bereavement process, Nelson et al. 
showed that the program enabled participants to make strong connections with other participants 
and the community, to learn new skills and coping mechanisms through the integrated offerings 
of art and narrative therapies, and to learn new self-care tools and management strategies. 
However, the implementation of music-based interventions in bereavement has been lacking and 
poorly studied. Given the many known modalities through which music engagement has healed 
individuals, especially in chronic settings, it is necessary to elucidate music’s role as a potential 
mechanism to facilitate and honor the grief journey of grieving individuals. 
 
Objectives 
The goals of this project are three-fold: 
1. Creating personalized music playlists with survivors after conversing with them about 
their grief journey to not only humanistically explore and reflect on their experience but 
also to create a long-lasting tool they can keep and be effectively utilized to help process 
their grief. 

2. This playlist will also be shared amongst participating individuals so that their story can 
be shared in this novel and creative way. Participants can also learn about other’s stories 
and reflections through this shared medium. 
3. Integrating this project into the Warren Alpert Medical School curriculum as part of the 
new Medical Humanities Initiative, and having first through third year medical students 
pairing up with grieving individuals, having a conversation with them, and co-creating a 
personalized music playlist. 
 
Design and Methods 
HopeHealth offers a variety of free support groups that are open to anyone in the Rhode Island 
and Massachusetts community who has endured a loss within the last two years. They also 
welcome anyone who has had a loved one on HopeHealth’s service, regardless of where they 
live. Most groups meet virtually via Zoom and several in-person groups are also available, and 
capped at 15 participants — groups meet on weekly, biweekly, or monthly cadences.  
 
This study will focus on the adult population from HopeHealth’s Loss of Spouse/Life Partner 
Support Group. This group is comprised of men and women ages who have lost a spouse or 
partner in the last 18 months. Sixty percent of this support group had a loved one cared for by 
HopeHealth in hospice care while the other forty percent of support group individuals are 
referred from the broader Rhode Island and Massachusetts community. Individuals in the group 
are a mix of those who experienced both anticipated loss of their loved one as well as unexpected 
loss. There are four Loss of Spouse/Life Partner support groups that meet virtually every week 
Tuesdays through Thursdays in addition to an in-person meeting on Wednesday afternoons, with 
10-15 individuals per group. 
 
The study design and methods are as follows: 
1. With the help of Spouse/Life Partner Support Group facilitators, the study investigator 
will present an overview of the study to support group participants during their weekly 
support group meetings so they’re able familiarize themselves with the investigator’s 
presence and ask any initial questions. At the conclusion of the meeting, the study 
investigator will send out a recruitment flyer to support group participants that describes 
the project goals and eligibility criteria. Support group facilitators may also reach out to 
participants they believe would be candidates for this project and direct them to the study 
investigator via email. 
2. Interested individuals will reach out to the study investigator directly via email and the 
investigator will send time availability to meet with the individual for 75 minutes over 
Zoom.  
3. The morning of the meeting, the study investigator will send an email to the participant 
reminding them about the meeting and will attach the bulleted written informed consent 
form to the email.  
4. At the meeting, the study investigator will talk over the informed consent form, acquire 
verbal consent from the participant and then send the pre-experience survey link via the 
Zoom chat for them to fill out. 
5. Once the pre-experience survey link is complete participants will engage in a 30 minute 
conversation about their grief journey and hearing stories of their loved ones using 
questions the study investigator has preemptively determined with the help of 

HopeHealth staff. From what is learned in these conversations the study investigator and 
participant will discuss different keywords or themes that describe aspects of their grief 
journey and can be applied to a musical playlist. Using the study investigator’s 
professional musical background as a violinist,  the investigator will help guide 
participants in how to create a more extensive playlist, offering them to not only consider 
lyrics, but how rhythm, tempo, dynamics, and timbres of different pieces can bring about 
different emotions about their experiences. Ultimately, their music choices are their own. 
The session will end by the investigator giving instructions on finishing their musical 
playlists over the course of the next week and listening to the playlist.  
6. After a week, the study investigator will email participants to fill out the post-experience 
survey which includes reflections on their playlist themes and if the process helped 
participants process and/or perceive their grief in a new perspective. This survey also 
gives participants the opportunity to share their playlist links as well as elaborations on 
particular songs that meant the most to them. With the individual’s consent, the finished 
playlist (and/or select pieces) along with their reflections will be stripped of identifiable 
information and added to a shared internal resource at HopeHealth. The goal of this 
shared resource is to allow survivors to hear others’ stories and to find meaning in 
themselves through others’ musical choices and reflections. 
 
There are no statistical analyses to run on this data, including adjustments made for testing 
multiple variables. Differences in data between the pre-assessment and post-assessment survey 
questions will be compiled across participants and reported in a chart. Data from the participant 
reflection questions are qualitative in nature and will be listed out in a table.