Applications of Music Therapist-Composed Songs in Creating Participant Connections and Facilitating Goals and Rituals During One-Time Bereavement Support Groups and Programs

ABSTRACT: As members of interdisciplinary bereavement and grief counseling teams, music therapists may have opportunities to be involved in designing and facilitating one-time grief-related support groups and programs. The aim of these groups and programs is not to replace or to substitute for on-going or in-depth grief counseling for bereaved persons. Rather, they are designed as one-time group experiences to aid in the grieving processes of persons who have experienced the death of a loved one. These participants may or may not have taken part previously in organized grief therapy. These one-time programs may take place in health, professional, school, and community-at-large facilities and settings. This article describes how music therapist-composed original songs have been used to help meet the goals of such programs. The article begins with a brief overview of some common tasks and processes of grieving. An example of how a music therapy department supports the bereavement department in an interdisciplinary approach to designing and implementing such programs at a hospice organization in the southeastern U.S. is described. Several different types of one-time grief-related programs and groups are outlined. An introduction to the use of precomposed original songs in one-time brief grief programs is given, focusing on the use of song metaphors to create participant connections, introduce and explore session themes and topics, and in particular to help facilitate one-time group rituals. Examples of four original therapist-composed songs using metaphor in group programs are shared. Grieving has been described as an active process of coping directed at remaking reality (Attig, 1991, 1996, 2004). The events that lead to or result in a person experiencing grief may include a variety of types of personal losses (Bright, 2002). Among those losses may be the death of a family member, friend, loved one, or other person of significance. The term "bereaved" is often used to describe one who has experienced the death of a loved one, including a significant person such as a family member or other loved one (Katz, 1994; O'Toole, 1985; Walter, 2003). Each bereaved person's grieving experiences are unique, and there can be enormous variation in individual responses to loss (Bright, 1999; Hedtke & Winslade, 2004). However, there are some common tasks, aspects, and phases of grieving that have been described in the bereavement literature (Krout, 2003). In addressing commonalities in the grieving processes of bereaved persons, O'Toole (1985) outlines what she termed "The Grief Wheel." She describes five progressive phases of grieving following death of a significant person in one's life (which would be the event resulting in the person entering the wheel). A wheel was used to suggest that a person enters the grief process in motion (from their life before the loss) and exits again into their resumed "healthy" life following their grief process. These phases include loss, shock, protest, disorganization, and reorganization (O'Toole, 1985). In another model, Worden (2001) describes what he termed the "Four Tasks of Grief." It is interesting that the author used the term "tasks," which may imply that grieving requires attention and work-it doesn't just "happen." Worden's tasks include: 1. Accept the reality of the loss 2. Experience the pain of the grief 3. Adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing 4. Withdraw emotional energy from the deceased and reinvest without the guilt. Rando (1984) delineated "Six R's of Grieving." Again, these "R's" were described as active processes, and include: 1. Recognize the loss-acknowledge the death and understand its ramifications 2. React to the separation of the loss-both the primary and resulting secondary losses 3. Recollect and re-experience the deceased and the relationship-review and remember 4. Relinquish attachments to the deceased and the old assumptive world 5. …