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Welcome to Doorway....
Bev Foster B.Mus, B.Ed, A.R.C.T., A.Mus
The healing power of music along the journey of life is a gift, especially in the midnight hour of our soul. In the lonely places of our grief and sorrow, we may be met by the soothing and comforting sound of music. Gentle instrumental music may lift sadness and depression as in the historical account of David’s harp-playing with King Saul. Various forms of music through the ages have brought solace to those suffering loss. Musical laments draw on a wide range of styles and genres that vary from culture to culture, from improvised wailing to carefully constructed poetic tributes. Within the predictable harmonic structure of the blues, lyrics speak of loss, longing, trials, separations, death and often the overcoming of pain. Gospel songs chronicle hardships and tribulation and speak into overcoming adversity and maintaining hope in times of despair. Requiems are written to honor the dead. And spiritual music, chants, hymns, songs, are written to reinforce the spiritual beliefs of the deceased or the bereaved.
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Music: Royal Road to the Unconscious
Dr. Heidi Ahonen-Eerikäinen, Ph.D, Group Analyst, Music Therapist (MTA), Associate Professor Music Therapy Wilfrid Laurier University, Director Laurier Centre for Music Therapy Research, Author: Group Analytic Music Therapy
According to Freud (1900a) dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious…” (p. 608). According to my various studies (Ahonen-Eerikäinen, 1999a, 1999b, 2000, 2002, 2003a, 2003b, 2004) music does the same. Music is also the royal road to the unconscious. Images created during music therapy interventions have similar clinical value to dreams. These images, just like dreams, can be representations that exist both in the short or long-term memory. They communicate through feelings and body sensations. Their language is emotional and insightful. They speak right from and to our hearts. To understand them we must be willing to tune ourselves—to listen with our hearts. This article explores the equal clinical roles dreams and musical images have and the different concepts and various techniques of image work.
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Finding Meaning When Life Doesn’t Make Sense
Dr. Bill Webster, Founder and Executive Director Centre for the Grief Journey
One of the most basic questions we ask ourselves is, “What am I going to do with my life?”
When I was younger, with all of life stretched before me, the question seemed more basic and straight-forward. “What will I do in my career? Where will I live and who will I spend my life with? What will be the focus and direction of my life?” All good questions, each one demanding and deserving an answer.
But we soon realize that it’s rarely that simple. Jessamyn West says, "You make what seems a simple choice… a spouse, a job, a neighborhood … [however,] what you have chosen is not a spouse, a job, or a neighborhood. You have chosen a LIFE.”
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The Grief Song-Writing Process with Bereaved Adolescents: An Integrated Grief Model and Music Therapy Protocol
Thomas A. Dalton, LMHC, MT-BC, Music Therapist and Family Counselor, Indian Ridge School, West Palm Beach, Florida
Robert E. Krout, Ed.D, RMTH, MT-BC, Head of the Music Therapy Department, Meadows School of the Arts, South
This article has been reprinted in full with the express permission of the American Music Therapy Association. Interested in describing the Grief Song-Writing Process (GSWP) with bereaved adolescents, Thomas A. Dalton and Robert E. Krout thematically analyze songs previously written by bereaved adolescents in individual music therapy sessions that express core concerns regarding the death of their loved one and how they have coped since the death. An integrated grief model is developed to include five areas of the grief process: understanding, feeling, remembering, integrating, and growing; followed by implementation of a systematized group GSWP protocol in which adolescents create music and write original lyrics to songs that focus on each of the five grief process areas. The research and protocol details are shared, along with five original songs composed during this song-writing process.
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Book Review: A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss
Jerry Sittser, Zondervan, 1995, 184pp
The devastation I have experienced in my 40 years lived thus far are nothing compared to Jerry Sittser’s. (I know we’re not to compare losses, but, really, one can’t help with this book). His losses are unimaginable — at least for me. One night a drunken driver claimed the lives of three generations of Sittser’s family: his mother, his wife and his daughter all killed before his eyes. For years, my husband gently pushed this book towards me. I started it once or twice but would end up a sobbing mess before I hit chapter two. I just didn’t want to get that sad so I set it aside. It was easier not to read this book. But I am so glad that I finally stopped acting like a big baby and dared to finish it.
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Caregiving: Our Greatest Gift
Part 3 - Care for the Caregiver:
Volunteer Caregiving - Helping without Harming
Margaret Van Dyck, RN, BScN, CHPCN
Hospice volunteers are the backbone of successful home palliative care since they are uniquely placed to fill in the gaps of care. Flexibility and a personal touch are the hallmark of volunteers as they help to provide the deep caring and friendship which improve quality of life for a dying person and their family. This flexibility and desire to serve are strengths that enhance any palliative care team but they can become unbalanced if boundaries and limits are not also part of the volunteers’ self-awareness. Their positive contribution of helping out must be tempered by awareness of the danger of over-extending themselves, to their own detriment.
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Rooms Around the World
Profiles hospices, hospitals, long term care facilities and people using or beginning to use music in therapeutic ways. If your organization would like to be featured in Rooms Around the World send us a picture and share a unique aspect of it with our readers. This issue:
Mobile Medical Clinic: House Call in the Honduras,
Collecting Loss: Weaving Threads of Memory ,
Hearth Place Cancer Support Centre: Celebration Day
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Music Note
Music Note tells the story behind the songs on Room 217. Wind Beneath My Wings - © WB Gold Music Corp. Warner House of Music – by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar When New York child performer CC Bloom and San Francisco rich kid Hillary met in a holiday resort in Atlantic City, it was the start of a lifetime of friendship between them. The two kept in touch through letters for years. Then Hillary, a successful lawyer moved to New York to stay with the struggling singer CC after her marriage ended. The story unfolds through various stages in their friendship and includes Hillary’s diagnosis of a terminal illness.
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Wrapped in a Shawl of Love
Healing Our Broken Souls
A Precious Memory
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Click here to order Spirit Wings, Gentle Waters, Celtic Whisperings and Hugs & Kisses.
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About Robert’s Press and the Grief Resource Centre?
Hoping to make a difference, Robert’s Press works to unite the grieving and those devoted to helping them with a plethora of resources and events. 
www.robertspress.ca
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About Songs of Love?
The Songs of Love Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing personalized songs for chronically and terminally ill children and young adults. 
http://www.songsoflove.org
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Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
(Maya Angelou)
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