Resources & references

This video shows examples of music therapy sessions and perspectives from music therapists and the Children's Hospital in Boston.

Leticia Prieto Alvarez, a music therapist at Hebrew Senior Life, explains the benefits of music therapy for older adults and provides examples of active music therapy experiences in group and individual settings. 

This article explains how music therapy can help people cope with grief in a variety of ways. It can help create connection with a deceased loved one. It can help those grieving to explore spirituality (hope and meaning in life) and deal with challenging emotions. Many people have an intimate connection to the songs that have helped them through bereavement.

This video features an interview with music therapist Heather Fellows. She discusses the ways in which music therapy can assist those faced with  grief to learn how to process, cope and walk through the journey of bereavement.

Watch music therapist Erica Santiago explain what music therapy is and how it can support patients in hospice care.

This article examines the therapeutic benefits of music therapy for palliative care patients experiencing physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual distress. Findings suggest that music therapy offers a cost-effective, nonpharmacological approach to relieving symptoms among pallative care patients and supporting healthcare providers.

Watch as music therapist Kelsey MacDonald provides music therapy sessions to a patient with dementia at Aberdeen Hospital and listen to testimonials from the patient's daughter and the director of the palliative care unit.

Certified music therapist and researcher Laurel Young discusses her clinical work and research on music therapy in bereavement care and offers recommendations for future practice and research.

Heather Overly, a board-certified music therapist leads a music therapy session with an older adult in hospice care. She explains how music therapy can improve quality of life among this population.

This research article investigates the effects of music therapy for adults with chronic and progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) based on current studies. The results prove that music therapy addresses emotional, physical, and interpersonal challenges that come from acquired disabilities.

This book presents some of the work from music therapists working in different approaches, in different countries, showing how valuable the inclusion of music therapy in palliative care has already proved to be. It is important for the dying, or those with terminal illness, that approaches are used which integrate the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of their being. 

This book chapter explains the effects of music therapy in palliative care. It is derived from the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine (5th Ed) published by the Oxford University Press. Note: The link includes the full text of the chapter (i.e., 18 pages plus references).