The lived experiences of young adults grieving an intimate partner or spouse: A phenomenological pilot study.

This pilot study explored the lived experiences of six young adults between the ages of 18-32 years grieving an intimate partner or spouse. Through Moustakas's (1994) steps of transcendental phenomenological analysis, four key themes revealed a traumatic initial period after the death, the importance of helpful vs dismissive community support, a continuation of meaningful activities and ritual to honor the deceased, and significant shifts in participants' life plans and worldviews. These themes suggest that clinicians may consider facilitating identity-restructuring exercises (e.g., journaling) and inclusive community spaces to support this unique population of grievers. Implications for future research are discussed, including the suggestion to create more targeted inclusion criteria to improve the clinical relevance of results in future studies.

Assessment and Clinical Decision-Making During Imminent Death in Hospice Music Therapy.

Assessment is a critical aspect of treatment planning, and while there exist standards for facilitating music therapy assessments in a variety of clinical settings, no such standards exist for music therapists in hospice and palliative care. This gap in knowledge, which limits music therapists' ability to provide patients and caregivers best practices promoting supported movement through the dying process, becomes particularly problematic when assessing patients who are imminently dying with a 24-72 hour prognosis. To further develop and define assessment and clinical decision-making processes used by music therapists in hospice and palliative care, the authors used a constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis methodology to analyze interviews of 15 hospice music therapists. The resulting theoretical model describes an ongoing process of assessment and clinical decision-making shaped by participants' individual epistemologies. Epistemologies were comprised of 5 ways of knowing, which were termed experiential, personal, musical, ethical, and integral, and provided participants critical foundations for their practice. The results support a development of a model for reflective practice as well as continued research on epistemological foundations of clinical practice.

Music Therapy When Death Is Imminent: A Phenomenological Inquiry.

Music therapists have described powerful case examples and personal experiences of providing music therapy for clients who are actively dying that suggest a complex experience that merits further exploration. This phenomenological study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the lived experience of music therapists working with clients who are actively dying. Four music therapists (2 female, 2 male), with an average of 10 years' hospice care experience, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach (Moustakas, 1994). Ten themes were distilled from the interviews and grouped into four categories: ongoing assessment, intuitive processes, countertransference, and the role of aesthetics and transformation. Participants described a flexible, dynamic clinical and personal process informed by ongoing assessment. These findings point to the importance of further discussion surrounding the clinical implications of the music therapist's internal experience and the role of assessment, intuition, and aesthetics in hospice music therapy.