skip navigation

Not in the United States?
change your preferences.

Music of the Soul

Composing Life Out of Loss

• By Joy S. Berger

• Price: $32.95
• Binding: Paperback
• Pages: 240
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 8th September 2006
• ISBN: 978-0-415-95481-5

About the Book

Music of the Soul guides the reader through principles, techniques, and exercises for incorporating music into grief counseling, with the end goal of further empowering the grieving person.

Music has a unique ability to elicit a whole range of powerful emotional responses in people - even so far as altering or enhancing one's mood - as well as physical reactions. This interdisciplinary text draws in equal parts from contemporary grief/loss theory, music therapy research, historical examples of powerful music, case studies, and both self-reflecting and teaching exercises. Music is as much about beginnings as endings, and thus the book moves through life’s losses into its new beginnings, using musical expression to help the bereaved find meaning in loss and hurt, and move forward with their lives. With numerous exercises and examples for implementing the use of music in grief counseling, the book offers a practical and flexible approach to a broad spectrum of mental health practitioners, from thanatologists to hospice staff, at all levels of professional training and settings.

Reviews

"This is an important book for the field, beautifully written, with powerful and heartfelt content." - Galen Miller, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

"For all of us who have experienced the deep loss of a loved one or struggled with the darkness of daily despair, this book is a pastoral voice of healing and a reminder of the power of music to transform us in Life’s moments of greatest vulnerability, grief, or intimacy." - Dr. John H. Dickson, Director of Choral Studies, Texas Tech University, USA

"Berger's use of music as metaphor permeates every page, in language that is inspiring and easy to understand....this is a book that not only reaffirms the importance of music but also provides a signpost to new ways of thinking about palliative care."

- Bob Heath, State registered music therapist in BereavementCare

Table of Contents

Preface. Music of the Soul - Composing Life Out of Loss. It’s About Life. Music of the Soul Terminology and Metaphors. Composing Life in the Midst of Loss. Rhythms of Body and Soul. Rhythms of Body and Soul. Body Rhythms. Soul Rhythms. Pausing and Pacing and Pushing On. Signals for Action (or Rest). Music for Pain Relief: Body and Soul. Rhythms of the Soul for Being in and Moving Through Loss. Music for Grief’s Seasons of the Soul. There is a Time. Themes and Counterthemes of Life Stories. Life-stories Stirred by Sounds. Themes and Counterthemes. Diminishing Dementia: Relating with Memories Through Music. Your Life-story’s Tunes and Tales. Harmonies and Dissonances of Healing. Life’s Harmonic Progressions. Life’s Dissonant Changes. Healing Grief: Hearing its Dissonances and Harmonies. Healing and Wellness. Styles of Doing and Being. Know Your Styles for Doing Life. Music as a Catalyst for Being in Loss More Fully. Music Moment: A Doing and Being Commemoration. Expressions of Self and Community. Ricky’s Rhyme for this Time. Music’s Expressive Powers. Personal Expressions: Children and Teens. Community Expressions. Global Expressions. Ode to Expressions of the Soul. The Final Cadence. Music of the Soul at Life’s End. Final Cadence Endings. More Final Cadences. Music with the Dying. Core Principles: Care, Ownership, Respect, Empowerment. Physical, Psychosocial, and Spiritual Care. Final Moments. Composing Life Out of Loss. Life’s Endings and Beginnings – Life’s Mourning and Morning. Music of Morning. Music of the Soul for Composing Life Out of Loss. Appendix A: Through the Ages: A Timeline of Western Grief Music. Appendix B: My Music Menu. Appendix C: Keyboard Quality of Life: "Highs" and "Lows." Appendix D: My Do-Be-Do-Be’s. Appendix E: CORE Principles (Being) and HEALing Techniques (Doing). Teaching Guides. Books and Articles. Scores, Recordings and Videos.

About the Author(s)

Joy S. Berger, DMA, BCC, MT-BC, is presently administrative director for the Hospice Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, the education and research division of the Alliance of Community Hospices and Palliative Care Services. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Louisville, Department of Music Therapy, and recipient of the National Heart of Hospice Award (2002) from the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. She is a musician and is board certified by the Association of Professional Chaplains and by the Certification Board for Music Therapists.