Music Therapy as Grief Therapy for Adults With Mental Illness and Complicated Grief: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This randomized, controlled, mixed-methods pilot study examined the effectiveness and experiences of grief-specific music therapy, in addition to standard care, with adults (N = 10) who have complicated grief (CG) and mental illness, as compared to standard care alone. The study tested Worden's (2009 Worden, J. W. (2009). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner (4th ed). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Co. [Google Scholar]) theories of grief therapy as well as a new grief-specific music therapy intervention, based on Shear, Frank, Houck, and Reynolds' (2005 Shear, K., Frank, E., Houck, P. R. & Reynolds, C. F. III. (2005). Treatment of complicated grief: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 293, 2601–2608. doi:10.1001/jama.293.21.2601[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) imaginal dialogue intervention and Austin's (2008 Austin, D. (2008). The theory and practice of vocal psychotherapy. Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley. [Google Scholar]) method of vocal psychotherapy. Results demonstrated that participants in the experimental group had a greater decrease of grief symptoms, as measured by the ICG-R, as compared with the control group.