Full Description
A practicing music thanatologist provides an insider's history of this remarkable profession, which combines music, medicine, and spirituality to help the terminally ill and their families face the end of life.
Reflecting on the author's experiences as a music-thanatologist, Jennifer Hollis's Music at the End of Life: Easing the Pain and Preparing the Passage is an enlightening and emotional examination of the ways in which the experience of dying can be transformed with music.
Music at the End of Life highlights the unique role music has come to play in hospice and palliative medicine. Jennifer Hollis interweaves narrative memoir, the personal experiences of fellow music-thanatologists and caregivers, and extensive research to demonstrate the transformative power of music when curing is no longer an option. Through story after unforgettable story, Hollis offers a new vision of end-of-life care, in which music creates a beautiful space for the work of letting go, grieving, and saying goodbye.
Contents
Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Building a Harp, Building a Life
Chapter 2
A Confluence of Ideas: Historical Influences on Music-Thanatology
Chapter 3
An Introduction to Music-Thanatology
Chapter 4
Stories from the Bedside
Chapter 5
Prayers, Resumes, and Nightline: Music-Thanatologists Consider Vocation
Chapter 6
Integrating Music-Thanatology into Medical Institutions
Chapter 7
Encounters with Death: Music and Transformation
Resources
Bibliography
Index
