Music Therapy Helping to Work Through Grief and Finding a Personal Identity

This article describes a qualitative single-case study of the treatment of a woman having problems with grief and finding a personal identity. In this case the treatment has been supported by research techniques like categorizing, developing themes, writing memos, member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation. During treatment, diagnostic themes were generated such as: problems of identity, low self-esteem, a lack of assertiveness, and problems expressing feelings and problems in relationships. These themes became important along with feelings of depression which she experienced since the death of her beloved husband. The study describes how the client was able to express, in an unconscious way, a part of her personality, which she had been suppressing since childhood, through playing the piano and vocalizing during the music therapy process. The music therapist used several techniques of improvisation to support the client's cautious steps into a new musical and a new personal world. Tables of music therapy improvisations show how the client became musically expressive, how she found a personal melody and how she developed a closer relationship with the music therapist through musical interaction. Guidelines for similar cases and generated hypotheses about the contribution of music are enclosed as results of research.