ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that music therapy provides opportunities for emotional self-expression, decreases the perception of pain, prepares for and develops acceptance of death, offers quality of life to the patient and family, and assists the bereaved throughout the bereavement process. An historical perspective of music therapy and palliative care are included, definitions and a brief description of specific relevant music therapy interventions. The first comprehensive institutional music therapy program was established by Willem Van de Wall in 1923 at Pennsylvania’s Allentown State Hospital for Mental Diseases. Research and documentation of music therapy programs in hospice/palliative care began in the late 1970s with pioneers as Susan Munro, Sandi Curtis, and Lucanne Magill. In palliative care, the global purpose of music therapy is to enable the patient to live throughout the dying process. Children may show an inner awareness of their illness or terminal condition through play, art, and musical expressions with much more comfort than through direct verbal communications.
