Description
Grief is universally experienced as a condition of being human, and all of our clients, regardless of the populations we serve, experience grief and loss. The journey of loss impacts our entire world – socially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, yet we are often ill-equipped to understand the over-arching impact of grief in our clinical work. This course focuses on the needs of bereaved adults and seniors in a variety of settings including hospice care, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, mental health agencies, and acute medical settings. Music therapists will learn current trends in bereavement counseling and the theories that influence current clinical practice. Focusing on adults and seniors, participants will understand how co-morbid mental and physical conditions can impact and be impacted by grief experiences and will identify the symptoms of prolonged or complicated grief disorder and treatment interventions. The arts are a powerful medium for healing, and this course adds art-based interventions as well as a depth of music therapy interventions. We focus our efforts on music therapy-based support groups for the bereaved, develop our own bereavement support group session plans, and practice our skills in role plays under clinical supervision. Understanding that our client base is becoming increasing diverse, this course includes an overview of Asian culture and US inner-city culture. Participants will earn 16 CMTEs by completing this course.
Course Objectives include:
- Recognize stages, tasks, and theories that frame bereavement counseling.
- Identify emotional, spiritual, social, and physical needs of grieving adults and seniors.
- Learn music therapy interventions to support grief work with adults and seniors.
- Practice grief-related music therapy techniques under clinical supervision.
- Learn how to incorporate multi-modal creative arts therapies into bereavement care.
- Develop music therapy-based bereavement support group session plans for adults and seniors.
