In this thesis, the topic is death. The focal point is the client’s treatment in the music therapy process, which is included in the study. The study is thus based on a single case, where it is investigated; how can a music therapy course contribute to a resident of a nursing home being able to share, communicate and process thoughts and wishes about their own death?
The collected video and audio recordings as well as notes from the music therapy course are used, and transcribed in order to be analyzed based on the analysis method: Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Here the findings of the analysis based on the client's statements appear in the transcriptions as sub-themes, main themes, cross-cutting themes and the researcher's narratives based on the theme statements and the client's statements. The themes that were created through the process of the analyses were two transverse themes and five head themes. The two transverse themes were named:
- Impotence and control
- Alter-centric and egocentric
The five head themes were named:
- The relation to the music therapist
- Fear of forgetting and being forgotten
- Communication with the family members about the death
- Completing the “end of life” provides relief and control
- Hymn selecting and hymn singing as an emotional process
Through the thesis, relevant therapeutic approaches are presented and discussed according to psychotherapy and death. The results of this thesis also showed that the music therapist could support the client's thoughts regarding the theme of own death by facilitating an safe and open space that could accommodate these thoughts. Within the music therapy space, there were utilized active and receptive music therapy interventions to promote a quiet and calming space and a contact with one's own feelings as well as an emotional processing of the client's thoughts about one's own death. Through impending interventions and subsequent therapeutic conversations, preparations for the clients own funeral could be made possible through reflections on the clients own wishes, thoughts and the relatives' handling of the client's death. In addition, the music therapist could facilitate and guide the client, by writing down the client's wishes and thoughts in the somatic nursing home’s overall care record “Cura”, and this can also be seen as the music therapist's guide to developing the client's coping strategy in relation to the relatives' refusal to participate in the client's thoughts about the client’s own death.