Music at the Edge

Through the words of the therapist and the music of the patient this package allows the reader to experience a complete music therapy journey. Francis, a trained musician who was facing death from AIDS, challenged Colin Lee, the music therapist, to help him clarify his feelings about living, and dying. In doing so he helped the therapist to clarify some of his feelings about this particularly demanding form of therapeutic work and to question the framework of the therapeutic relationship in palliative care. This is a complete music therapy case study. The CD (76 minutes) of extracts from improvisations made during sessions, which accompanies the text, is an integral part of a unique insight into the therapeutic process. This package offers anyone who is working with, or facing, illness and death an opportunity to understand how the transcendent power of music can enable expression of painful feelings more accurately than words.