Music therapists who work in end-of-life care have the opportunity to develop deep and meaningful relationships with patients and families. Sometimes we get the opportunity to work one on one with the same patient for months, visiting them regularly and talking with them about important, intimate topics. Their life, their death, their fears, their struggles, their joys. Even when the relationship has only a few sessions to develop, we are stepping into intimate space with this other person. As therapists, we try to prepare ourselves for all of the various feelings that our patients may have, and for how to support them in that process.
We often don’t prepare ourselves enough for how much our patients have feelings about us, though. Continue reading “It’s About You”