One of the many activities children and teenagers enjoy doing throughout their childhood is listening to music. Music is an outlet while children and adolescents are growing up, and can especially be a healthy and positive coping outlet when they are trying to navigate the death of their parent. Music can be a beneficial form of therapy in sessions with clinicians as well.
The death of a parent is one of the hardest life situations a child or teenager can be forced to navigate. Trying to find comforting and positive outlets is key, as there will be a wide range of emotions grieving youth will experience while trying to work through this situation. For surviving parents and caregivers trying to help support grieving youth, turning to music or clinical music therapy can be highly beneficial for grieving youth.
“Music therapy has been provided for children in a variety of settings: family sessions, individual sessions, time-limited school-based bereavement groups, child and adolescent grief camps, and open bereavement groups at a bereavement center. Family therapy sessions utilizing music therapy have been facilitated prior to the death of the loved one to help children cope with the anticipated death as well as following the death to help children with the mourning process.” — Russell Hilliard, Board Certified Music Therapist
Using music as a healthy coping outlet can look like many different things. For some children and adolescents, they might just want to put their headphones on and listen to music after school. Some might replay the favorite song of their late parent over and over, to help serve as a comfort. For others, they might listen to the same music their late parent did, or music that resonates with how they’re feeling. A slow- or fast-paced song might represent the emotions they are experiencing. Other children and adolescents might even want to write or compose their own songs to represent how they are feeling while processing the death of their parent.
Whether used in a clinical setting as music therapy, or just as a practical coping strategy at home, this arts-based therapy method can be highly beneficial for children and adolescents navigating the death of their parent.
