“[This book] is an offering from your hearts that illumines our field with the bright light of loving service. This is a wonderful book.  It truly captures the spirit of our profession.  Thank you so much.  I love it.”                        –Beatrice Rose, Certified Music-Thanatologist

From Behind the Harp

Music in End of Life Care

The authors, Jane and Sandy, tell more than 50 stories of the dying who experience relief from pain, anxiety, agitation and respiratory distress, all in the presence of very specific, live harp and vocal music, delivered by highly trained musician/clinicians. The book is an introduction to, and overview of the field of music-thanatology, a discipline within Palliative and End of Life care.

“…I am grateful to the authors Jane Franz and Sandy LaForge for their creation of this book and to all of the people and their loved ones whose unique journey in illness and through death teaches us so much…”    

–Martha Twaddle, MD (from the Foreword)

“This is the most beautiful book I’ve ever read! I did not want it to end.”     –Charlotte Hamilton

“The authors vividly convey how music-thanatology helps people find meaning and wholeness in the experience of death and dying. Narrative accounts from practitioners, which welcome readers into the intimacy of the vigil setting, together with responses from loved ones and healthcare workers, reveal a great deal about this remarkable calling and the lives it touches.

    I came away with a deeper appreciation for the ethic of care that guides everything music-thanatologists do, and for the skill, experience and courage it takes to negotiate the seemingly infinite personal, familial, and professional complexities that arise in the music vigil setting.” –Frederick Paxton, Ph.D. author, The Death Ritual at Cluny: In the Central Middle Ages

COMMENTS?

franzjane@gmail.com

hlaforg@yahoo.com

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