Holding Grief with Music: Music Therapy Interventions and DBT Strategies for Grief, Loss, and Emotional Regulation (7CMTEs) (1 Ethics credit)

presented by Christina Zayas, DBT Informed MT-BC

Supporting someone through grief can be some of the most meaningful work we do as music therapists. It can also be some of the most complex.

How do you help someone stay present with emotions that feel overwhelming without trying to make those emotions go away?

How can music provide comfort while also helping clients develop practical ways to cope with loss?

And how do you support the many different ways grief can show up while remaining aware of your own responses to this deeply personal work?

Holding Grief: Integrating DBT and Music Therapy in Bereavement Care is a 6-week continuing education course that brings together bereavement care, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and music therapy to give you practical ways to support clients as they navigate grief and loss.

You’ll explore how DBT principles and skills related to mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and validation can strengthen the work you’re already doing with music.

Through demonstrations, experiential learning, and clinical discussion, you’ll explore interventions including:

Lyric analysis
Songwriting
Guided music listening
Grounding and musical mindfulness
Legacy and continuing bonds work
Coping playlists
Music-based strategies for navigating intense emotions

You’ll also consider the different ways grief may be experienced, including grief following a death, perinatal loss, anticipatory grief, traumatic loss, and more complex bereavement experiences.

Throughout the course, you’ll explore not only what you can do with your clients, but why and when you might choose each approach. You’ll consider trauma-informed care, ethical practice, clinician self-awareness, and how your own responses to grief and loss can influence the therapeutic process.

By the end of the course, you’ll have new music-based strategies and DBT-informed tools you can adapt for individual and group settings, along with a deeper understanding of how to support clients as they learn to live with loss rather than simply trying to move past it.

In this workshop, you will learn:

How DBT principles and skills can be integrated into bereavement-focused music therapy.
Practical music-based interventions for supporting clients experiencing grief and loss.
How mindfulness and distress tolerance skills can help clients navigate moments of intense emotion without requiring those emotions to disappear.
Ways to incorporate lyric analysis, songwriting, guided music listening, grounding, musical mindfulness, legacy work, continuing bonds, and coping playlists into bereavement care.
How to select and adapt interventions based on the client, type of loss, therapeutic goals, and where the client is in their grief process.
Considerations for supporting clients experiencing death-related loss, perinatal loss, anticipatory grief, traumatic loss, and complex bereavement experiences.
How trauma-informed care, ethical considerations, and clinician self-awareness can inform your work with grieving clients.
Ways to support clients in developing coping skills and finding ways to live with loss while honoring their individual grief experience.

A Note About Self-Care

Grief is personal, even when we're approaching it as professionals.

Because this course explores grief, loss, bereavement, and related clinical experiences, some of the material may connect with your own experiences of loss and bring up personal memories or emotions.

We encourage you to pay attention to your responses as you move through the course and care for yourself as needed. This may mean pausing the course, taking a break, using your own coping and support resources, or returning to the material at another time.

This course is intended for professional education and is not a substitute for personal therapy or mental health treatment. If the material brings up emotions or grief that feel difficult to manage on your own, we encourage you to seek support from a qualified mental health professional.

Please participate at a pace that supports both your learning and your well-being.

Outline of Class:

Week 1 — Grief + DBT Lens - 50 minutes total

Class (45 min) An introduction to bereavement through the framework of Dialectical Behavior

Therapy and music therapy. Participants will explore emotional dysregulation in grief, validation,

Wise Mind, and how music can create emotional safety, connection, and containment during the

grieving process.

HW (5 min) Participants write a short reflection on one way grief can show up as emotional

dysregulation and how music can help create safety or validation.

Week 2 — Mindfulness & Presence (50 min)

Class (45 min) This session focuses on mindfulness-based music therapy interventions that

help clients remain present with grief without becoming overwhelmed. Participants will explore

grounding techniques, sensory-based music experiences, breath and rhythm regulation, and

guided receptive music interventions.

HW (5 min) Participants try one simple music-based mindfulness exercise and briefly reflect on

what music they used, what they noticed emotionally or physically, and how they might adapt it

for a client.

Week 3 — Distress Tolerance (50 min)

Class (45 min) Participants will learn music-based approaches to support clients during periods

of intense grief, emotional flooding, anniversaries, and triggering experiences. The session

explores DBT distress tolerance skills alongside interventions such as coping playlists,

drumming, active music-making, and self-soothing through music.

(HW 5 min) Participants create a simple coping playlist with three songs: one grounding song,

one song for emotional release, and one song for comfort or hope. They briefly explain why they

chose each song.

Week 4 — Emotion Regulation (50 min)

Class (45 min) This session examines how music therapy can support clients in identifying,

expressing, and regulating grief-related emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, and

anxiety. Participants will explore songwriting, improvisation, lyric analysis, and emotional

processing through structured musical experiences.

HW (5 min) Participants choose one grief-related emotion, such as sadness, anger, guilt,

numbness, or anxiety, and write one simple intervention idea using music to help a client

identify, express, or regulate that emotion.

Week 5 — Interpersonal Effectiveness & Grief Relationships (50 min)

Class (45 min) Participants will explore the relational impact of grief, including communication

challenges, isolation, changing family dynamics, and boundary setting after loss. Music therapy

interventions will focus on connection, validation, legacy work, and supportive group processing.

HW (5 min) Participants write a short reflection on how grief can affect communication,

boundaries, or relationships, and describe one music therapy intervention that could support

connection or expression.

Week 6 — Ethics & Cultural Responsiveness (50 min)

Class (45 min) This session explores ethical, cultural, and trauma-informed considerations in

bereavement-focused music therapy practice. Participants will examine Hispanic/Latino grief

experiences, spirituality, bilingual adaptations, perinatal loss support, emotional safety, scope of

practice, and therapist self-awareness while learning culturally responsive approaches to

music-based grief interventions.

HW (5 min) Participants choose one ethical or cultural consideration in bereavement music

therapy, such as scope of practice, trauma-informed care, spirituality, cultural grief rituals,

bilingual work, emotional safety, or therapist self-awareness, and write a short paragraph about

why it matters.

Final Assignment (50 min) Participants submit two simple bereavement music therapy session

plans and one short ethics reflection.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will identify at least three DBT-informed music therapy interventions that support emotional regulation, mindfulness, and coping in bereavement- focused care.
Participants will create one music-based grief intervention that incorporates clinical goals, therapeutic pacing, and appropriate adaptations for individual or group bereavement settings.
Participants will develop two bereavement- focused music therapy session plans that include goals, interventions, processing questions, and methods for supporting client emotional safety.
Participants will describe at least two ethical, cultural, or trauma informed considerations when providing music therapy services for clients experiencing grief, perinatal loss, traumatic loss, or complex

CBMT Domain Areas:

III.A.6 Theoretical frameworks for music therapy treatment implementation (e.g., educational, developmental, neurological, psychological)

II.D.7 Goal-directed music and non-music experience/intervention design

II.D.4 Identification of treatment progress and outcomes (e.g., short-term measurable objectives, long-term goals)

V.B.2 Professional and ethical responsibilities

Holding Grief with Music: Music Therapy Interventions and DBT Strategies for Grief, Loss, and Emotional Regulation is approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) for 7 CMTEs-Continuing Music Therapy Education credits. The Spiegel Academy, CBMT Approved Provider #P-106, maintains responsibility for program quality and adherence to CBMT policies and criteria.

Class Description