An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

when I was ill. Then my mum died the same year I had my heart operation. So I felt thatI had reached rock bottom again.'This respondent experienced grief and loss through her husband's illness, her mother'sdeath and her own illness. The church that she attended at the time compounded thisloss by preventing her from playing music possibly on the premise that they werehelping her by relieving her of her duties (see below). By being relieved of her dutiesshe was made to feel redundant, useless. Although she was probably feeling helpless asa result of not being able change the course of the illnesses in her family, removing herfrom music was like removing a very important aspect of her treatment (a built intherapy that had become a necessary component that affected the outcome of treatmentfor all the tragedies in her life in one year).The extract below illustrates the effect on the church attendee when her primary rolewas taken from her when other areas of her life were not going well. She experiencedhealing through her contribution of playing music in the church and healing services.She confirms Cottrell's (2005) view that music stirs emotional feelings and helps todeal with sadness, grief, anger and other feelings.Respondent 5 URC: 'I was involved with the music and this was taken away from me.Consequently as a result of this and other things I did not feel supported by the churchduring a very difficult time in my life. I left the church as a result of this'This respondent‟s approach to worship music provided continuous healing for her. Shewas bereft when she could not play music that was an integral part of her life in church.302