Therese Schroeder-Sheker is a musician, educator, clinician, and academic dean of the School of Music-Thanatology, which was housed at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana from 1992 to 2002.
Schroeder-Sheker, using voice and harp, works as a music-thanatologist, a relatively new discipline, where the practitioner works with those who are actively dying (24–48 hours) or have received a terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy of less than six months. The goals of music-thanatology include reduction of physical as well as emotional pain, creation of a supportive environment while dying, helping the patient become more conscious of their own death process, and changing the approach to death within established structures (hospices, hospitals, etc.). Schroeder-Sheker was honored by the New York Open Center in 1997 for her Music Thanatology. Her music has been used in documentaries and released commercially.
Schroeder-Sheker has produced numerous recorded works. Among those works are:
"I Heard the Call of the Seraph", essay in the anthology So That You May be One: From the Visions of Joa Bolendas, Lindisfarne Books, 1997.
Transitus: A Blessed Death in the Modern World monograph, St. Dunstan's Press, 2001.
1991 â The Chalice of Repose at St. Thomas, television video documentary, Jim Phelan Productions, Denver, Colorado.
1993 â âÂÂMusic for the Dying: The New Field of Music-Thanatology,â in Advances, Journal of Mind/Body Health, Volume 9, Number 1, John E. Fetzer Institute.
1994-2000 Chalice of Repose Project Clinical Handbook, 1st-4th editions. St. Dunstan's Press.
1994 â âÂÂMusic for the Dying, â in Noetic Sciences Review, Number 31
1994 â âÂÂMusic for the Dying,â in Caduceus, Issue 23, London
1994 â âÂÂMusic for the Dying: A Personal Account of the New Field of Music-Thanatology â History, Theories, and Clinical Narratives,â in Journal of Holistic Nursing, Volume 12, No. 1, Sage Periodicals Press.
1995 â The Chalice of Repose Project, television documentary for CNN News, producer Dan Rutz.
1996 â âÂÂDeath and the Chalice of Repose Project: Prescriptive Music and the Art of Dying,â in Lapis: Inner Meaning and Contemporary Life, Volume 2, New York Open Center Publications.
1996 â Inside the Miracle: Enduring Illness, Approaching Wholeness, Mark Nepo and Therese Schroeder-Sheker, Parabola Audio Library.
1996 â The Gift: the Chalice of Repose Project, Christopher Award-winning television documentary for ABC.
1996 â Therese Schroeder-Sheker: Music and the Art of Dying, PBS television broadcast for Thinking Allowed, producer, Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove.
1997 â Therese Schroeder-Sheker and The Chalice of Repose: A Contemplative Musician's Approach to Death and Dying, a Fetzer-funded documentary video and 19 page program guide, producers Paul & Jennifer Kaufman, Sounds True.
1998 â âÂÂShaping a Sanctuary with Sound: Music-Thanatology and the Care of the Dying,â Pastoral Music, Volume 22:3; National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
1998 â Heart Strings: Chalice of Repose Project, television documentary for NBC.
1998 â The Geography of the Soul, CD recording and 28 page booklet, Sapientia Music. 1998.
2001 â The Chalice of Repose Project: Changing the Way We Live and Die, Soule Family Foundation funded publication for Chalice of Repose Project, Missoula, Mt.
2001 â âÂÂMusic-Thanatology and the Spiritual Care of the Dying,â Interview with Bonnie Horrigan in Alternative Therapies, Volume 7, Number 1. InnoVision Communication.
2002 â âÂÂThe Last Note: How Music Wakens and Heals,â in Parabola, Vol. 27, No. 2.
2003 â âÂÂMusic-Thanatology and Spiritual Care of the Dyingâ in Voices of Integrative Medicine, edited by Bonnie Horrigan for Churchill Livingstone and Elsevier Science.
2004 â "Choosing Beauty: The Mystical Path of Increasing Invisibility" in Volume 5, Summer 2004 issue of Sophia, Journal of the School of Spiritual Psychology.
2004 â "Orpheus and the Eternal: Faithfulness, Vision & Fine-Tuning" in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture # 71 - ORPHEUS. September, 2004.
2005 â âÂÂContemplative Musicianship and Liminalityâ for the Pleroma Press Contemplative Musicianship Series, Volume 1 of 10.
2005 â âÂÂIntegration and Healing: Grief, Memory, Sleep, Joy,â for the Pleroma Press Contemplative Musicianship Series, Volume 10 of 10. (also Volumes 2âÂÂ9)
2006 â âÂÂThe Principles of Prescriptive Music:Volumes 1-10,â for the Pleroma Press Music-Thanatology Series.
2006 â "The Vox Feminae: Choosing and Being as Christian Form and Praxis," chapter in Practicing Catholic: Ritual, Body and Contestation in Catholic Faith, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
2007 â "Letting Go: The Paradox of Cultural Competence in End-of-Life Care," article in the "Transitus" column of Explore: the Journal of Science and Healing, (Elsevier Science) Volume 3, Number 2, March 2007.