Member Spotlight

Laura Pawuk

1. What is your personal definition of music therapy?

Music therapy is the integration of music therapy techniques and a therapeutic relationship to heal, enhance and transform the lives of individuals with physical, emotional, cognitive, communication, interpersonal and/or spiritual needs. Music therapy requires a credentialed professional who is trained to create a therapeutic relationship with each person served. Music therapy techniques are based in scientific research and clinical practice and can be adapted for people of all abilities, needs and ages.

2. How long have you been practicing as a music therapist?

I’ve been practicing for nearly fourteen years.

3. Where did you receive your training (university/internship/etc.)?

I earned my equivalency and master’s degree from Western Michigan University. I then moved to Park Ridge for my internship at Lutheran General Hospital with Soozie Cotter-Schaufele.

4. What inspired you to become a music therapist?

As an undergrad at Miami University (Ohio), I studied speech pathology and audiology and piano performance. Through an uncanny series of events, one Saturday morning I found myself far from campus at an assisted living center and observing a music therapy session for the first time. The music therapist and the group of elderly women were literally changing each others’ lives through music. Their transformations from sadness, anxiety and loneliness to peace, joy, and a rich sense of kindred belonging were palpable, profound and deeply moving. In those moments music therapy found me, and there was no question that it would become my life work.

5. Where do you currently work?

I work full-time for Rainbow Hospice, both on the inpatient unit and in the community traveling to the homes and nursing homes where our patents and families live. My work with Rainbow also extends to collaborating with volunteers and field-team members as well as colleagues in the departments of bereavement, marketing and philanthropy. The Good Mourning program keeps me busy as I provide music therapy at annual events and quarterly memorial services while offering occasional bereavement groups.

I also teach seminars in the Honors College at the University of Illinois-Chicago that focus on music therapy and music medicine. We engage in many experientials, readings, and case studies that prove to be mind and heart-opening experiences for students, many of whom will become physicians and other healthcare-related professionals.

My private practice includes working with an older couple that’s navigating the world of Alzheimer’s disease.

6. What is a typical workday like for you?

There’s no typical day, but generally I’m offering music therapy one patient and family at a time at our inpatient unit or visiting people in their homes and nursing homes. I’m constantly charting and checking in with colleagues and volunteers. I’m also planning future music therapy visits and bereavement events, teaching and grading papers. And, I must mention driving. Have harp – will drive!

7. What is your primary instrument? Preferred instrument in therapy sessions?

I’m a pianist. In music therapy sessions, I pair my voice with either a double-stringed lap harp or a lever harp. Sometimes I play guitar instead.

8. What is your favorite part of being a music therapist?

What I love most is creating patient and family-specific music therapy techniques and witnessing the many profound ways, both expected and unexpected, in which individuals and their caregivers heal, transform and express their most authentic selves.