Lauren DiMaio, PhD, MT-BC
Assistant Professor of Music
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Academic Area: Music Therapy
Contact
Phone: (940) 898-2494
Email: ldimaio@twu.edu
Degrees
PhD in Music Therapy, Temple University
Master of Music Therapy, Temple University
BM in Music Therapy, Berklee College of Music
Profile
In a space that is meant to highlight the accomplishments of Dr. Lauren Patrick DiMaio (she/her/hers), who has been a music therapist for 21 years, it is important to first acknowledge the various dimensions of success. Success can be defined through the number of performances and publications or it can be viewed in the ways she has helped people through music. Educationally, Lauren completed her degrees in music therapy from Berklee College of Music and Temple University. Academically, she has published and presented numerously on her areas of expertise: End of life music therapy, Bereavement music therapy and most currently Ethical thinking in music therapy education. Lauren is presently the President-Elect of the Southwestern Region of the American Music Therapy Association.
More importantly, Lauren is proud of her clinical work as a music therapist. During her undergraduate experience, she discovered her passion to use music experiences to help people who were dying. As a senior, she volunteered at the local palliative care unit in the evening.
Success for Lauren occurred when she was invited to her first choice in music therapy internship, a hospice in the mountains of North Carolina. Moments of victory happened when she learned how to lead a grief group and when she was asked to sing a song at a favorite client’s funeral. Other moments of achievement happened when she learned to say, “I’m sorry. What I just said isn’t what I meant.”
She worked at a state facility for adults with severe and profound developmental delays and at a hospital. Having never dreamed of working at such facilities, her success came as she learned to facilitate group and individual sessions with people who could actively participate in small ways. Success was learning to ask for help, advocating for people who could not speak and learning how to take care of herself. She was able to ease the pain of a person with a gunshot wound and she accompanied a client who sang about her body in a way that showed compassion and kindness.
When she finally found her way back to hospice (her passion) she was honored to be the last sound of many people. She has cried with clients, laughed with them and laughed at herself. She became the head of the bereavement program and advocated hiring more music therapists. She also created and lead a grief choir for 3years. Her dissertation was a sequential mixed methods RCT and Phenomenological study on the effects and perceptions of a grief choir.
Lauren was an internship director for 12 years and from that experience discovered her love of working with students. Being with students is one of the main reasons she transitioned from clinical work to academic work. This coming fall will be her 6th year in music therapy academics. Success now revolves around being a compassionate, inspiring and ethical professor.
Page last updated 3:00 PM, February 20, 2024