HAVERFORD — Music wafts from a room, along with the sound of hollow sticks tapping, feet dancing and giggles of delight. It’s a midweek music therapy class at Havertown’s MusicWorks and participants, ages 3-6, on this particular day, couldn’t look or sound any happier.
MusicWorks is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year of providing music therapy services to restore, improve and maintain the quality of life of all individuals throughout the Delaware Valley who are challenged by autism, special needs, illness or aging.
The nonprofit MusicWorks provides clinical and evidence-based music services to individuals from 1 to 99 years old at its treatment centers in Havertown at 2050 West Chester Pike, and in Hatboro at 472 Blair Mill Road, as well as community living arrangements, assisted living facilities, schools and summer camps.
Owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Jerry and Lori O’Leary, and governed by a 10-member board of directors, MusicWorks is the first music therapy service provider in the country to be credentialed by Magellan Behavioral Health.
At MusicWorks Havertown and Hatboro treatment centers, clients are given a pre-assessment so they are placed in the session that will help them the most and goals are set up.
“We track progress every step of the way,” Lori explained. “Every session is documented and progress toward goals is noted.”
Sessions for children, teens and adults are held during the day and evenings. Using a variety of instruments and proven therapeutic techniques, sessions treat depression, social anxiety, social phobias and many other issues. Goals include interacting with adults and peers, learning socialization skills, communication, improving gross motor skills, focusing and attention, sharing and more. A variety of clients benefit from the sessions at MusicWorks, including those who have autism, Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.Parents and caregivers often stay in the room during the once-per-week sessions so they can learn the routines and practice them at home. Parents also serve as cheerleaders and aides for teaching music skills by offering hand-over-hand guidance.
If the O’Learys feel like music therapy would benefit a client, they try their best to figure out a way to help the client afford services, including scholarships. For clients who reside in Philadelphia and Chester Counties, MusicWorks can offer financial assistance if the family qualifies.
MusicWorks writes grants to help families in these counties as well as to provide financial support assistance to anyone 21 and older in all five counties if they qualify for the program.
“We can accept Medical Assistance for individuals ages one to 21 in Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks Counties,” Lori explained.
“We have been providers since 2009. Our Havertown and Hatboro locations have been open through COVID since October 2, 2020, and accepting new clients,” Lori stated, proudly. “Over COVID, 42% of music therapy agencies like ours stopped servicing clients or closed, but luckily we survived and we are thriving again. MusicWorks received two rounds of PPP, local and regional COVID grants, and general operating support grants from foundations. Our Board Chair, Glenn Marshall, CEO of First Resource Bank helped guide MusicWorks through these challenging times.”
For the past two decades, Jerry and Lori have worked together as a team to build a successful nonprofit and help their community in many ways. The couple has been married for 30 years and has two children: Patrick, 24 and Mariel, 17. They met in 1987 when Lori’s brother was getting married at St. Denis Church in Havertown. Lori was in the wedding party and Jerry was the wedding singer. Four years later in 1991, Jerry and Lori themselves were standing at the altar in St. Denis Church exchanging vows.
Lori grew up in Long Island, New York. She attended Woodmere Academy in Nassau County, New York and then earned a Biology and Chemistry degree at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Jerry’s career history includes working as a credit analyst, lending officer and commercial development director for Meridian Bank and working in the theatre department at Rosemont College. Lori worked for a decade at Franklin Mint in Middletown Township, where she supervised marketing, new product development, artist relations and licensing divisions, until its closing in 2002.
Jerry was always musical. He lived in Philadelphia, but moved with his family to Havertown in 1967, transferring from West Catholic to Archbishop Carroll from where he graduated in 1971. He went on to study Management and Marketing at St. Joseph’s University and then earned a Master’s in Music Therapy from Immaculata University.
When Jerry was in high school, he played guitar, bass guitar and vocals and was involved in a folk band and musical theatre. He also played music for veterans groups, patients and others and observed the positive effect of the music he played.
“One day I found out that I can get a degree in this and get paid for something I love to do and I was just amazed,” Jerry smiled.
He continued playing in wedding bands. Jerry also played all over the Delaware Valley as part of an Irish duo, “Scanlin and O’Leary.” Jerry played guitar and Jimmie Scanlin played banjo. “We always had work, living in Havertown, ‘the 33rd County of Ireland,” Jerry joked.
When Lori found out she would lose her job at Franklin Mint in 2002 when it closed, she began dreaming with Jerry about opening MusicWorks.
“I’m a big planner,” Lori said, “so I decided now was the time to take this leap. I had just had my first kid and some people thought I was crazy to start a business at this time, but we knew there was a need for it and the time and circumstances were right.”
The couple remembers sitting in a diner and Jerry drew the MusicWorks logo on a napkin and the rest is history.
The couple’s first client came from COSA’s Seniors in Home program when COSA was under the leadership of Louis Colbert. From there, clients came from Aging and Adult Services in Montgomery County and Chester County Department of Aging Services.
One day, Lori said, she was attending a COSA Fair at Merry Place in Havertown. A mother had her 26-year-old son with intellectual disabilities with her and asked why MusicWorks was not providing therapy for this population.
“We went to Monsignor Joe Marino, then-pastor of St. Denis, and asked him if we could use the Grimes Center for this purpose,” Lori remembers.
The O’Learys not only used space at St. Denis to help their music therapy clients but from 2004-2011, they also rented spare at Saint Mary Magdalen, Notre Dame deLourdes and Our Lady of Assumption in Wayne.By this time, their client list was growing rapidly and they brought in more board-certified music therapists. The therapists had to transport chairs, musical instruments, equipment and other items to these rented spaces for each session so the O’Leary’s began hunting for a permanent space. They found one in Havertown where they relocated MusicWorks in 2011 and have been at the location ever since. The handicapped-accessible location offers two full-sized treatment rooms, a spacious parking lot, and room to grow.
MusicWorks is now serving 792 clients per week in sessions, Monday through Saturday. MusicWorks offers music therapy services to individuals, at school-based programs, group homes and to nonprofits like Elwyn, Life Path, KenCrest, Communities of Don Guanella, Horizon and CADES.
The team at MusicWorks also works in schools, including the Overbrook School For The Blind, St. Katherine Day School in Wynnewood, Our Lady of Confidence in Willow Grove, schools in the Hatboro-Horsham School District and schools through the Delaware County Intermediate Unit.
MusicWorks now employs ten board-certified full and part-time therapists, and administrative staff. The couple says they’re able to hire “the best of the best” because three universities in the Philadelphia area are now offering Music Therapy as a major and Drexel and Temple even offer PhD programs in music therapy.
“This area is a hotbed for music therapy, so we are able to recruit really great music therapists to our program, Jerry said.
While Jerry oversees the musical direction of the programs, co-founder Lori handles the marketing, public relations and strategic and financial planning at MusicWorks. She also spearheads all business development and fundraising efforts for the agency. Together, they also serve on the nonprofit’s board of directors, alongside of other board members, Diane Barber, Brenda Duska, Linda Hohn, Wendy Jershky, Dan Mansmann, Bridget Moran, Jennifer Pruski and chairman Glenn Marshall.
This spring, MusicWorks held a well-attended Roaring 20’s – 20th Anniversary Gala at DiFabio’s Spring Valley in Springfield to celebrate the nonprofit’s 20 years of success. Whether working with an individual at one of their two treatment centers, a community center, adult day center, special needs school, religious community or assisted living community, the O’Learys touch clients’ lives through music and positive interaction.
“We see the improvement as our clients delight in the wonders of music,” Jerry said. “Lori and I established MusicWorks in 2002 to provide music therapy services to individuals of all ages in the Delaware Valley who have challenges. “We are proud of the way we have grown, and continue to grow, and of all those that we have helped along the way.”
To learn more about MusicWorks’ music therapy programs for children, adults and seniors, call 610-449-9669 or visit https://musicworkswonders.org/
.