Eunmi “Emily” Kwak

Emily  Kwak

is currently working as an affiliated professor at Myungji University, music therapy department in Seoul, South Korea, and a music therapist and a director at Hanvit Music Therapy Clinic. She has a doctoral degree in music therapy from Michigan State University and maintains a private practice while teaching and conducting research. She is also a board-certified music therapist with over 10 years of experience using rhythm in therapeutic settings.

It was in the summer of 2001 that she got attracted drum circle for the first time. Since attending the annual Village Music Circles Playshop in Hawaii that year, she has been fascinated with the power of rhythm and has studied how to apply it for people with various difficulties to improve their own inner power. By participating in several DCF and Health Rhythms workshops, she worked hard to train herself as a facilitator.

Emily is now trying to introduce the concept of drum circle in Korean society. She continuously develops drum circle programs for music therapy students/teachers, physically challenged people, parents of children with disabilities, and adolescents. She especially takes interests in drumming with adolescents at risk, stroke patients, and individuals with CP. The goal of her work as a facilitator is to help people explore their potential, understand each other and have FUN in the process of making sound and playing together in a creative, rhythmical, improvisational and inspirational way.