What began with a donated guitar and a simple question has grown into a meaningful way to bring whole-person care to behavioral health patients.
When Daniel Sietman joined UChicago Medicine AdventHealth GlenOaks as a chaplain resident in June of 2023, there was nothing in the job description about singing and playing music. But after meeting with Chaplain Renante Gomez, chapel manager at the time, that quickly changed.
While being shown the office he was going to use, Sietman noticed a guitar in the room. Gomez told him it had been donated and asked Sietman if he played the guitar.
“I said yes, I do,” recalls Sietman. “He told me, ‘Well, we’d love to have you play it.’”
That was the humble beginning of what turned into the Clinical Pastoral Music Group (CPMG) in which Sietman plays the guitar and sings to foster spiritual engagement and encourage wellness through weekly 30-minute group encounters.
“I had plenty of theological training and a whole lot of life experience, but I’d never done anything remotely close to this, so we just sort of made it up as we went along,” says Sietman, a self-taught guitarist. Sietman began CPMG sessions in July 2023 in the Geriatric Treatment Unit at the hospital. With a positive reception by patients and staff, the program expanded in 2025 to include other Behavioral Health Units in Hinsdale, Bolingbrook and the outpatient clinic in Westmont, Illinois.
“What I’m trying to do is create a space for spiritual experience and healing,” says Sietman.
He does that using a variety of themes, including recovery, redemption, self-reflection, worship, catharsis, encouragement, introspection and even humor, using an eclectic mix of musical genres.
“I’ve had people rolling on the floor, laughing so hard that they could hardly get up.”
One of the clearest signs of the CPMG’s impact came months after a patient had left UChicago Medicine AdventHealth GlenOaks.
In the spring of 2025, Sietman stopped at the grocery store to pick up an order when the person loading the bags asked, “Are you the chaplain who sings?” After Sietman said yes, the man shared that he had been a patient at the GlenOaks hospital two months earlier.
“He told me, ‘You came in and sang and that was probably the turning point of my experience there. What you did really, really helped me. When I need to process, I grab some music. I now have an apartment, a girlfriend and a job.’”
Moments like that remind Sietman why the work matters — and why whole-person care reaches far beyond a hospital stay.
Keith Hartenberger is senior manager for external communications at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth.