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Music to Your Ears: A Place to Be Touches Lives with Music Therapy

Music speaks a universal language. From a catchy melody to a dynamic guitar riff or powerful drum solo, music has the undeniable power not only to make people feel, but also understand.

A Place to Be, a nonprofit based in Middleburg with a second outpost in Leesburg, harnesses this unique power in the form of music therapy, working with children and adults of varying backgrounds and abilities to help complete their goals.

“The formal definition of music therapy is ‘the clinical and evidence-based use of music for clinical goals and objectives,’” said Kim Tapper, co-founder and executive director of A Place to Be. “But really, we say we use the ‘power’ of music and all the components – from rhythm, melody, tone, intonation and lyric analysis – and we help people with a wide variety of goals and objectives: from self-expression to speech and communication, or processing issues and other cognitive issues like memory.”

Striking the Right Chord with Music Therapy Programs

With hundreds of clients from around Virginia coming through the doors of A Place to Be every year, it is expected that no two individuals’ needs are the same. With that in mind, unique and intentionally tailored sessions are a must.

A Place to Be provides several program offerings, all led by board-certified music therapists and clinical team members.

Individual music therapy sessions offer 45 minutes of face-to-face therapy tailored to the client’s specific goals, providing engagement in activities like songwriting, instrument playing or lyric analysis.

Additionally, A Place to Be offers several different music-based social groups catering to specific age ranges: middle school, high school and young adult. Topics of focus differ based on placement in specific programs but include coping tools and resilience building, social-emotional skill building, self-expression and communication and friendship-making.

Group programs also take the form of summer camps, where participants can blend the benefits of music therapy with teamwork when creating and performing as a band, or even experience nature while they create, combining music therapy within a traditional camp setting.

Showstopping Performance Programs

The value of music can be integrated beyond the traditional therapeutic setting by bringing the impact to the stage. A Place to Be highly values its client’s recitals, musical productions and touring for therapeutic benefits.

“There is power in the performance itself for the client performers, because they’re working on executive functioning skills, collaboration, skills, flexibility and adapting to all of the various changing elements that go on while putting a show together,” Tapper said. “So, within the production itself, the clients are actually working a lot of their therapeutic goals.”

Outside of participants working on their independent therapeutic goals, the aspect of performance within A Place to Be’s programs benefits participants on an inclusive level.

“Performance bridges the gap of representation in this world today, to participate in sort of a space of visibility,” Tapper said. “We think performance is a really powerful way to have folks not only have that platform, but to have that moment of feeling like someone big in this world.”

Along with providing much-needed representation for the show’s participants, every show put on by A Place to Be covers topics that are centered on shifting the perspectives people hold of one another. Topics range from friendship, resilience and mental wellness to tolerance and acceptance of those with differences from yourself.

Several performances even go beyond the doors of A Place to Be through partnerships with public schools nationwide. With its touring productions, these shows convey these vital messages not only to the performers, but also to the audience.

Finding A Place to Belong

A common theme across its many programs and performance opportunities, A Place to Be strives to provide community, belonging and hope to everyone who comes through its doors.

“You can attend all sorts of things in this world and not feel like you belong,” Tapper said. “I think that we’ve got an incredible staff here; everyone’s ingrained in the sense of what it takes to create that space of belonging.”

With a goal that nobody should have a barrier from participating in something as impactful as music and performance, A Place to Be offers needs-based financial assistance to those interested in its services.

“There’s not one person here that sees somebody for their diagnosis, or for their exact reason that they needed A Place to Be in the first place,” Tapper said. “We find the gold inside of a person – who they want to be and what we can do to help them become their best self.”

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