Tom Sweitzer – MTT, MT-BC – Tom is Co-Founder, Creative Director, and Head of Music Therapy at A Place to Be, a non-profit organization serving over 300 families weekly, offering music therapy in Northern Virginia. Tom holds a B.F.A. in Music Theater, a Graduate Certificate in Music Therapy from Shenandoah University and a master’s in music therapy from Berklee College of Music. Tom has created several therapeutic musical productions that focus on acceptance, diversity and empathy that tour schools and have been performed regionally. His Rock Opera about Suicide prevention, A Will to Survive, performed at the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center and several of his other musicals have toured in front of hundreds of thousands of students. He is an author in Renee Flemings book Music and Mind, published through Viking/ Penguin- Random House and has his own memoir coming out summer 2024, 20 Seconds- A true- life struggle to find freedom and love.  

Tom received the title Loudoun County Humanitarian of the Year in 2014 and in that same year was invited as a guest to the White House for his work with disabilities. A Place to Be and Tom was awarded “Best Music Therapy Provider of the Year” by the American Music Therapy Association in June 2017. In 2019 he won the Blair County Arts Hall of Fame Award. Throughout Covid he facilitated a nation-wide on-line support group featured both on NPR and ABC news. Tom is a subject of the documentary, “Music Got Me Here,” along with one of his hero, Forrest Allen, a young man with Traumatic Brain Injury who found his voice and courage through Music Therapy. “Music Got Me Here” can be streamed on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. The Hollywood “narrative” film of “Music got Me Here,” is in development with Producer, MGM’s Irwin Wrinkler, and “Bend it like Beckham’s,” Director Gurinder Chadha, starring Netflix’s “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes as Forrest. Tom’s role will be announced Fall/ Winter 2023.

Tom’s one-man shown “20 Seconds,” about his childhood had a rousing and successful run at Signature Theater, Off-Broadway in New York, 2023. Tom is dedicated in growing A Place to Be and its mission to help people face, navigate, and overcome life’s challenges through Music Therapy, Expressive Arts, and Performance. He enjoys inspiring, entertaining, and educating while presenting in front of audiences as an Actor, Thought Leader and Music Therapist.