Sophie’s Place was established in loving memory of singer, songwriter, and friend, Sophie Barton, who passed at a young age after years of playing music for pediatric patients at a local pediatric hospital. These dedicated music therapy spaces are built-in children’s hospitals that treat young people suffering from pain, chronic illness, and serious injury.
First established in 2013 at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah by football legend Steve Young and his Forever Young Foundation, these healing spaces currently provide music therapy to children at multiple children’s hospitals across the country and many more locations will soon break ground, including in Reno, NV at the Renown Children’s Hospital. Opening in 2022, this space will be a welcome addition to the healing environment for pediatric patients.
Sophie’s Place will provide patients and their families a place to get away from the often stressful environment of their hospital room, and instead offer a musical escape where kids and their families can experience music in unlimited ways. Children have the opportunity for choice, control, and expression in the hospital where choice is often limited. They will be able to have some relief and diversion from long hours or sometimes days and weeks of waiting for updates, results, and progress. And most importantly it provides a physical space to build a community, create new friendships, and receive support when patients need it the most.
Music therapists facilitate musical experiences for patients and their families. Therapeutic activities can include performances, songwriting, instrument play, singing, and dancing. While these activities may seem purely musical and routine, music therapists focus on the goals that are accomplished in the process, such as reduced pain or anxiety, sensorimotor rehabilitation, speech, social connection, self-confidence, communication, and relaxation. These goals support medical treatments and improve patient outcomes.