FAQ's- Everything You Need to Know About Sound Healing

There is a large following and deep curiosity about Sound Healing, more specifically Sound Bath sessions. We are seeing the media including articles in national newspapers, magazines, and events across social media raising awareness of this powerful tool. For a trained Sound Healing Practitioner or Sound Healing Therapist non traditional instruments like quartz crystal singing bowls, Himalayan bowls, tuning forks and even gongs are used in a therapeutic way to facilitate outcomes for health and wellbeing.

“With the capacity to slow down your respiratory rate, relax your brainwaves patterns, lower your heart rate variability and calm your nervous system, sound healing is at the cutting edge of healing along with meditation and yoga. It’s non-invasive and can be inexpensive and social.” - Well Doing

Sound healing can reduce your stress and anxiety, improve your sleep, create a deep sense of wellbeing, and promote healing that goes well beyond simple relaxation. Participants with conditions such as Parkinson’s are benefitting, as are the elderly, and those with PTSD and other mental health difficulties.

How Does Sound Healing Work?

Loaded question but here is the short explanation and something you may have heard before… but bare with me!

Almost everything we experience in the universe is simply our perception of waves. We all know that according to the law of physics everything in the universe vibrates and if it vibrate it has a frequency. Everything, from human beings, the device you are reading this from, your hair, skin, organs all have their own frequency, also known as its natural resonance.

When sound waves reach our ears, they are converted into electrical signals that travel up the auditory nerve into the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sound. But it is not just through our ears that we take in frequency from the environment, it is also through our skin. Once the signal reaches our brain it trigger various responses in our bodies.

Stress, environmental factors, internal dialog, what you eat can all affect the signal but also give their own vibratory signal. This process can altar our emotions, and release hormones. Working with frequencies can bring your body back into healthy vibration. In neurological studies, it has been proven that certain sounds and music can help us be more productive and creative, as well as relieve stress and improve our mental and emotional state. Much of this is due to our brains being flooded with dopamine after a trained Sound Healer/Sound Practitioner have facilitated. These sessions also release oxytocin which is a natural painkiller, and is a hormone that allows us to bond with others.

Sound Healing Practitioners and Therapist use vibratory instruments to induce the relaxation response. When we can support someone in achieving a state of deep relaxation there are a cascade of biological and biological and physiological effects that take place.biological and physiological effects that take place.biological and physiological effects that take place.

There is research on the affects of crystal singing bowls, Himalayan bowls, drums, and gongs in which the findings show they produce a wide range of frequencies, which you not only hear but also experience at a physiological level. Human bodies are 70% water which makes for great conductors of sound, so when you have a sound healing session or a sound bath, the frequencies have the potential to correct imbalances of dense stuck energy deep down at a cellular level.

These highly vibratory instruments promote relaxation and raising consciousness. When your brainwaves are out of balance you will experience corresponding mental, emotional and physical health challenges. Over or under arousal of the brain is linked with problems like anxiety disorders, sleep difficulties, hyper-vigilance, anger, depression, and migraines to name just a few. 

A trained Sound Healing Facilitator uses these highly vibratory instruments to shift brainwaves states from Beta waves, which dominate your waking state and take up a lot of your energy, into Alpha waves, a nice resting state, to Theta waves, where you go deeper into relaxation and meditation, and might access and process subconscious memories or worries, to the low frequency of Delta waves, where profound healing can occur. 

Where does sound healing come from?

I get this question a lot as well!

Sound healing isn’t new. Sound Healing is more of an umbrella term for ancient healing practices all over the world, both spiritual in nature, and not spiritual. Many Eastern spiritual traditions use these instruments for ceremony and healing thousand of years ago. Sound Healing practices span over every continent and continent and culture, and so it is the responsibility of the practitioner to not only know the practical application of the instruments in our modern day, but also maintain the integrity and ethic of the practice from what if came.

It is worth mentioning that we may also categorize ultrasound and frequency therapy as an accepted and frequently medical intervention. While a Sound Healing Practitioner, Therapist, or Facilitator may not use these interventions, it is using vibration and frequency as a tool for healing.

How can I become a Sound Healing Practitioner?

You want to do your homework on who will be the best teach for you and your goals. Here are SoundEmbrace, we offer a FREE Consultation call to answer all your questions about the industry and advise on whether or or not a single class or full certification is best for your goals. The SoundEmbrace Sound Healing Certification Program is robust. You will not only the history, practical application, and science, you will also be mentored and be supported through business and marketing classes so that you have a realistic foundation to launch from when you complete the 4 month program.

Can’t anyone buy and play a these instruments?

You are absolutely right! On one hand, this is a good thing! On the other, well, if you don’t know what you are doing you can certainly cause more harm than good!

On the good side of it, these instruments are relatively accessible to start a self meditation practice. This is helpful in finding self empowerment for yourself and creating that time to learn to self regulation.

On the other hand, I still recommend that there is some training for the beginner. You may have immense detox symptoms and need to be able to know what these are and how to prep your nervous system to handle the vibration.

There’s no governing body for Sound Healing to maintain standards of best practices and ethics. There are many programs, classes, workshops, and “Certification Programs” popping up all over the place without any real validity, extended knowledge in the practice of health, coaching, or trauma. And good intentions are really only that. Good intentions. If you do not have extensive training you really don’t know what responsibility you really have as someone facilitating this work.

What can Sound Therapy help with?

Sound Therapy has been shown to have positive outcomes and support:

“Through the process of entrainment, sound can transform negative, repressed emotions into a state of psychological equanimity that has direct and immediate effects on our physiology. Sonic entrainment can also restore harmony between our innermost selves— our essence— and the universe, thus reawakening our spiritual connection.”— Mitchel Gaynor

What should I bring to a sound bath session?

Please bring anything that will support you in laying down for the duration of the session.

• Items may include a yoga mat, pillow, eye mask, and blanket.

• Dressing comfortably will also support you in becoming more relaxed during the session.

• Participants often feel thirsty after a sound bath session, so feel free to bring water.

Who should NOT do Sound Therapy?

You should not have a sound therapy session if you are in the first trimester of pregnancy, or have thrombosis.  In person sound bath sessions may produce monaural beats, while virtual experiences may produce binaural beats, so it is recommended to consult your doctor if you are prone to seizures. Please let your practitioner know if you have a pace maker or any other device.

Types of Sound Healing Therapy

There are various and numerous types of music therapy out there. Some are more scientific, while others are more spiritual. The list below is thanks to Mind Valley, Writer Irina Yugay. The common ground for all of these practices is in which these sounds are the basis of healing and development

Bonny method

This method of music therapy involves not only sound but guided imagery. It is most commonly used to assist patients who struggle with physiological and psychological problems.

Music is used alongside pictures, which the patient is made to focus on before discussing the issues they might have in that moment.

Dalcroze method

Also known as Dalcroze Eurythmics, this is a technique used to teach music to students as a form of therapy. It focuses on rhythm and expression as part of learning and development.

It increases awareness, and therefore significantly improves motor and cognitive functions.

Mantra/guided meditation

Of course, we can’t leave out good old meditation.

Let’s not forget that the voice is an instrument and that if you are using your voice in your meditations, you are practicing DIY sound therapy healing.

Meditation has many health, neurological, and psychological benefits. Chanting as you meditate, or saying certain mantras or prayers, improves sleep, lowers blood pressure, improves our mood, breathing and circulation, calms the mind, and reduces stress.

The same applies to guided meditations, in which you meditate according to voiced instruction.

If you are looking for a perfect guided meditation, Vishen Lakhiani leads an outstanding one in this video below:

6 Phase Guided Binaural Beats Meditation | Vishen Lakhiani

Neurologic music therapy

Neurologic Music Therapy is based on neuroscience and proposes that the enjoyment and creation of music has a positive influence on the brain. It uses music as a tool that alters the brain to invoke changes in the patient. This benefits both the mood and cognitive and motor functions.

Nordoff-Robbins

The Nordoff-Robbins technique is mostly aimed at children with developmental disabilities, such as autism, learning difficulties, mental and psychological disorders, or emotional traumas.

This method functions under the assumption that every single one of us can find meaning (and therefore healing) in music, and teaches patients to create music as a form of therapy.

Root frequency entrainment

Root Frequency Entrainment is a practice that comes with the belief that our souls have certain frequencies at which they function at full capacity, but that the noise and chaos of the world interfere with these frequencies, making us sick and throwing our moods out of balance. To restore that balance, we must vibrate at our original frequencies — something that is easily achieved with sound healing.

Singing bowl therapy

Dating back as far as the 12th century, singing bowls have been used throughout Asia for meditation, ritual, and ceremonial purposes. The sound produced by these metallic bowls is quite similar to a gong or a bell.

Used in sound healing therapy, singing bowls are believed to calm and repair the mind as well as reduce stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure, improve breathing and circulation, alleviate aches and pains, strengthen the immune system, and improve the mood of the patient.

Tuning fork therapy

Just as with musical instruments, tuning fork sound healing therapy puts our body-soul dynamic back in sync using calibrated tuning forks that are applied to specific points on the body. Picture this as being similar to acupuncture without the pins.

These forks will apply specific vibrations to certain areas of the body, which is said to release tension and open blocked energy. This type of healing with sound brings emotional balance and pain relief.

Vibroacoustic therapy

VAT applies sound directly to the body. The patient is laid down on a special bed. Speakers are strategically placed around the bed so that sounds and vibrations will penetrate the patient on a deep cellular level. Vibroacoustic therapy assists patients recovering from injuries, cancer, and even strokes.