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What You Need To Know About Sound Healing

Updated: Apr 7, 2022



Given that everything has a vibrational frequency, including ourselves, it makes sense that sound frequencies impact how we feel. That's why particular songs and types of music often bring about specific types of emotions from us. Sound healing, which is an ancient healing technique that uses tonal frequencies to bring the body into a state of vibrational balance and harmony, plays upon this as well.


Healing with sound dates back as far as ancient Greece.


  • Apollo was the god of music and medicine.

  • Aesculapius cured mental disorders with songs.

  • The philosophers Plato and Aristotle claimed that music affected the soul and the emotions. Hippocrates played music for his patients, too.

  • In Ancient Egypt, music therapy was a staple in temples.

  • In biblical times, instruments were used to vanquish evil spirits from human souls.

  • Native American culture uses song and dance to heal the sick. Instances of sound healing therapy are limitless.

  • Fast forward a few centuries to the 1940s, when the United States military incorporated music into their programs for the recuperation of army personnel during World War II. This is often described as the official dawn of music therapy.


Today it is used in all aspects of medicine and spiritual growth. While it is still considered an alternative to modern medicine, scores of evidence suggest that it is effective — and necessary — to our emotional and psychological health.


How does it work?

Usually during a sound healing session, also known as a sound bath, you'll typically lie down on the floor or a yoga mat, perhaps cuddle up with a cozy blanket, and simply listen up as a practitioner plays a variety of instruments and you "bathe" in the soothing sounds and vibrations. However, healing with sound happens in a number of ways. Patients listen or sing along, improvise musical acts, meditate, chant, and play musical instruments. Some practitioners subject the patient to specifically crafted sounds to induce positive brainwaves.


Sound healing therapy improves many facets of the patient’s life, including emotional and social development, cognitive and motor functioning, and psychological and psychiatric health. You can read more about the latest study here.


What is it like?

A sound therapy treatment is both a passive and participatory experience. The passive aspect is that you become more relaxed by laying down and slowing your breath. By doing this, you prepare yourself to become the receiver of sound. It's in this place of stillness that you participate by becoming more open and aware of each sound that comes in. Sound helps create the pathway to this place of stillness the same as a mantra helps you to arrive at the still point of meditation.

Some of the tools I use are voice, drumming, tuning forks, gong, crystal bowls, Himalayan singing bowls and among other instruments. It's important to note that awareness plays a huge role in our own healing. I find that vocal toning is an incredibly powerful practice that gives us the ability to fine-tune our greatest vibrational instrument: our own body. I always encourage clients to incorporate simple, but effective breathing exercises and vocal toning exercises in their daily routine, to help bring a greater sense of balance into their lives.


How do we define the energetic body?

Sound not only helps with inducing relaxation, but also has a way of moving through areas of blockage. These energetic blockage areas can be located in our physical bodies, our subtle bodies, or both. The physical body is where we experience localized pain and discomfort.

Our "subtle body" is our energetic body. This body is where our life force energy exists, commonly referred to as Qi, Chi or prana. In Chinese medicine, meridian points are used to pinpoint areas that have restricted energetic flow to our physical and subtle bodies. The body is known to have thousands of these meridian lines that are mapped out through the body, in the same way we've mapped out the latitude and longitude of the earth.


The subtle body holds imbalances and traumas that can eventually manifest in our physical bodies, which is why it's important to look at healing and balance not only from a physical perspective, but as a complete holistic experience that includes mind, body and spirit. Sound has the ability to positively affect our whole being.


What can sound heal?

Using sound as therapy can provide results for a variety of issues including:

  • Autism

  • Depression

  • Learning disabilities

  • Stress

  • PTSD

  • PainSleep disorders

  • Anxiety

  • Pain management

It can also bring about:

  • Clarity and balance

  • Relaxation

  • Improved memory and concentration

  • Improved sleep

  • A stronger immune system

  • Improved creativity

  • Heightened awareness, both of the self and the environment


Sound healing requires more research to be fully understood.


What is fact, though, is that those who try it are in support of it and that no one can argue with the power of music. Whether you are looking for an alternative method of healing to coincide with traditional medicine, or are simply looking for a new way to relax, recuperate, and rejuvenate your mind, sound healing has so many possibilities that you are guaranteed to find something that suits you (even if it is only recreational). Sound therapy is even more effective when used in conjunction with meditation. All music can be used for sound healing therapy. You don’t have to pay large sums of money to harness the power of sounds and music. Next time you need a “pick me up,” a boost, or even a vent, put your favorite playlist on. You will notice the change in your mood instantly.


Interested in a sound bath experience, feel free to contact me to schedule your appointment.

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