Does sound actually heal us?
This was written by a fellow sound practitioner/therapist, Thomas Orr Anderson, on a Facebook post. I concur with what he says, with a few additional ideas at the end.
“Does sound actually heal us?
The human organism is actually an innately self-healing system.
The body is already regulating, repairing, adapting, integrating, and reorganizing itself all the time.
In sound therapy, we are not using sound to magically heal the person. We are using sound and vibration to help create conditions in which the person’s own self-healing capacities can operate more freely.
The sounds may help guide attention inward… settle the nervous system… slow the breath… soften muscular holding… reduce stress load. They may help shift the listener-recipient into a state in which their own organism can do what living organisms naturally do:
Regulate… Repair… Reorganize… Heal.
As a practitioner, I begin by asking:
What is this sound doing… to attention… to breath… to nervous system state… to body awareness?
What is it doing to the conditions in which healing becomes more possible?
My entire approach is based on what I call the Self-Healing Principle:
The organism is the healer.
Sound and vibration are supportive tools.
Good sound therapy creates conditions.
The living body does the healing.
I would like to add:
My job is to “hold space” energetically during a session, to be a safe container in which healing can take place. I ensure my energy is coherent (I often use the Heart-centred breathing technique championed by the HeartMath Institute), to create a strong, coherent field around my heart. This field can help entrain the incoherent field of my client (caused by fear, anxiety, grief, unexpressed anger, etc.). Coherence is much stronger than incoherence, meaning that their field gradually becomes more coherent, calmer, steadier, more grounded, just by being in the presence of a coherent field.
In my coherent state, my intuition is heightened. I am guided which sound tools will be most helpful to that person, to induce a deeply relaxed, receptive state. This is the state where change can occur, this is where the magic can happen.
The caveat here is that the client must be ready and willing to let go. If their identity has become their issue or problem (their illness or their victimhood), then the only way to create ongoing change is to be willing to change their identity, see past their traumas. Things like Biofield Tuning, that clear the distortions created by trauma from the field that surrounds the body, can assist someone to clear repeating patterns and reactions to stress. Gradually, their identification with their problems begins to fade and they can start to recognise their body’s innate wisdom to heal, and that they are truly a magnificent being of light and love. We all are.
