About Sound Therapy
What is Sound Therapy?
In my sound therapy practice I work with gongs, drums, rattles, chimes & other instruments to guide you into a state of deep relaxation. We experience sound not only through hearing but through tactile physical vibrations and frequencies, and the gong has the power, when played well, to quieten the mind & overcome its hold upon consciousness.
A review of 400 published scientific articles on sound found strong evidence that sound has mental and physical health benefits in improving mood and reducing stress. One study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine found that an hour long sound meditation helped reduce tension, anger, fatigue, anxiety, and depression while increasing a sense of spiritual well-being.
How does Sound Therapy work?
Another theory on the benefits of sound rests on the concept of “binaural beats” or “brain entrainment” which hypothesizes that listening to certain frequencies can synchronize and change one's brainwaves. Electrical activity in the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves, or rhythmic, repetitive frequencies. There are four categories of brainwaves, which range from frequencies that occur during the most activity during our normal waking state (beta) to the least activity (delta), achieved during a deep meditative state. Different states of alertness and consciousness generate varying frequencies of brainwaves. The premise of binaural beats is that the brain synchronizes its brainwave frequency which can lead one to states of deep relaxation associated with beta waves or meditative trance-like theta waves.
What to expect
After an introduction, participants sit or recline close to the gongs and other sound healing instruments played by the therapist. The sound waves generated by the gongs and other instruments interact with the body to promote physical and mental relaxation and helping to restore balance and harmony in the mind, body, and spirit. Studies have shown that the frequencies produced by the gong can slow down the mind and bring it into a deeper, slower state of vibration. This can help reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and promote overall wellbeing. The sound will ebb and flow during the session, increasing and decreasing in volume, interspersed with short periods of silence.