The REAL Healing Power of Sound
by Janie Everett |
I’m Janie, a sound practitioner and neuroscience coach who specialises in delivering transformative sound spaces designed to support personal development, emotional well-being and self-inquiry. I have a particular interest in the impact of sound therapy on PTSD, anxiety, depression and neurodivergence, and have spent eight years in practice exploring these and associated experiences.
Let’s talk about Sound Healing.
As a sound practitioner, I know that sound and frequency are brilliant resources for managing stress, anxiety and the wild rollercoaster of our emotions, whether they’re related to life’s daily grind, traumatic events, or seasonal swings.
As a forty-something woman navigating a messy front end of perimenopause, I experience first-hand every day what an incredibly positive support the right sounds can be in my experience of hormonal dissonance.
The word ‘healing’ can feel like a pretty major trigger, especially when just getting from one end of the day to the other without a rage spiral feels like too much. But don’t run for the hills - there’s some serious science and immediate mental and emotional benefits available through this most ancient, and yet fiercely contemporary of modalities.
What is Sound Healing?
Technically speaking, sound healing is the practice of bringing the body into its natural homeostasis or individual harmony by immersing it in sound waves.
I often counter this by adding that sound therapy - similar but not the same - is about utilising specific frequencies to positively impact and restore resonance in all the layers of the body. This includes not just the blood, bones and textures of the physical form, but also the corridors of the mind, and the many complex threads of the nervous system.
Perhaps an even more useful shorthand that I use all the time in my sound sessions may make it a little easier to nail the concept: sound healing is meditation for people who can’t meditate.
So what happens in a sound bath?
First of all - no swimwear required. You’d be surprised how much I get asked this! (Although experiencing a sound bath whilst floating on a lilo in a pool is now definitely a thing and one I highly recommend for a sonic experience that packs an extra punch).
All you have to do is show up, which makes this one of the easier wellness support tools to access. Most sound baths - which you may also see advertised as a sound immersion, sound journey, gong bath or my current copy of choice - sound odyssey, simply ask you to turn your phone off and lie down. Often under a cosy blanket, in a warm room with low lighting. Delicious.
Sounds are generally played acoustically but sometimes with some digital and recorded elements, using instruments including gongs, the metal singing bowls you might have seen on your distant gap year in India or in that pricey store in Ibiza, or crystal sound bowls, which you will very likely have clocked in your local yoga studio as they are having a ZEITGEIST.
Other instruments can vary enormously and may include all kinds of drums, flutes, harps, rattles, wind chimes, a whole range of curious unidentifiable instruments from far-flung places, and the voice - the original instrument that we can all play.
As the sounds are played and woven together you’ll likely experience a couple of outcomes. Physically, people often report a sensation of leaving their body entirely, and a lightness and disconnection from the trials, tribulations and aching joints of their human skin-suit.
Mentally, the continuous chatter and internal monologue slows down, and in a deep enough meditation state, shuts off completely. Depending on the nature of the session, you may potentially experience something bordering on trippy or transcendental that looks like mists of billowing colour, unfolding geometric shapes, insightful pings or creative glimmers.
And here’s a major win - without our brain and cortisol-fuelled systems running the show, there’s actually space to express and experience our emotions, and an opportunity to dump unhelpful, weighty goop out of our nervous system. So very often people during and after sound sessions notice an emotional release of some kind, whether it’s through a much-needed weep or a sudden awareness of a chunky emotion like rage lifting out of their body. I often notice the knots in my chest loosen, and the tension in the small muscles of my jaw and fingers (and weirdly butt cheeks) suddenly relax.
How can sound help you survive and thrive during perimenopause (and more)?
Soundspaces offer a brilliant ecosystem for our bodies to get regulated. This means slowing down furiously-firing hormonal releases, calming our stress triggers, and cultivating a safe space in which to rinse out fluctuating emotions that would otherwise be trapped in the layers of the body - which we all know, keeps the score and then some.
Sound healing creates an easeful route into meditation, especially if your brain is wired for a permanent ON and it feels difficult to get peace and stillness of any sort. It’s a helpful way to access the fiercely creative, inspirational, wild and liminal parts of our brain and consciousness that the outside noise often keeps us separated from, and to embrace the power and vision of this personal journey too.
Most importantly, it trains our body to recognise balance, its own harmony (and our own sound and symphony is unique to each of us) and to be able to find it again easily. In practice, this means that we can attain and maintain a more relaxed, less brain-on-fire ride in our daily interactions with the world around us, and make long-term gains in reducing anxiety and stress.
Ok, so what’s the science part?
Whilst sound healing undoubtedly has plenty of relativity to the spiritual and energetic spheres and is inherently connected to an understanding of the world that exists beyond the 3D, there is some comfortingly solid science behind the practice too.
Sound therapy fundamentally relies on the principle of entrainment, a law of quantum physics which has reassuringly been evidenced in fields such as astronomy, chemistry, pharmacology and biology over hundreds of years. This principle teaches that the natural relationship between all things is governed by vibration - in fact EVERYTHING is vibration - and that a stronger, purer vibration will always overpower a weaker one, and bring it into alignment with itself.
Applied to the human body, it’s clear that there is an inherent connection between the vibrating cells of our being, and that if we can manipulate and change the STRONGER vibration of a cell, we can lift its weaker counterparts out of dissonance and into harmony. We just have to give the body a powerful vibration to attune to, and that’s what your sound healing space offers.
Many sound therapists take this to the next natural step of providing not just harmonious sounds, but carefully selecting frequencies that speak to specific organs and conditions in the body. We often work specifically with the frequencies of the brain, giving it a particular tone to entrain to, so that it slows into a meditative state. This opens the body up to its own self-healing potential that can only truly be realised in a state of deep relaxation when the mind is out of the way and the body is available for regeneration.
How can you try it?
Sound baths are literally everywhere these days - from village halls to yoga studios, art galleries and concert venues, whether you’re drawn to yogic chanting or dance music, there is a take on sound healing for you to connect to IRL.
You can also work with sound healing simply by using your favourite streaming service and your headphones or earbuds (this is important - a speaker doesn't always have the same effect). “Binaural beats” is the collective noun for a type of track which has been engineered to give your brain-specific frequencies to entrain to. Sometimes they sound like a super-intense pulse or drone - which is a GREAT for yanking an exhausted mind into peace - or sometimes the binaural frequency is buried in a piece of more easily processed music that’s a little easier for the mind to comprehend.
You can choose frequencies from the key brainwaves ranges of Alpha (focus, concentration, meditation), Theta (lucid dreaming, creativity, tapping up intuition and the supra-conscious self) or Delta (super slow waves for sleep, deep cellular rest, and stem-cell regeneration) and be amazed at the immediate impact and long term wins of training your brain to find these frequencies organically.
You can also work with sound at home by checking into your own vibration. Humming is an excellent tool for nervous system regulation and slowing down overcooked emotions and a wild mind. Try the yogic technique of lightly closing off your ears and taking a big deep breath in between long hums. You’ll wonder how you got through life without this simple hack!
And finally - whether in the kitchen, office or car, choose your music carefully. The vibrations and sounds you surround yourself with offer you a chance to entrain your brain and body, so always consider the emotional response you’d like to have before pressing play on your music service. Start noticing how certain songs, voices or types of music make you feel and try building yourself mood-based playlists so you have a ready-to-go resource.
Read more about binaural beats, the science of sound and ways to incorporate it it into your life in my book The Healing Power of Sound.