What People Get Wrong About Sound Healing

So what do people get wrong about sound healing? I’m a sound healer who has led many soundbaths in England, France, virtually, and the United States.  There’s one thing I have noticed.   People come to these events and have expectations of what sound healing is, and sometimes their expectations conflict with their experience.  This blog will remedy some misconceptions about sound healing. 

What is Sound Healing?

Sound healing is a mode of alternative healing that utilizes various sounds, instruments, and voice to bring our bodies to wellness.  Instruments can be placed on and off the body, and in addition sessions can occur in groups or 1:1.  Sound healing offers multiple layers of benefits to our system: physical, emotional, energetic, and psychological.  Each session one experiences is different dependent on the teacher, others in the room, instruments used, and you!

Instruments vary, which can include everything from Tibetan Singing Bowls, Crystal Bowls, Gongs, Flumis, Tuning Forks, Drums, Kalimbas, Wind Chimes, Egg Shakers, Ocean Drums, Rain Sticks, Wah Wah levers, one’s voice, and so much more. 

For further details to explore this, check out this site: https://www.academyofsoundhealing.com/what-is-sound-healing

Who are Sound Healers?

Some people think that all one needs to do to be a sound healer these days is purchase a bowl and tap it at a slow pace, and one is a sound healer.  This is one thing people get wrong about sound healing. Sound Healing consists of more than this.  I’ve been certified as a level two group sound healer.   For this certification, it surprised me how much one had to do to attain this title.  There’s training that includes case studies, numerous reflective papers, recorded assessments to be observed and critiqued by staff, learning to follow one’s intuition with sound,  assessing participants’ energy, coaching, and ongoing learning.  Is all this necessary in today’s world?  Yes! Sound healing is sacred, and it’s not enough to get “certified” in a weekend workshop and call oneself a sound healer. 

In reality, sound healing has been around for hundreds of years, if not thousands.  Think of the variations of sound healing that exist within the world: priests and nuns chanting for prayer, shamans use of instruments in ceremony to get one to an altered state, mothers singing lullabies to their new borns, monks use of Tibetan bowls in rituals.  The Aborignes in Australia were the first known to use sound as a healing modality with the digeridoo beginning 40,000 years ago!  For more on this check out https://www.pierrestocker.com/origins-and-research-on-sound-healing/

Does Sound Healing Work?

“My belief is that we can all find the rhythms and harmonics of our celestial music, and that our efforts will enable us to live extraordinary lives filled with peace, passion, health, and a sense of unity with the universe.” Mitchell Gaynor

There have been numerous studies that have focused their research on the benefits of sound healing with individuals.   Dr. Mitchell Gaynor was an oncologist and known for his work integrative medicine. He shared in numerous interviews how sound healing has been effective in conjunction with medical treatment with his clients.  In the video, he discusses the fact that our bodies are made of more than 70% water. Therefore, because of this our whole bodies are conducive to receive healing from sound and vibration.  Watch this interview with Dr. Mitchell Gaynor about the impact of Tibetan sound healing bowls with cancer patients.  

What to expect

  There is a fallacy that all sound baths are relaxing.  Sometimes this is the case.  People feel relaxed and may even go to sleep.  Yet, other times sound healings can bring up other emotions outside of a sense of calmness.  And if one is willing, all emotions are to be welcomed.  I want to emphasize there is a healing aspect to sound, and sometimes stuck energy that needs to be released is not always “calmness.”  This is another thing people get wrong about sound healing. Not all sound baths are relaxing. This is ok.

There may be various forms of release, including tears, fidgeting, laughter, coughs, sniffles, subtle shifts of movement in one’s body.  The more one participates in sound healings, one can discern what is arising.  And the effects of a sound healing can continue after the session.  This can be for days or weeks.  One may notice ongoing processing in dreams, thoughts, or various synchronities that arise.  Remember to drink lots of water after a sound bath and to ground oneself, as the body continues to process and heal. 

Sound Healing Benefits

            As a licensed clinical psychologist, yoga instructor, and sound healer, I found sound healing offers a completely alternative walk towards wellness.  After my first session as a participant, I knew instantly I wanted to learn more.  There’s a layer of healing that occurs beyond what can be processed or understood by the mind.  The body heals in ways that are indescribable.  It is an amazing supplement to Western medicine and traditional therapy.  In the past, some of my individual clients also attended sound healings, and there was further movement in their growth.  I highly recommend attending a sound bath in your local area and observe what arises within you. If in person sound baths are unavailable, opt for virtual sound healings.  Virtual sound healings also have profound effects.