What Is Sound Work?

Deep Dive

In early 2017, I was introduced to a healing modality called “sound healing” or “sound work”.

Sound work uses specific sound frequencies via the human voice, singing bowls and other sound tools such as tuning forks to help calm the nervous system and transform energy.

We (and everything around us) are made up of vibrating atoms and different sound vibrations impact how we feel, think and behave. You already know that listening to great songs can shift moods. Or listening to ocean waves or birds chirping can create a sense of relaxation. On the flip side, the sound of honking horns, people yelling or sirens can evoke a feeling of being anxious or irritable.

Bottom line: Sound frequencies can change your experience.    

When I work one-on-one with clients, we’re often focused on one or two core patterns (habitual ways of thinking, feeling or behaving) and the work primarily consists of talking with periods of silence for reflection. Through the act of talking and reflecting, my clients relate to their patterns from a place of conscious thought and of course, their minds are involved in the processing. Talking through a pattern is powerful for sure, and sometimes, adding another tool to help mix up the energy of the pattern can make the transformation even more potent.

One of the reasons I love sound work is that it can quickly bypass the rational or analytical mind and allow you to just “be” while at the same time, literally changing the frequency of your energy.

Different combination of sound frequencies changes brainwaves and levels of consciousness. Although science is just starting to research the effects of sound work, studies are pointing to the fact that different types of sounds (particularly binaural sounds where two different frequencies are played at the same time), can shift brainwaves and states of consciousness. Imagine this, by simply lying down and allowing sound frequencies to wash over you, your brain can downshift from the alpha (alert) to the beta (aware calm) or even theta (meditative) or delta (regenerative sleep) brain wave states. As brain waves slow down, it signals the nervous system that it too can relax and move from the sympathetic (fight or flight) response to the parasympathetic (rest and digest) response. Talk about a profound shift!

Shifts in consciousness most easily arise when we’re in a state of relaxed awareness.

Have you ever had an ah-ha moment arise from “out of the blue”? Or a brilliant idea just comes to you when you were simply humming away in the shower or puttering in the garden? Those are examples of how being in a state of relaxed awareness creates space for energy and consciousness to shift. Resulting in access to new perception, greater clarity, awareness and creativity. It’s no surprise I was drawn deeper into sound work during my sabbatical last year.  After a highly creative few years of work, I primarily took my sabbatical to rest and rejuvenate (which I did). But another intent of my sabbatical was to push “pause” on the way I had been working and allow inspiration to guide me. After months of receiving private sound healing sessions, sound baths and being trained on sound work, I can honestly say this new* modality of work is inspiring the heck out me. It’s incredibly transformative AND beautifully ease-full.

I always know I’m on the right path if there is a sense of effortlessness, flow or ease to what I’m doing, and working with sound is both profoundly potent and joyful. I’m now incorporating sound work into the individual and group work I offer. If you would like to experience a sound session, feel free to explore the options for private or public sessions I currently offer.

*By the way, sound work isn’t “new” at all. It’s been around for centuries. Here’s an excerpt from the website of Seattle Sound Temple where I go for my training and personal sessions. By the way, they offer public sound baths too!

Sound Healing is one of the oldest forms of healing known to mankind and has been used the world over to attune, invoke, and transform consciousness. Sound produces powerful vibrations and, as we are vibrational beings by nature, our very structure is transformed by its movement.

Every organ, bone and cell in our body has a resonant frequency and when our bodies feel sluggish, uninspired or unhealthy, sound can reset and re-tune these subtle energy fields. Singing bowls create both pure tones and harmonic overtones which have the ability to shift brain waves, enhancing relaxation, creativity and healing.