Ultimate Guide to Sound Healing
Sound healing’s potential in healing the body, mind, and spirit is beginning to shine through. Learn more about what this ancient healing modality with a New Age twist could do for you! Plus, scroll down for a full list of studios offering sound healing in San Diego.
Whether you’ve been a part of the health & wellness community for a while now or have just joined (welcome!), you’ve probably heard the term Sound Healing or Sound Bath. Although it has grown in popularity within these past years, it’s a healing modality that has been around for more than 40,000 years. Many believe that sound has the potential to heal the body and elevate the mind. With new scientific studies on the rise, we are beginning to see the possibility in a new (yet ancient) way to health.
What is sound healing?
Sound healing is an orchestration of sound in a controlled environment where one can experience a deep sense of relaxation and peace. Sound in itself can affect us quite powerfully; it is our primary warning sense. Just like how a loud abrupt noise can startle us and increase cortisol, a calm melodic sound like gentle morning birds or a creek flowing can bring a sense of ease and in turn decrease stress levels. A sound healing journey can do just the same.
Photo Credit: Saffron + Sage
Types of Sound Healing
Group sound healing / sound bath
A sound bath is a great option for those who love intimate gatherings with groups of like-minded people. Each person can experience the same orchestrated sound but come out with a completely different and personalized outcome. Some facilitators even incorporate a cacao ceremony, guided meditation, or breathwork exercise beforehand. Check out our Events Page to find the next sound bath event closest to you.
Private sound healing session
A private sound therapy session is a great way to receive personalized healing. This gives the client an opportunity to work together in healing a specific need. The tools and instruments used will vary from facilitator to facilitator. Some practitioners may offer cacao, reiki or breathwork. Some may even place a singing bowl on one or more chakra centers. Check out the section below titled Sound Healing in San Diego to find a facilitator closest to you.
DIY sound healing
You can find a variety of sound healing tracks on YouTube, from nature sounds to crystal bowls to native chants and mantras. Type in sound healing on Youtube and start your journey.
Another way to DIY a sound healing session is through humming. Something so simple as humming can do wonders for the body and mind. One breathwork facilitator, Andy Murphy, states that humming can soothe the nervous system, reduce anxiety and activate nitric oxide, a vasodilator, which plays an important role in blood circulation, blood flow, and inflammation reduction.
If humming isn’t your thing, then perhaps getting a singing bowl, tuning fork, gong or hand drum would benefit you on your healing journey. These instruments require very little skill and can be just as activating and soothing as a live sound bath.
Benefits of Sound Healing
Improve physical symptoms and chronic pain
There are many studies that show how music affects the body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls the body’s heart rate, respiration and digestion. For instance, one study shows how participants in a sound healing session came out with less tension than when started. Research has also shown how listening to music can relieve a variety of pain conditions including fibromyalgia and chronic osteoarthritis. It could be a helpful alternative to those seeking pain management support beyond traditional methods.
Mood enhancing
Have you ever felt uplifted from your favorite song? Similarly, sound healing also has the potential in creating such positive effects. Due to music’s tight bond with our nervous system, the right environment and supportive sound can do wonders in changing dense emotions into lighter ones. In a study conducted by researchers at UCSD, men and women who participated in a Tibetan singing bowl meditation session experienced a greater sense of spiritual wellbeing and a reduction in feelings of tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood.
Personal attunement and energy clearing
Sound healing experts Ellen F. Franklin and Amanda Lamprecht B. Juris share how pure sound created by stringed instruments has the potential in breaking up mental and emotional patterns and allowing healing to flow. They also state how Tibetan singing bowls are used on and above the body to align and balance energy patterns in both the physical and subtle energy fields. Some facilitators also use tuning forks which can be applied directly to acupressure points, pressure points and chakra centers which supports clearing and balancing energy in a more precise way.
Boosts creativity and task performance
Research shows how sound healing has the potential in boosting dopamine, an essential hormone that plays a role in creative thinking. Binaural beats, a sound therapy that affects brainwave patterns, shows possibility in accessing higher states of creativity and enhancing task performance.
Improves sleep
Another great benefit to sound healing is its potential in creating better and more restful sleep. Binaural beats in the range of 0.5 HZ to 4 Hz gives the listener the opportunity in accessing the deep sleep state also known as the delta brainwave. One small study showed that 73 percent of participants had higher levels of melatonin after listening to binaural beats.
What to Expect For Your First Sound Healing session
A sound healing session is usually a passive healing process where one is normally laying down and is “bathed” by the sound waves created by the instruments that the facilitator uses. Crystal bowls, singing bowls, chimes, bells, tuning forks and gongs are common instruments that one can experience during a sound healing session. A variety of other instruments like a drum, shaker, flute, didgeridoo, hang drum, and harp can also be used. If it plays a melodic sound you can bet that it’s been a supportive tool in a sound healing session somewhere!
Due to the factors of one’s personal intention, mental, physical, and emotional health, each person will have a unique session. Factors like the moon being full or new may play part into the experience as well.
Sacred Sound of the Soul / YouTube
Sound Healing in San Diego
Here’s a helpful list of local wellness + yoga studios in San Diego offering sound healing sessions, classes and workshops. Visit their websites to learn more:
- Sojourn Healing Collective (Golden Hill)
- The Sound Space (San Diego)
- Earth + Song + Energy (San Diego)
- Saffron + Sage (San Diego)
- Zen Soul Balance (San Diego)
- Teri Wilder – Healing Sanctuary (San Diego)
- Nicole Turner Yoga (San Diego)
- The Metta Space (Normal Heights)
- Pilgrimage of the Heart (Normal Heights)
- South Park Yoga (South Park)
- Cosmic Flow Yoga (Clairemont)
- Pier to Point Wellness (Ocean Beach)
- Reach Yoga (Pacific Beach)
- Lavande Wellness Boutique (La Jolla)
- Trilogy Sanctuary (La Jolla)
- Sound Energy Healing (Encinitas)
- Sacred Sound of the Soul (Encinitas)
- Sound as Color (Encinitas)
- Full Circle Sound Healing (Carlsbad)
The Takeaway
With this deeper understanding of how powerfully sound can affect us, sound healing shows great potential in creating a greater sense of health and wellness within the body, mind, and soul. Science is still catching up and research is still being done on these potential health benefits.
Try sound healing in San Diego and see if it’s for you! Check out our Events page to find a sound bath closest to you.
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DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem without consulting a qualified healthcare provider.
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