The Intersection of Sound Healing and Modern Psychotherapy
Sound healing has been practised for thousands of years in our collective past. From South America through Africa to Asia, most tribes and ancient cultures had some form of sound healing. Ancient healers knew, respected, and practised the healing power of sound through collective chanting or with the help of handmade instruments made particularly for healing.
For quite some time, we have forgotten the wisdom of the past. Thankfully, those almost-lost traditions are coming back stronger than ever.
So, how can sound healing help our minds? Does it have anything in common with modern psychotherapy? Can they complement each other to provide holistic care?
Stay with us as we dive into the frequencies of mental health.
Sound Healing - The frequencies that raise your vibration and heal your being
Sound healing has existed for centuries in almost all ancient tribes and cultures. Its application comes from the understanding that sounds are frequencies, and the vibrations from specific frequencies can affect our body in miraculous ways, amongst which are relaxing and healing it.
Every body part, tissue, and cell vibrates at a specific frequency. When one is ill, that frequency is disturbed. Sound therapy and the vibrations from certain instruments can restore equilibrium in the body, prompting cells to return to their normal, balanced vibrations. Sound healing is often used as part of mindfulness and meditation practices and yoga retreats, but it can also be used independently in so-called sound baths and sound healing sessions.
Sound therapy is slowly gaining popularity because it simultaneously enhances emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Sound healing, with its various methods and instruments, promotes relaxation, lowers stress levels and anxiety, and balances the energy within the body.
Types of Sound Healing
Sound healing is an umbrella term for different kinds of healing processes that utilize instruments to transfer balanced healing frequencies to the listener and enable their body to vibrate on those same frequencies. In contemporary healing practices, a few types of sound healing are the most prominent
Tuning Fork
The tuning fork is an acoustic resonator shaped like the letter U. Hitting the sides of the fork makes it resonate at a frequency. The vibrating fork can then be touched on the body or brought to proximity. The vibrations of the tuning fork, first and foremost, help with pain, but they also balance the human body, release emotions, relax the mind, reduce stress, and improve overall health.
Tibetan Singing Bowls
Tibetan bowls are made of metal or crystal and are used similarly to forks. Depending on the size of the bowl, when struck or pounded, they make continuous sounds and vibrations. The body receives those vibrations as it starts to resonate with them, thus balancing the energy in the body and promoting calmness and relaxation.
Gong Baths
Gongs are a traditional Chinese instrument used since the sixth century. Throughout history, they have been used in various ceremonies and healing rituals. Gongs produce deep frequencies when hit, and their sound promotes theta brainwave states. They are known to release tension, reduce stress and frustration, deepen meditation states, enhance creativity, and align the body's energy.
Northern Light Academy offers a Certified Gong Course that can help you master the gong to promote your own and the health of your clients.
Binaural Beats Therapy
Binaural beats are two slightly different frequencies in the same audio, which causes the listener’s brain to make a third perceivable tone out of the two. This process engages the brain and puts it into a different brain wave state depending on the detectable frequency difference. If the difference is low (around 0.5 to 4 Hz), the brain is in a delta brainwave, which means relaxed and calm. The highest difference of 13 to 30 Hz puts the brain in a gamma brainwave, which keeps it concentrated and focused.
Chanting
Chanting is a rhythmic vocalization usually performed during yoga practices and retreats. Historically, it was a communal activity that promoted connection, collaboration, and closeness. Chanting has numerous benefits. In addition to helping release and reduce stress, it is also very powerful for the singer, vibrating many of the upper chakras and moving energy through the body.
Psychotherapy - The healing of body, mind and soul
The term “psycho” comes from the ancient Greek word “psyche,” which means soul or spirit. Historically, psychologists wanted to gain their place in the sciences, so they often diverted from exploring the soul and instead focused on the mind and emotions.
Today, psychotherapy is a way of resolving one’s life problems, gaining insight into one's mind and emotions, becoming aware of what, why, and when one does certain things, taking control over one's circumstances, and living one's life with purpose, direction, and motivation.
If I were to summarize psychotherapy, I would describe it as the process of healing the body, mind, and soul so that they can achieve their full potential, which is given to them by the High Universal Source.
The Intersection of Sound Healing and Psychotherapy
We often have clients coming to our sound healing sessions by a recommendation from their psychotherapists. And the reason why is undeniable - emotions, adverse experiences, and mental difficulties are strong, energetic vibrations within our body. When unresolved, they tend to cause physical blockages, disrupt natural energy flow in and between the chakras, and lower the life force and vitality. Blocked energy, with time, becomes an ill body.
Sound healing and psychotherapy aim to heal the individual's mind, body, and spirit. They just take different paths to this end. While psychotherapy works on mental awareness to achieve healing, sound therapy focuses on humans' natural tendency to be in balance.
At Northern Light Yoga Oslo, we are combining these two healing modalities and providing a holistic well-being approach. Instead of just “talking” about the difficulties and waiting for the mindset to slowly and steadily change, we gently nudge the process by reminding the body what health feels like. With sound healing sessions, we introduce healing frequencies to the body, allowing it to vibrate in union with them. Using the healing sounds of the tuning fork, Tibetan bowls, and gongs, we repeatedly put the body into a healing vibration and disperse the blockages and symptoms with the help of those vibrations. For example, our holistic Authentic Self Integration Therapy utilizes sound healing as one crucial aspect on the road to authentic, fulfilled living with alignment to our true self.
Frequency therapy has been practiced for centuries, and scientists started exploring how this happens. Their research has shown the benefits of sound treatment in lowering stress, emotion intensity, and brainwave activity. In one particular study from the University of California in San Diego, researchers found that after just one singing bowl therapy session, participants reported lowered symptoms of tension, anger, anxiety, and depressed mood, in addition to reduced physical pain.
Other studies have shown that sound healing can also induce different brain waves. From slow theta and delta waves, which are relaxing and mellow, to high beta waves of focus and alertness, binaural beats, which are a form of sound therapy, can synchronize the brain to the induced frequencies and, in the process, put the person in different brainwave states. These findings show us that healing sessions can be helpful for both people who battle anxiety and those who have depressive moods.
Benefits of Sound Healing on Mental Health
Sound healing has numerous benefits for the whole person's organism. It includes improvements and healing on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. Here are some of the most prominent benefits of sound healing on mental health:
Promotes calmness and relaxation
Improves meditation abilities
Improves physical health, reduces pain, and relaxes the body
Breaks emotional blockages
Improves emotional state
Lowers insomnia and difficulty sleeping
Lowers anxious thoughts and states
Promotes focus, mindfulness, and concentration
At Northern Light Yoga Studio and Academy, we offer holistic, personalized, and interactive sessions, workshops, and courses that help clients improve their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Our Rebirthing program includes sound healing and numerous other transformative practices that can help you give birth to your innermost true self.
You are welcome to join the Northern Light family. We will support you in your journey of self-improvement and help you discover your authentic, actualized self!
