Sound Therapy Healing to Keep Anxiety and Depression at Bay
Plato once said, “music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything”. For centuries, sound, including music, has been used for ceremonies, communication, and celebrations. As far as we can trace back, sound has been an integral part of our collective human culture–often thought to be attributed to its healing powers. Because of its ability to relieve psychological ailments, therapists and healers are using sound therapy healing to improve their clients’ well-being.
What is Sound Therapy?
Sound healing is a type of therapy that uses sound and music in order to improve health. During the course of a session, a variety of instruments (such as classical instruments, singing bowls, tuning forks, gongs, wind chimes, and others), as well as the voice itself, are utilized. It is both a passive and participatory experience.
Types of Sound Therapy
Each therapist and facility can choose their own method of sound healing for their clients. Some types of sound healing include guided meditation, binaural sounds, neurologic music therapy, Bonny method, Dalcroze Eurythmics, mantra, Nordhoff-Robbins, singing bowls/sound baths, Vibroacoustic Therapy, psychogeometric music, and multidimensional music.How it Works
With sound therapy, the vibrations of the sound can help your brain downshift from beta state (normal state) to theta state (relaxed state), even reaching delta state (unconscious state) where the healing can happen. Additionally, the ear has a vestibulocochlear nerve that connects to the vagus nerve (a major parasympathetic nerve) which is in charge of relaxing muscles, reducing stress, and lowering blood pressure. When this vagus nerve detects sound, it vibrates and activates the nerve, stimulating cell production of nitric oxide. This helps mediate blood pressure and reduce inflammation, calming a mood. In other words, sound vibrations can stabilize your anxiety and depression.Benefits of Sound Therapy
From birds chirping to the sound of raindrops to guitar riffs, sound in all its forms can be therapeutic. People seeking treatment for mental health issues can benefit greatly from a holistic approach to depression and anxiety. And for their overall health. Sound therapy has been linked to:- Clarity – Sound helps balance the brain. It can help you overcome negative thinking that leads to poor habits. With sound, you can rewire your brain to make better choices with a clear mind.
- Focus – Sound can help you retrain your brain to become a better listener and thus be able to better focus on specific tasks.
- Relieve stress – Sound can adjust your brain by replenishing its energy, lowering your stress.
- Reduced headaches – Sound has the ability to override pain waves. As headaches are often an underlying symptom of high blood pressure and stress, sound can reduce the frequency of headaches.
- Processed feelings – Sound has the power to elicit a wide range of emotions. This gives us an opportunity to confront our feelings and thoroughly process them in healthy ways.
- Healing trauma – Sound can trigger specific memories, which can potentially allow people to retrieve memories linked to their trauma. This can then help professionals give their clients better care.
