Sound Therapy Promotes Wellness

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Sound therapy seems odd to those unfamiliar with the concept. However, to people struggling with health issues unaddressed by conventional medicine, it can help calm the central nervous system to promote the body’s own ability to heal.

Sandra Kurzdorfer operates Sunflower Vibration in Rochester. She is trained in sound therapy, vibrational sound and certified in sound bathing, in addition to certified in styles of yoga.

“Everything on earth is vibration, whether a rock, cat, your liver, your skin,” she said. “All our organs hold a different vibration and each human has a different vibration. When you’re out of vibration, you have ‘disease.’ When you help bring them back into vibration through playing, you can get that person’s body to almost mirror that vibration and come back into health.”

The “playing” refers to making specific sounds with bowls meant for sound therapy. Some practitioners use tuning forks for types of vibrational sound therapy. There are also flutes, gongs and other instruments, but they’re not for playing music. Sometimes, the instruments are placed on or near the client’s body in strategic places. The tones they emit cause vibrations that are key to stimulating the body’s response.

The difference between music therapy and sound therapy is that sound therapy is not meant to be musical. It’s more about vibration than sound. Although people can derive some benefit from hearing videos of sound therapy on YouTube, Kurzdorfer said that vibration is more accessible through in-person sessions.

Sound bathing refers to a group of people undertaking sound therapy together instead of individual sessions.

Some people seek sound therapy for anxiety or depression; others have specific health issues that they feel have not been sufficiently addressed through Western medicine.

Raphaela McCormack is a certified qi gong therapist in private practice in Rochester. She uses tuning forks, sometimes touching the body. She said the vibration from the forks “help bring the body into a balanced state.”

“Everything in nature has a pattern,” she added. “We have a specific pattern in the body. When you play those forks near the ear, it brings those patterns into harmony in your body.”

She said that using tuning forks has helped bring relief for people with a variety of health issues.

“It’s not a long-lasting fix, but it helps calm the stress in the system,” McCormack said.

Clients typically have sessions a week apart, and then every six weeks for maintenance once their issue has been addressed. As with Chinese medicine, sound therapy seeks to address the cause of the issue, not the symptoms.

Sound therapy has a few contraindications. Carol Scheg-Morissette, owner of Healthy Alternatives Wellness Center in Rochester, would not use it on people with a broken bone or fracture, for example.

“The vibrations would cause the bone to vibrate and cause extreme pain,” she said.

It’s also not advisable for people with epilepsy.

Scheg-Morissette is a licensed massage therapist, certified in sound healing, certified vibrational sound massage, Reiki master-teacher, integrated energy therapy master instructor, certified aroma therapist, certified herbalist, and cranial sacral therapist.