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Stressed out? Drop the iPod and listen up: ELLE has the latest sound therapy treatments to soothe your soul
The latest mind-body treatments turn to the ancient practice of sound healing, using Tibetan singing bowls and vibrational therapy to improve your mood.
By Dana Tye
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Tingshas are rung between different pieces of healing music to clear energies.
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Acutonics
For Acutonics practitioners, using the right fork is more about experiencing a date with the Divine than with table manners. Usually associated with traditional Chinese medicine, this type of sound therapy, which involves applying vibrating tuning forks to various acupressure points, is designed to release blocked chi, or energy, in particular zones or meridians of the body. Bonnie Hardy, an Acutonics practitioner in Victoria, suggests that most afflictions begin with suppressed emotions, so she uses tuning forks -- each tone or frequency representing a planet in the universe -- to release anger and sadness and sustain joy. Hardy says the treatments help clients overcome psychological problems, ward off disease and introduce a state of elation. "I think the forks penetrate right through muscle tissue and into bone on a cellular level," she says.
Sound mantras and vocalizations
Once associated with earnest yogis trapped in the lotus position, mantras and chants -- the repetition of elemental sounds, words or series of words -- are among the oldest forms of sound therapy. Kathy Ryndak, co-founder of the Transformational Arts College in Toronto, says clients are taught to verbalize vowels, nonsense syllables and ancient sayings to supply or release energy according to the needs of various chakras. "The free expression of sounds allows them to express feelings and puts them in touch with their childlike nature,"
she explains. Adarsa Chakra, a Zen shiatsu therapist in Toronto, incorporates sound mantras originating from China's ancient Qin dynasty to release stored stress, worry and negative attitudes and restore the body's yin and yang, or energy flow. "Heal-ing sounds help to cleanse the body's energy meridians of impure energy caused by poor eating habits and toxic emotions," says Chakra.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Ross
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