The BAST method of Sound Therapy combines carefully considered therapeutic sound techniques which have been shown to affect physiology, neurology and psychology with a form of reflective enquiry (a kind of questioning). This approach has been shown to be very effective at improving health and wellbeing.
The therapeutic sound and sound therapy techniques are played live using tonal and rhythmic instruments such as Himalayan and crystal singing bowls, gongs, therapeutic percussion such as drums, chimes, rattles, shakers, and other instruments. There are various types of sound bath. I offer, Relaxation and, Relaxation with Reflection Baths either one to one or to groups.
What to Expect During a Sound Therapy Session
Before a session I check in with Client(s) regarding what they are hoping to achieve from a sound bath and if they have any contraindications I need to know about.
Some people just want to relax and others have a more specific reflective intention (maybe issues which are concerning them). I ask clients to make themselves as comfortable as possible by sitting or lying on a mat with a cushion or blanket, whichever is more comfortable. I offer mats, cushions and blankets to ensure maximum comfort (you are also welcome to bring your own).
I will let you know the process before we begin, then tailor-make your score and play for you in response to what you are bringing. You will be bathed in therapeutic sound waves which can feel wonderful!
Relaxation baths offer a meditative experience which can induce deep relaxation.
Reflection baths can be more specific and are a form of ‘self wholling’ and offer a safe space to explore something that is stopping your ‘flow’. We call what you are bringing to work on, ‘The Construct’. Sound Therapy works with flow and what might be blocking it, what the resistance to flow might be. A Reflection bath offers a processing of the ‘Construct’ and is supported via the therapist sharing a Person Centred model of processing devised by BAST, called The Cooper Sax 5 R’s Model of Experiential Processing, before and after the session. The 5 R’s explores what we resonate with, what we resist, our experience of release, taking responsibility and all of this is done via self-reflection with the aim of restoring flow and ultimately our own human flourishing.
It is common for clients to gain great mental clarity during and after a sound bath and people often report release of physical pain. It is also quite common for clients to see shapes, colours and visual imagery; which we explore using the 5 R’s.
BAST Trained Therapist
Whilst Sound Therapy can be tracked back thousands of years, for example to Pythagoras, who used musical intervals to treat psychological and physiological problems, Information gathered over the last 20 years has informed us that certain instruments seem to affect and evoke emotional processing and physical re balancing in different ways. This information is used by a BAST trained therapist to create a treatment specific to their client’s symptomatic state and their intention for the treatment – a relaxing treatment would be very different from an energising treatment for example. Certain musical note intervals can be used to release grief for example or offer an open safe space to explore what you bring.
I am a qualified BAST Sound Therapist, whose training specialises in combining instruments in a specific way to influence brainwave frequencies, enabling a person to enter an altered state of consciousness (ASC) similar to very deep relaxation or meditation. In this state many different therapeutic processes can occur.
During the sound bath our bodies and the sound can resonate with each other, via a proven theory of Quantum Physics called ‘Entrainment’. In effect, our bodies fall into time with the sound, enabling us to enter an altered state of consciousness, in brain wave terms called, an Alpha Brain Wave state. To leave this state, we simply need to open our eyes or have a stretch.
Click here to find out more about booking a sound therapy session with me.