How the sounds of therapy can heal
As the musical note vibrates through my body, I feel relaxed yet strangely invigorated. But whether the frequencies emanating from my bed – a cross between a psychiatrist’s couch and a sun lounger – are bringing me back to a state of harmony and enhancing me physically and chemically, I cannot tell.
I am in the care of sound therapists Elaine Thompson and Robert Firkin of Street in Somerset. Elaine, 48, is the British driving force behind this therapy, which originated in America 20 years ago. Just as reflexology supposes the areas of our feet correspond to organs of the body, sound therapy presumes our frequency patterns determine our psychological and physiological state.
The use of sound to resonate energy flow goes back to Ancient Egypt; this more sophisticated technique, vibration retraining, is still in its infancy, but its possibilities for therapeutic use are emerging. Thompson is confident: “We use high-frequency sound waves in ultrasound to aid healing; low-frequency sound could be the next thing.”
The idea is that symptoms interpreted as stress and disease are caused partly by frequency imbalance. “We retrain the brain to make the missing frequency by playing back an appropriate sound formula,” she says. The brain then resumes communication with the parts of the body from which it has been cut off.
Thompson analyzed my voice with a Bio-Acoustic Technical Services Program. Then a more advanced program provided a spectrograph wave print. Using intuition, sensors and microphones, she calculated the sounds she thought would be beneficial. Some were calming; only one was unpleasant. According to Thompson, muscular disorders, pain relief and sports injuries have benefited.
Thompson has worked extensively in Germany, particularly at the Klinikzentrum Bad Sulza, near Weimar, which combines conventional medicine with other healing methods. There, Micky Remann, a clinic spokesman, said sound therapy had helped a man crippled with polyarthritis to walk unaided.
However, Dr John Kirwan, head of rheumatology at Bristol University, says: “It’s easy to claim success with arthritis because it is so variable, but you have to prove why it’s helpful. Some aspects of complementary medicine seem to do patients some good, but they may be doing good for different reasons.”
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