Could Sound Therapy Improve Your Work Life?
Devinder Bains finds out if the latest wellness trend is pitch perfect…
A soft, melodic chiming awakes me from a sleep-like slumber… or maybe I was actually asleep? I feel so relaxed and rested that it’s hard for me to tell.
I’ve just experienced a massage with a difference; one that involves remaining fully dressed with the masseuse’s hands never touching my body. I’m at The Hundred Wellness Centre in Dubai for some sound massage therapy with Antje Hosseinzadeh, who is a Peter Hess sound-massage practitioner and relaxation trainer for sound journeys.
Before the treatment, we discuss my ailments: a sore right shoulder from hunching over my laptop for hours on end, and broken sleep from thinking about work assignments and deadlines. The good news is that she’s sure that sound therapy can help, she’s well-versed in tackling the work woes of those who visit her.
“Sound therapy as a holistic relaxation method has a number of benefits, helping with all kinds of stress-related, psychosomatic symptoms such as sleep disorder, rumination, self-esteem, self-regulation and anger,” she explains. “I would love to see this treatment as an incentive for employees. It teaches them to relax mind and body and studies have shown that people are able to eliminate ‘white noise’ and focus better on the task at hand.” And it could be beneficial for employers, too.
“With a better connection to self, employees’ self-assurance, self-awareness and self-confidence grows. As stress hormones weaken the immune system, managing stress therefore leads to fewer days of illness and more efficiency in the workplace.”
Relax in a multitude of calm spaces at The Hundred Wellness Centre in Dubai
It sounds revolutionary, but applying sound as a healing method is nothing new. The use of music as therapy through drumbeats and chanting dates back to ancient Greece and Egypt, and singing bowls have been used in Nepal, Tibet and India to induce relaxation for years. More recently, in 1984, sound pioneer Peter Hess started to develop sound ‘massage’, which involves placing the bowls directly on the body and harnessing vibrations in addition to the audible stimulus – this is the practice that Antje has adopted.
So what exactly does a sound ‘massage’ involve?
“Sound bowls are positioned according to a specific system on and around the dressed body and are softly struck,” describes Antje, who is also a Master NLP Coach and clinical hypnotherapist. “The harmonious sounds and slow beats quickly lead to a state of soothing relaxation, in which the mind can come to rest. The gentle vibrations that emanate from the sounding and vibrating bowls gradually spread through the skin, tissues, organs, body fluid and body cavities.”
And as I absorb the gentle striking on the bronze-alloy bowls, I’m just conscious enough to acknowledge that this whole process is quite an art. “At the core we use three different kinds of bowls, they are designed to cover different frequency ranges in order to resonate with the respective areas of our body,” she says after the massage.
“The heart bowl, for example, covers a frequency from 200-1200Hz and resonates specifically with the area around our heart. The very fine vibration impulses trigger the release of muscular tension, then blood circulation and lymph flow are stimulated and the fascia tissue that passes through the entire body is loosened.”
And it’s in equal measures as relaxing and invigorating as it sounds. But can it help with the busy brain that’s keeping me awake? “When someone is suffering from acute insomnia due to workplace worries, sound therapy can actually be really beneficial,” says Farzana Ali, better known to her clients as The Sound Therapist. “One of the biggest mistakes people make when dealing with insomnia is to focus on the act of trying to fall asleep, but actually focusing on resting allows you to create the perfect conditions to fall asleep.” She explains how that works: “Sound therapy changes your brainwaves: instruments are played in a therapeutic way and this allows your brainwaves – through a process called sympathetic resonance – to slow down to match the slower frequency of the sounds you’re hearing. This takes you from beta-dominant brainwave activity (the state you’re in when you’re alert and concentrating or anxious) to the restful, dreamy stage of alpha-dominant brainwave activity – a precursor to sleep.”
And can this have long-term benefits in the workplace? “Sound therapy, especially teamed with reflective practice as I offer, has a multitude of benefits. It’s a great stress reducer, it can also improve your focus, bring you clarity in a situation that’s troubling you and even help reframe self-limiting beliefs that may be holding you back in a work environment,” explains Farzana, who uses crystal singing bowls, Himalayan singing bowls and drums during her sessions. “I’ve treated clients, who within a few weeks have found themselves to be better equipped to handle high-pressure work situations that previously would have sparked a panic attack.”
And away from work life, sound therapy is working wonders in a medical environment: “I am seeing people using sound massage to complement their pain management, blood-pressure therapy, fibromyalgia and for Parkinson’s disease,” Antje shares. “It is successfully applied in stroke units, so the vibrating bowls would activate the areas in the brain that are responsible for the impaired body parts. Hospitals in Germany consider it a natural complementary therapy for healing wounds after surgery.” And Antje explains that the therapy has also entered the classroom. “Schools are using sound methods to harmonise groups of children to help them bond and relax before taking exams. Sound methods are used in a variety of professional fields as they create ideal conditions for regeneration, for learning, personality development or the accompaniment of recovery processes.”
And it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing.
The Global Wellness Summit forecasted energy healing in its top 10 trends at the start of 2020, and in that, cited sound therapy as an ‘uber trend’ – with sound sanctuaries popping up as new wellness retreat options and stating that an exhaustion with screen-time is leading us to turn to sound for respite.
But how does that translate post-Covid? Farzana, who lives and works in London, has adapted and moved many of her sessions online – meaning she’s now able to reach a global clientele.
“The pandemic presented a situation that threw all of us off balance, so at first, I didn’t even think I’d be able to offer online sessions. But playing around with instruments and techniques, I was able to figure out which sounds from my kit translated the best online,” she says. “As long as your internet connection is good, and you have good quality headphones, the online offerings can still help you de-stress and provide you with structured time to actually take care of your mental health. Another benefit for me personally has been that I can treat clients who are based internationally: a client in Dubai can enjoy a bespoke pre-sleep session even if their usual bedtime is very late and therefore out of normal therapy working hours.”
The benefits of sound therapy do seem to ring true, as that night I have the best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks.
To book a one-to-one session with Antje Hosseinzadeh visit thehundred.ae. For online sessions with Farzana Ali contact through @thesoundtherapist on Instagram or visit thesoundtherapist.com
Lead image courtesy of Instagram/@sarashakeel
Images courtesy of Conscious Design at Unsplash
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s November 2020 issue