Are you feeling stressed? Do you have unexplained illnesses? Or are you chronically fatigued yet have a difficult time sleeping? Your nervous system may need support!

Stress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you might not realize it. You may think illness is to blame for your headache, back pain, insomnia, or decreased productivity at work. But stress on your nervous system may actually be the cause.

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an acoustic intervention designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity, along with improving social engagement and resilience. It is based on Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory and 40 years of research regarding the relationship between auditory sensitivities, social-emotional processes and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the control center of our body. It interprets what our bodies sense, then sends the information to muscles and glands, and tells them what to do. You don’t have to think about this system at the center of our self-regulating process, influencing important systems in our body, including our heart, respiration rate, and digestion.

Stress, trauma, and other conditions can overload our nervous system (ANS), leaving us in various states of fight/flight/freeze or collapse, which can impact how we interact with others, our environment, and how we feel inside ourselves. The SSP is a 5-hour listening program of specially filtered music that stimulates the vagus nerve (part of the ANS) through the middle ear muscle. The SSP is like a workout for your vagus nerve, giving your nervous system more flexibility and increased ability to be calm.

The SSP can benefit children, adolescents, and adults. Here is a partial list of areas that benefit from this intervention:

• Anxiety and Depression
• Irritability; agitation or explosiveness
• Feeling overloaded in social situations or difficulty engaging socially
• PTSD; Dissociation; and trauma-related challenges
• Inattention (such as with ADD/ADHD)
• Auditory sensitivity and processing challenges
• Other stress-related difficulties

Clinical diagnosis is not required to benefit from the SSP. However, if a trauma history is present, it is important to discuss this with me prior to starting. The SSP is a 5-hour, powerful listening intervention designed to work along with other therapies. In the case of the lingering effects of trauma, close supervision by a trained professional during and following the protocol is imperative.

I am a Certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider. My role as an SSP provider is as an educator and coach. After a thorough assessment, I will talk with you to determine the best way to administer the SSP to you.

For information about the SSP, please click here.

These are some favorite links for Safe and Sound Protocol:

Science of Feeling Safe