What is the Safe Sound Protocol?
Over the years of working with people who have experienced trauma, I have become more and more convinced of the deep connection between our bodies and the pain that we experience in our minds. There have also been countless works of research and books that speak to this dynamic: Our Grandmother’s Hands, The Body Keeps the Score, and an entire discipline of therapy dedicated to somatic experiencing and embodiment.
Our bodies are designed with a fight, flight, freeze response - which works brilliantly to keep us safe! If we are walking down the street and a car comes towards us, we jump out of the way. Thank goodness! If we had to stop and think, “Ok body, move out of the way”- that would be so dangerous! However, this same nervous system activation happens when we perceive threat, regardless of whether the threat is real or not and regardless of whether the threat is life threatening or not. For those of us that have grown up in homes where there is constant yelling or violence or suffered through a controlling relationship, our nervous systems overwork. They are constantly on alert for threats around every turn. This can make it difficult to truly regulate and to perceive cues of safety when they are actually around us. Our bodies have learned to be prepared for threat at all times and when we leave those dangerous situations, our bodies don’t know how to adjust no matter how much we know cognitively we are safe.
EMDR is one body-based therapy that I believe shifts our nervous system response to triggers and helps us shift our beliefs to experience more regulation and safety in the world. Another body-based therapy that I have recently started utilizing is the Safe Sound Protocol (SSP). Developed by the polyvagal theorist Dr. Stephen Porges, the Safe Sound Protocol is delivered via music. It is a sound therapy that works to shift neuroception. Neuroception is our body's ability to unconsciously detect threat or safety. When you listen to music via the SSP, the song you listen to could be something familiar like Whitney Houston’s I Want to Dance with Somebody, but the music itself has been filtered. Also, the artist is different- bummer, I know!
Through a series of listening sessions (think hours), the filtered music helps your brain and body begin to search for cues of safety instead of cues of danger. Your listening also takes place in the presence of a therapist that you have developed a relationship with. This co-regulation in combination with the music therapy helps you to experience safety. Are you someone who has all the tools to cope with the stress you experience, but still wish that you could experience less daily anxiety? Are you someone who wants to do trauma work, but finds it hard to regulate steadily enough to be able to do so? This therapy might be for you!
The research on the SSP is emerging. It was originally utilized to support children who experience sensory processing differences, and then was shown to impactful for those who have experienced anxiety, depression, and trauma. In my personal experience so far, people I work with describe the impact of the SSP as subtle. People have reported feeling relaxed while listening, and then slowly notice in their daily lives that they are more present and regulated than they would have been in the past. Dr. Dan Siegel developed the idea of the window of tolerance. Seen in the image below, all of us have a window of tolerance for stress. When we experience stress and that fight, flight, freeze, fawn response ,we move out of our window. We will always have a window, but stress and trauma shrink the window and in therapy we work to make the window wider. So, I conceptualize SSP as an additional way to widen our window.
If you choose to start SSP with your therapist, they will likely begin by talking to you about your relationship to sound and by helping you describe your own nervous system responses. In my practice, I mainly use the SSP in combination with other therapies like CBT and EMDR.
If you would like to learn more about the SSP checkout out https://www.whatisthessp.com/. If you would like to talk to me more about whether the SSP could be a good fit for you, reach out me at tara@thehavenwellnesscenter.com for a free consultation!
Until we see you,
Tara & The Haven Team
