Sound Therapy for Addiction Treatment
Sound therapy has been practiced for thousands of years in its many different forms. While not without its skeptics, both addiction treatment professionals and those who have experienced sound therapy sessions can attest to the ability to produce deep states of relaxation.
Sound therapy provides a useful addiction treatment tool that can help calm the mind and relieve feelings of anxiety, stress, worry, and fear commonly experienced by those in recovery.
Sound therapy provides a complementary form of treatment that can help improve the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapy methods. Holistic addiction treatment that includes the use of conventional psychotherapy combined with alternative techniques provides whole-person treatment to improve mental, physical, and emotional well-being at the same time.
Due to the ability of sound therapy to reduce stress and promote a calm and grounded mental state, it can both help the healing process while also providing a tool for relapse prevention.
What is Sound Therapy?
Sound therapy uses various forms of music or sounds produced by singing, string and percussion instruments, and an array of other instruments such as chimes, gongs, and singing bowls.
Various forms of sound healing techniques have been practiced for ages due to their ability to produce both mental and physical healing.
- Listening to music
- Sound mediations
- Singing or chanting
- Playing an instrument
- Sound baths.
Sound Baths
Sound baths involve lying or being seated in a comfortable position while sound generated by singing bowls, chimes, tuning forks, gongs create gentle vibrations in the brain and body. Sound baths typically involve one-hour sessions that consist of a combination of guided meditation, breathing exercises, and a flood of different sound waves. This relaxing combination creates deep states of relaxation and restorative rest that promote deep healing on both a mental and physical level.
Sound baths are an incredible tool for relieving stress and anxiety that leaves you with a feeling of deeply relaxed, calm, and refreshed.
The Benefits of Sound Therapy
Sound therapy can help to create deep therapeutic states of relaxation that help promote healing of both the mind and body. This ability to promote a state of calm and collectedness can be used as a tool to help process the problematic thoughts, feeling, and emotions often experienced by those in recovery.
Due to its ability to produce states of deep relaxation, sound therapy can help to balance the nervous system and activate the healing parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. As a result, sound therapy can help improve mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Sound therapy can help improve the following symptoms:
- PTSD
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Hypertension
- Mood imbalances
- Addiction
Additionally, sound therapy provides a useful tool for recovery by providing some of the following benefits:
- Pain relief and management
- Stress reduction
- Emotional stability
- Increased stress tolerance
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improved sleep
How Does Sound Therapy Work?
Brainwave Entrainment
Sound therapy works by stimulating the brain with different sound frequencies that can produce feels of deep relaxation that help promote healing.
Brain waves are at the root of all of our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. It is through brainwaves that our neurons can communicate with one another and send signals throughout the brain. Different brain wave frequencies are associated with specific mood states and vary from fast activity related to states of arousal to slow activity associated with dream and sleep state.
Sound waves can alter brain states due to their influence on brain wave frequencies. Brainwave entrainment uses specific sounds wave frequencies to synchronize brainwaves producing different states of mind.
In the same way, meditation can calm the mind by slowing brain wave frequencies, sound therapy can produce similar effects through sound vibrations.
Balancing the Nervous System
Holistic therapy techniques, such as yoga, breathwork, meditation, and sound therapy, provide valuable tools for stress management. Stress reduction and increase stress resilience result from creating balance in the autonomic nervous system.
Our autonomic nervous system lies at the root of many chronic mental and physical health conditions.Many factors, including poor stress management, lifestyle factors, past trauma, and genetic predispositions, can often lead to an over activation of the “fight or flight,” sympathetic branch of the nervous system.
This imbalanced state causes an overreaction to stress in the brain and body, which can create feelings of fear, anger, worry, anxiety, tensions, and stress. Additionally, this can also lead to physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, high blood pressure, digestive disorders, lowered immunity, and insomnia.
Sound therapy incorporates aspects of meditation, controlled breathing, and influence over brain wave frequencies. These elements affect the ANS and help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the branch of the nervous system responsible for healing and regeneration.
Sound therapy provides a useful tool for those recovering from addiction as it can dampen the feelings of fear, anxiety, worry, and stress often experienced by those in addiction treatment. Additionally, it provides a coping mechanism that helps deal with life’s stressors making it a useful relapse prevention tool.
Healing Sound Therapy Can Help Aid in Addiction Recovery
Sound therapy can be a valuable therapy technique that can help promote stress reduction and relaxation. It offers a complementary treatment method that works well when combined with a holistic program that provides psychotherapy along with various other alternative forms of treatment.
If you are interested in learning more about how sound therapy, along with holistic addiction treatment, can help you or a loved one overcome substance abuse or mental health-related conditions, contact us. We will help you find a program that is right for you.
