Welcome to Safe and Sound

The human body-mind is a musical instrument that seeks resonance with other humans. Working with a professional music therapist one can sound the depths and discern the way forward out of distress. Music therapy commonly utilizes other creative modalities, such as visual arts, movement, and metaphor to find imaginative routes to self-understanding and expressivity.

HeartMath® has discovered that our heart rhythm patterns are the best reflection of our inner state. By adding heart, you can shift in the moment into a state of balance and renewing feelings, such as appreciation, care, love and compassion. Proven to help you reduce stress and anxiety by increasing your inner balance and coherence, HeartMath®  helps you access your heart’s rhythms and intuition to become the best version of yourself more often. It starts with a sound heart. 

SE™ psychobiological trauma resolution is a potent method for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress. Trauma does not rest in the event, but rather in the individual’s nervous system. The method does not require the traumatized person to retell or relive events. Instead, it offers the opportunity to engage, complete, and resolve – in a slow and supported way – the body’s instinctual fight, flight, and freeze responses, releasing stored trauma energy and restoring a sound nervous system.

By highlighting the primary role of the body and emphasizing its equal importance to the mind, NATouch™ addresses emotional, relational, and developmental deficits that cannot be reached by verbal means alone. A polyvagal-informed psychobiological approach, NATouch™ integrates the key elements of somatic psychotherapy, attachment and developmental theory, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and affective and interpersonal neurobiology.  Safe touch serves as a vital bridge to body-mind soundness.

ART accesses the brain’s neuroplasticity to reprogram the way distressing images and memories are stored in the brain, so that they no longer trigger strong physical and emotional reactions…while leaving the facts intact. ART uses visualization techniques and attention to the body’s responses to distressing images or memories, enhanced through the use of rapid eye movements, to create new neural connections, restoring sound communication between brain hemispheres and brain levels. ART reinforces positive memories and provides new information to the body-mind, allowing for rapid restoration of functioning and sense of wellbeing.

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidenced-based listening therapy designed to reduce sound sensitivities and improve auditory processing, behavioral state regulation, and social engagement behaviors through specially filtered music. The five-hour auditory intervention - developed and patented by Dr. Stephen Porges, author of Polyvagal Theory - acts as a non-invasive, acoustic vagal nerve stimulator, helping to retune the nervous system to better support connection, collaboration, and resilience. The SSP involves listening to specially filtered music through headphones alongside a provider, in-person or remotely. It addresses trauma, anxiety, sensory processing differences, and more.

Brainspotting

Brainspotting locates points in the client’s visual field that help to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. Brainspotting was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, Ph.D. 

Dr. Grand discovered that “Where you look affects how you feel.” It is the brain activity, especially in the subcortical brain that organizes itself around that eye position.

Brainspotting makes use of this natural phenomenon through its use of relevant eye positions. This helps the Brainspotting therapist locate, focus, process and release a wide range of emotionally and bodily-based conditions. Brainspotting is also a brain-based tool to support the therapy relationship. We believe that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s natural self-scanning, self-healing ability. When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain appears to reflexively signal the therapist that the source of the problem has been found.

Brainspotting therapy works for everyone. Brainspotting gives the therapist access to both the brain and body. The goal is to bypass the conscious thinking processes of the neo-cortex to get to the deeper more emotional and body-based processes from the sub-cortex part of the brain. Brainspotting can be the primary mode of treatment or it can be integrated with other therapeutic modalities.

With focus and precision we can find through the eye positions, the brainspots, where you are holding the trauma, the anxiety, the depression, the relational problems, allowing the brain to process the problems, from the inside-out, from the bottom up.

Do you accept insurance?

I do not acceptance insurance. I work with you to make this an affordable investment in your health. The initial consultation is complimentary.

Do you work with my primary therapist?

I welcome collaboration with your existing providers, with your permission.

What are your credentials and experience?

I maintain the “Music Therapist-Board Certified” credential, administered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists.

I have been a HeartMath® licensed provider since 2008, and stay current with research and technology.

I hold a Master of Arts degree in Psychology.

I am Somatic Experiencing®  Practitioner, and continue my professional development in touch skills with Kathy Kain and Aline La Pierre.

I am an ART Basic trained practitioner.

I have been working in addiction treatment since 2016.

I have completed Foundation Training in NeuroAffective Touch.

I am certified by Unyte iLs as both a

Safe and Sound  (SSP) and Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) Provider.

Do you use social media?

I do not use social media. I take the confidentiality of your treatment very seriously and believe there is no place for social media in our work.

Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) is an innovative, clinical-grade listening therapy designed to help calm and restore mental and physical functioning. 

RRP is informed by decades of research studying physiological rhythms in the body, including heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and in the gut, alongside deep knowledge of advanced sound technology to support deep relaxation and optimal recovery for clients. 

Beyond listening, you do not have to "do" anything to experience the benefits of RRP.

The music of RRP is enhanced by Sonocea®, an innovative, patent-pending technology that uses sound acoustics through music to sync with the natural biological rhythms of the body.

Stimulating these natural rhythms sends cues of safety to the nervous system, promoting healing functions that aid in mental and physical restoration.

You can listen to the music of RRP either in person with your provider or remotely from the comfort of your own home, allowing for flexibility and ease. Your provider with collaborate with you on a listening plan that meets your needs.