Over the years I have realized how powerful shamanic sound healing is as a tool for becoming present enough to cure illness, heal injuries, release emotional and physical pain, connect strongly with spirit, and regain one's natural, healthy balance in life. One of the reasons it is so powerful is that it can be taught as a self healing, empowering tool that people can incorporate into their every day lives. Many years ago I became very involved in opening alternative complimentary medicine sound healing programs in several hospitals across the country.
Since I had begun my life with first hand extensive hospital experience as a patient, and later was involved professionally in medical social work as a patient advocate and therapist, I knew well the pluses and minuses that came with the medical territory in hospital settings. I was very dedicated to making sure that the patients had something soothing and healing to touchstone with during their medical experience, and knew that many hospitals would benefit greatly from complimentary medical programs in sound healing. I also enjoyed bridging the gap between shamanism and the more traditional healing modalities in the world of sound healing. I became one of the earliest founding members of the complimentary medical sound healing group ACCHORD, which implemented one of the first sound healing hospital programs in the country at Sacred Heart Hospital, in Eugene, Oregon.
It was quite an amazing experience and an honor to play improvisational sound healing music on Native American flutes for people who were healing from injuries, surgeries, cancer, and immune illnesses, as well as for their families. The ethereal quality of native flute sounds offered a respite from the medical world, and allowed many patients to enter into their own private healing journey, which often sped up the healing process and gave them a sense of self empowerment. Other patients were pregnant with their babies, which is a wonderful experience to share with them through sound, and allows the mom's to meet their babies on a whole different level, which includes their spirits and souls.
Playing flute music to babies in utero is a magical way to create a sound bridge with these new beings, and can also be taught to the mom’s with vocal sound bridging so that they can meet their babies on a different level and learn to share a new language of communication. On the other end of the life spectrum, many patients were transitioning to the “other side” of life, which I was very familiar and comfortable with by that point. Helping people transition to the "other side" is a sacred gift for all involved, and often reminds us of the gentleness and beauty that can accompany the dying and transition process. Many medical settings around the world now use complimentary medical sound healing programs for healing everything from broken bones to cancer, with stellar results, which have been well documented.
While attending a New England Sound Healing Research Institute conference, which is a group I have been involved with since it’s inception several years ago, I had the honor of meeting several women who had actually healed their cancer through the use of vocal sound alone, and nothing else. The power of our own voices constantly amazes me on many levels, and is something that we all have the inborn right to learn about for our own self healing journeys through life.