Undertaking an Assessment of Sound Therapy Training

I welcome Mitch Nur's opening of this debate and hope it gets a good airing.
As someone who has followed their own intuition in developing the Sounding Bowls I do in part feel spoken too, yet when it comes to learning how these new instruments might be effective I have watched and learnt from others, thus combining the academic and the inspirational approaches he recommends.

One point I would like to contribute an opinion on is the words therapy and healing.
To me these terms are not interchangeable.
Having watched, listened and read views by people describing themselves in both terms I have come to see them as distinct modus operandi
THERAPY appears to me as a way of engaging the activity of the client/patient either outwardly or inwardly, physically or psycho/spiritually such that their skills and abilities are increased. Here I would quote physiotherapy in which the abilities in a damaged limb may be returned to better function. Also psychotherapy in which such issues as traumatised relational patterns can be returned to more functional levels.
HEALING appears to me as a way of intervening below the level of conscious participation so as to assist a process, either physical or psycho/spiritual to enter a healing mode. Here I would quote the use of medication to heal an illness or hands on healing in which the client/patient remains similarly inactive, or vibrational 'therapy' intended to activate things below the level of attention in the client/patient.
I am aware that there is not quite this level of clarity in everyday usage of the terms. You might have heard "drug therapy" as a term in hospital use. Yet I would suggest that this is a misnomer and possibly taken as a term specifically in order to elevate drugs in situations where psychotherapy might have better long term effects.
I believe we should define these terms clearly along the lines laid out above and seek different practices and trainings for each discipline.
It seems to me that each of these activities requires a different approach, different techniques, different client relations.
I would be most interested in other practitioners experience and understanding on this.

This is good dialog, and an important first step. Responding to Tobias, I would add that 'healing' requires active participation by the person seeking wellness, and the 'provider' should be well aware of this and honest in their ability. This 'word' seems to have a very wide breadth nowadays, and I would suggest a narrowing of this definition would help matters a bit. To quote my colleague Alexandre Tannous " It does not make clear how sound acts upon us, because sound itself does not heal us. Rather, sound is used as a tool. It’s our awareness of what we can do with sound, and how it operates upon us, that is healing. But the “sound healer” does not actually heal with sound. The sound itself is not enough. The receiver needs to be engaged in a therapeutic experience, which is why I believe that “sound therapy” is a more appropriate term. Sound allows the body to heal itself when the person’s awareness is engaged." I feel that some 'middle ground' to what Tobias and Alexandre have presented allows us to explore 'talking points' more deeply. Benjamin offers up an analysis that summarizes a regularity approach of sorts or a code. His examination does hilight a truth of practice and the purpose of being a role model. I think this initial dialog offers an entry point for further discussion to develop.

This is a really important conversation thank you Mitch for raising these points, really valuable!

Defining the similarities and differences between healing and therapy is important as it will help us to understand, further define and therefore communicate the different areas within the field of therapeutic sound to others. There is no doubt that the field is growing rapidly in the mainstream and therefore open and positive conversations are important. I am sure that in the future other areas will emerge within the field, which is really exciting, so getting some 'foundations' in at this stage is crucial, I believe, to creating a steadily growing, positive culture.

On the subject of sound healing and sound therapy, I wrote an article a while ago aiming to define the two areas of the field from information I had gathered as as co-founder of the Therapeutic Sound Association (formally the Sound Therapy Association). Myself and Sheila Hill of the School of Inner Sound approached many of the different training schools and people working in therapeutic sound over a period of 5 years, and out of these conversations, themes emerged. Healing can be a loaded word, as it can imply that there is someone that has the power to heal, and someone that doesn't - the client is being 'healed' in the Biblical sense, and that the client is passive in this process. However, healing is the natural process that the body/system goes through from illness to wellness - 'the healing process', and so I do think the word has a place, it depends on the context and the way it is defined.

In my opinion, (and in a nutshell), sound healing is the effect that sound has on the system (altering consciousness, lowering blood pressure etc). I have written articles about these healing effects based on my research (see my authors area). Sound therapy is the process of assisting a client to engage with their personal process, in my case I teach a reflective model known as The 5Rs Model of Experiential Processing to help with reflection. This model enables the client to improve their self awareness and become mind-full of the impact that their environment, beliefs, etc have on their well-ness and to become mind-empty when it comes to unhelpful dialogue.

Sound applied in specific ways helps the client achieve an altered state of consciousness (ASC) which hopefully softens the mental, emotional and physical bodies (no guarantee!), and the reflective element helps them to move forward from that more softened state by transforming their beliefs and making appropriate changes in life/mind. Sound therapy, in my opinion, is different to sound healing, and they need to stay seperate in order for clients and students to choose the approach that suits them the best. Both approaches are needed and valid, as long as the word 'healing' and 'therapy' are defined in the right way by the organisation teaching the method. Education is needed within the community and in the mainstream in order to communicate the different approaches clearly as there is some muddying of the waters at the moment.

With regard to training courses, when founding the original Sound Therapy Association (now Therapeutic Sound Association) Sheila and I met with many different prominent people in sound in the UK and asked them to contribute towards helping to set accepted minimum standards for training, ethical and professional practice guidelines. Three training schools came forward, The College of Sound Healing, The School of Inner Sound and The British Academy of Sound Therapy (BAST). We consulted with other complementary medicine training schools, and membership bodies (ICNM, BCMA) to gauge how many in class, home study, case study hours etc comprise the average professional training course across the complementary health board within the 'low risk' sector, which is where therapeutic sound is placed. From this we set a minimum agreed standard, a code of ethics and best practice. Last year we decided to change the name from the STA to the TSA to enable us to be more inclusive and embrace a larger sector. There seems to be some reticence with some sound training schools in the community to join the TSA, but the energy in the wider sector is very positive.

Any training establishment that is a member of the TSA has demonstrated that they train people to the accepted standard, and in some cases, above the minimum level of hours required. Speaking for BAST we place importance on the theoretical elements, research and development etc as well as the playing techniques, which are introduced, but then the student is encouraged to immerse themselves in the playing and sonic discovery of their tools with coursework outside of class-time, which in itself is over 100 hours, so home study is also something that needs to be factored in when looking at training.

When prospective students are looking for a training course, and put faith, trust and money in an organisation, they really need to know that their qualification is going to hold water, and be worth something at the end of the day. It would be wonderful if more schools and individuals would come forward to be a part of the TSA, to help this wonderful field to grow and to have conversations such as this, so we can move forward with what we are all passionate about - therapeutic sound.