Safe & Sound Protocol: Music-based listening therapy

Feeling safe in our bodies is the first step in making changes to how we relate.

Over the last decade, brain research and the field of relational neuroscience has discovered that nervous system health is essential to overall wellness. Put simply, internalizing a sense of felt safety and connection is a powerful foundation for how we interact with the world around us and begin building resilience.

I can teach you to facilitate this experience with your child at home in 5-15 minutes a day.

The Safe + Sound Protocol is a music-based listening therapy rooted in neurobiology, specifically designed to retune the nervous system and boost your child’s sense of equilibrium.

This approach is a non-invasive tool that can support the nervous system with more regulation, improving overall function and supporting:

  • overnight toilet training and fewer daytime accidents

  • easing separation anxiety

  • calming aggressive behaviors

  • reducing noise/auditory sensitivity and other sensory challenges

  • soothing irritability and mood swings

  • making sense of non-verbal cues and social signals

  • cooling conflict and recovering from upsets sooner

Navigating big emotions, transitions and milestones:

  • settling in to a new routine; changing schools or moving house

  • adjusting to new family dynamics, including arrival of a new sibling

  • navigating anxiety sparked by social situations or making new friends

  • preparing for a medical procedure

  • developing more flexible communication skills & capacity to express needs

The difference in your child’s nervous system can be observed as they:

  • engage more intentionally in social relationships

  • experience more steady emotional regulation

  • become more aware of their own body language and internal cues

  • have more success following verbal directions

  • feel more ease about participation in other therapies (occupational therapy, medical procedures, play therapy, tutoring)

  • fewer, less intense tantrums

  • building and demonstrating new coping skills

The SSP is a path to preparing the nervous system for a shift while helping your child feel safe and more steadily connected.

It’s entirely possible for you to benefit from the Safe & Sound Protocol at the same time your child is following the program. In many cases, I can train and support you to facilitate the program at home, with remote support and frequent check-ins.

Your connection and presence with your child will be invaluable. As they build their skills for stress coping and more flexible responses to emotional experiences, you will be right by their side.

ABOUT THE SAFE & SOUND PROTOCOL

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a therapeutic, music-based intervention designed to reduce stress while enhancing emotional regulation. The SSP calms physiological and emotional states, inviting improved communication, supported social engagement, and increased resilience.

Based on many years of research, this 5-hour listening program is designed to support an internal sense of safety, building on environmental, relational, and sensory cues, while decreasing auditory sensitivities. Kids typically listen to 20 minutes or less at a time, so the program can take 6-10 weeks to complete, listening 3-5 days per week.

HOW IT WORKS

Rooted in Polyvagal Theory, the music program is built on specially filtered to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is responsible for calibrating the nervous system. This allows for more connected social engagement and resilience skills in children and adults. The purpose of the SSP is to create new, positive connections in the brain that invite self-regulation by "stretching the nervous system, not stressing the nervous system,” according to SSP creator, Dr. Stephen Porges.

Our systems respond to stress in order to protect us. Sometimes, even predictable transitions and everyday interactions can spark a stress response. This is because the way our nervous systems respond to perceived challenge is individual and highly subjective—meaning there is no singular definition of stress, safety, or trauma. Our modes for re-regulating must be personalized, too.

This SSP intervention is not intended to stand alone—it works best in tandem with, or preparation for play therapy, occupational therapy, skill building, or therapeutic attachment work. This protocol is an adaptive approach, designed to respond to your child’s unique needs and incorporating the latest research in the field.

The SSP works implicitly—in ways that are initially subtle and not directly visible—in the nervous system. With structure, precision, and repetition the program is designed to enhance one's neuroception, or felt sense of safety, below the level of conscious awareness. The accompanying work with a therapist will be explicit—including clear and engaging treatment activities—to help your child recognize their internal state of regulation and develop strategies to help them return to a state of balance and comfortable presence more often, and more flexibly.  Visit the Integrated Listening System (iLs) website for more information.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Participants typically commit to listening for 10-20 minute sessions, following an initial assessment and depending on the listening plan we create together. During the program, listening is commonly paired with a selected activity and accompanied by a parent or caregiver. The program may be completed remotely (at home) or in the playroom over a period of days, weeks, or months. The cost of the 5-hour intervention starts at $650, including parent training, consistent monitoring, and regular support. This fee is reduced for current play therapy clients.

For more about the Safe & Sound Protocol and whether it’s a good fit for your child, please request a consultation.