What if you could finally let your guard down, releasing the emotional tension caused by trauma or ongoing anxiety? A unique treatment called the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) offers hope with an unexpected method – listening to music.
The Safe and Sound Protocol is a five-day treatment for reducing stress and improving emotional coping skills. This treatment uses specific sounds and music to retrain how your nervous system responds to stress and stimulation. When your body learns to relax and rest, you’re better with social interactions, and your emotions don’t seem so overwhelming.
SSP is often used with people on the autism spectrum. But if you’ve struggled with anxiety or trauma, this treatment can help you, too. This guide will show you more about what SSP is, how it’s used, and how you may find better relief for your anxiety or trauma symptoms.
How Does Safe and Sound Protocol Help Anxiety and Trauma?
The SSP works with the polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. The polyvagal theory highlights the vagus nerve, which runs from the base of your brain down to your intestinal tract. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS helps your body relax and restore itself. For more about how the polyvagal theory works, read this guide.
In a state of trauma and anxiety, your nervous system is sensitive to nearly everything around you. Your nervous system reads the stimuli around you as threatening. This can cause you to feel unsafe and anxious. During the SSP treatment, you wear headphones and listen to specially designed music. These musical tones deliver calming messages directly to your nervous system.
As you listen, the music stimulates and trains your nervous system to respond differently than before. You learn to focus on human speech and tune out other distracting or disruptive sounds. This process helps you understand and interpret emotional meaning more accurately. When the SSP treatment takes effect, you’ll feel safer when you interact with others. You’ll feel more grounded and more capable of managing your emotions.
Who Can Use Safe and Sound Protocol?
SSP is most commonly used to help people on the autism spectrum manage their emotions. Frustration can lead to emotional distress, so SSP acts as a supportive treatment. If you’ve experienced trauma, you can benefit in a similar way. Traumatic experiences can train your nervous system to stay alert for threats at all times. Without treatment, you may relive the trauma trapped in your mind and body many times over.
When you have ongoing anxiety, you can feel overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted. Your threshold for handling stress is too low, making it tough to feel relaxed. It can feel like your nervous system is always switched on.
This is where the Safe and Sound Protocol can be helpful. When the SSP activates your vagus nerve, your body begins to follow a different path. Instead of feeling overstimulated and hyperalert, you can feel grounded and more settled. Your vagal system responds to the music, changing your physiology in that moment. In essence, SSP retunes your nervous system to a more balanced state.
How is Safe and Sound Protocol Used?
According to Dr. Porges, SSP is best used with other treatments. Doing mental health therapy isn’t a passive activity like getting a shot or taking a pill. It requires mental and emotional energy as well as effort.
Sometimes, a person is not functioning well enough to start processing traumatic events right away. In these situations, it helps to have another intervention to support therapy. For some people, this may be a medication that reduces symptoms so they can begin therapy. SSP can help in the same way for people dealing with trauma or anxiety. SSP can “prime” the client’s central nervous system for successful treatment.
SSP can stimulate and guide your body toward a state of readiness that is alert but not overstimulated. Doing SSP with therapy can be like using a handrail when going up a flight of stairs. You can walk up without holding on. But putting your hand on the railing helps you step up with a sense of security and confidence.
For example, EMDR is a specialized therapy to help a person reprocess trauma. While EMDR is an effective treatment, it can be emotionally difficult. SSP can help you feel calm and confident before starting an EMDR session. It can also calm and soothe you if your EMDR session was upsetting or stressful.
Trauma and Anxiety – Feeling Safe and Sound
Trauma and anxiety can feel like a switch in your nervous system is permanently left on. Safe and Sound Protocol can be the final piece of the puzzle to help you get help with anxiety and trauma. When your body feels safe, your mind and spirit can open up.
SSP can be a comfortable and soothing addition to any counseling therapy plan. For more information about this unique treatment, read this guide or if you are located in California make an appointment with Kelly.
SSP is currently available through a trained provider for remote use via an app. Information on how Kelly works with SSP including cost can be found here.
Kelly Burris, LMFT (CA 86688) is located in San Clemente, California and available for digital telehealth appointments for those locate in California. Kelly is an EMDR certified therapist and SSP provider specializing in trauma.
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