Sound Therapy Program
MOIRA LO BIANCO: SOUND THERAPY AND SOUND-MIND-YOGA
Moira Lo Bianco has been immersed in and worked with sound since childhood; she is a composer and pianist, as well as a sound therapist, meditation and yoga teacher. Moira also provides hands-on sound therapy training to health care providers for use in clinical settings. Accessibility is core to her mission to reach and serve populations of diverse ages, abilities, races, ethnicities, orientations, genders, cultures and origins.
Moira is currently serving as an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, as well as on the Advisory Board for the Bioregulatory Medicine Institute. She is a Steinway Artist and a Steinway Educational Partner. Please visit Moira’s website to learn more about her work advancing integrative practices grounded in sound and encompassing the performing and healing arts.
Program offerings and benefits:
- Sound Therapy Sessions: This offering promotes deep listening experiences incorporating sound therapy and mindfulness meditation. Sound therapy helps balance energy through the use of consonance and dissonance. Consonant sounds activate the relaxation response, stabilize energy and nurture a sense of wholeness. Dissonant sounds move blocked energy and release stored emotions, stress, and trauma. Therapeutic sounds help promote wellness and a sense of well-being by connecting the physical with the emotional, intellectual, and energetic bodies. Sound healing instruments, including Himalayan singing bowls and tuning forks, foster the body’s inherent vibration through what is known as ‘sympathetic resonance.’ This form of physical entrainment is achieved by projecting instruments’ pure acoustic frequencies to imbalanced areas of the body, restoring optimal resonance.
- Sound-Mind-Yoga for Children: This offering introduces children to therapeutic sounds, mindfulness practices, and yoga using storytelling, engagement, simplified language, and games. The Sound-Mind-Yoga program can help children see their worth, boost their self-confidence, and feel comfortable in their bodies. Each class fosters children’s well-being through a series of interactive activities that help relax and support the nervous system, encourage sound sleep, teach body awareness and acceptance, and inspire creativity and imagination. Sound-Mind-Yoga practices support children’s physical development by redirecting scattered and impulsive energy, and also promote motor coordination (both fine and gross motor skills). The program has been carefully designed to support cognitive, social, and emotional development.
- Sound-Mind-Yoga for Adults: This offering integrates sound therapy with mindfulness meditation, yoga asanas (yoga postures) and pranayama (yoga breathwork). These practices are designed to merge physical movement with the breath, moving energy in the body and fostering physiological and mental strength and stability. Sessions are tailored to clients’ bodies, with respect for their injuries, illnesses, and physical limitations. Postures are adapted with an emphasis on healing and balance, focusing on trauma-informed practices including restorative, vini, and yin yoga. Each yoga pose feels comfortable and attainable, without forcing postures that may injure the body. Yoga breathwork practices, together with the postures, connect the patient’s physical, emotional, and mental spheres, promoting auto-regulation through a sense of wholeness.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS (2023-4)
WWMU is seeking to expand our exceptionally well-received sound therapy programming in the United States as soon as possible. Your support can help make it happen!
The SaMa initiative (below) currently focuses its efforts in Argentina, with hopes to expand to other areas of South America.
Our sound therapy practitioners each draw from different modalities and employ various methodologies to address the specific needs of the communities they serve. Read on to learn more about SaMa!
SAMA: MUSIC AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE FOR THE ELDERLY AND TERMINALLY ILL
SaMa’s main objective is to deliver the therapeutic capacities of sound and music to people spending the final moments of their lives in nursing homes and hospice care centers.
The fragility of healthcare systems has left these individuals particularly vulnerable, often navigating their experiences of illness and death in a context of profound loneliness and uncertainty. Unfortunately, the pandemic has only made this complex situation worse.
Coordinated by Alejo Duek (Osteopath) and María Vega (Somatic Therapist) in Argentina, and backed by international researchers in the fields of Psychology and Music Therapy, SaMa harnesses the power of sound to provide healing, hope, and in some cases, a peaceful transition.
Program highlights and benefits:
- Reduced anxiety, stress, and discomfort
- Promotes calm and relaxation in elderly and confined patients, contributing to improvements in mental, physiological, and spiritual well-being
- Complementary, accessible-to-all treatment that can be used alongside traditional medical interventions
- A non-invasive and non-pharmacological approach
- Adaptable to the unique needs, protocols, and expertise of participating healthcare institutions
- Community involvement and support: volunteers, musicians and sound therapists come together to create a healing environment for patients, their families, and caregiving staff
“We are more and more convinced that music is the ideal language for conducting a dialogue in this passage between life and death. Each visit to a palliative care center brings brightness to eyes where there was none, contact where words alone could not reach, and in some cases, the precious opportunity to accompany a person in the precise moment of their passing, with music.”
– Alejo Duek & María Vega, SaMa Founders and Project Coordinators
Watch the video below to hear straight from the nurses who have witnessed the tremendous impact of this program up close.
INTERESTED IN PARTNERING WITH US TO
BRING HEALING TO YOUR COMMUNITY?
You will just need to fill in a form and send us the relevant information about your community and/or organization.
We will get back to you as soon as possible with our feedback and the next steps to take. Thank you and we look forward to connecting!
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This is what we do: we provide guidance, resources, and professional-grade production services for musicians in need, so they can empower themselves and their communities through music and music education.
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