As we approach our 20th anniversary at BAST I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come since I started working with sound therapy. Lyz in 1995 I first started looking into sound therapy in 1994 when I was diagnosed with ME and found that therapeutic sound made me feel so much better. Here is a picture of me back then! …
Back in November, Lyz wrote SOMNUS X is a 10 minute piece of Consciously Designed Music specifically designed to help induce sleep. We asked our friends, followers and members of the public to take part in a sleep study to test the track and monitor their quality of sleep. Sleep affects almost every aspect of our lives including our general …
The therapeutic sound field is vast – there are so many different approaches from different backgrounds. At BAST, we use the BAST Method of Sound Therapy, but what is it and how is it used? We have two main ways of working at BAST, passively and actively. In all of our approaches the therapist needs to have a good understanding …
I’m very pleased to say that I have now created a sleep track called ‘SOMNUS’ and I’d love you to be among the first to hear it! Somnus is the Roman god of sleep so when thinking of a name for the track it seemed appropriate. There are two versions – SOMNUS X (10 minutes) and SOMNUS V (5 minutes). SOMNUS …
It is thought that the Hominins of the Middle Pleistocence era (781,000 – 126,000 years ago) were capable of vocalisation, making the voice one of the oldest instruments in existence. Over the hundreds of thousands of years that have followed we have evolved many neural pathways, giving rise to a vastly expressive voicescape that has so much healing potential. The …
Written in 1884, Root refers to the healing power of the voice – in this case both physically and emotionally. Fast forward almost 135 years and we now know more than ever before about the healing potential of the human voice. Sound and voice therapy are in the midst of a boom – there is now so much interest as …
There is a growing understanding of the positive impact that arts-based therapeutic sessions can have on health and wellbeing. There are now many different organisations championing the arts for health and wellbeing in many different ways – from organising trips to museums with exhibits that partially sighted people can touch, to knitting for good mental health – there are so …
Our brand new prospectus is ready and it features more courses and choices than ever before! We’ve really enjoyed putting this programme together – it has been quite the mental agility test to get everything to work, but it has been so worth it. Due to the increasing number of people wanting to use sound and music for health and …
This year I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the studio working on a brand new relaxation programme incorporating therapeutic music and sound therapy. This programme is called ‘LifeSonics Relax’ and it will be launched in the New Year. I’ve written two albums, ‘Cosmic’ and ‘Glow’ and there are another two in the pipeline. Over the next few months …
Do you use music in your therapy room? If so, what is your preference – classical, new age, traditional, contemporary? Something else? Have you ever how and why certain tracks or sounds are better at relaxation than others? Have you ever struggled to find the ‘right’ music for your style of treatment? I have been working with therapeutic sound and …
Smart devices are not only there to tell you the weather, what the traffic is doing etc they can be used to create wonderful health-boosting ‘sonic atmospheres’ at home. Using sound therapy as a method of relaxation has helped people with a wide range of conditions including anxiety, depression, stress and pain. Anyone that has tried massaging their own tense …
I have just received an email asking me how and why I developed the voice and movement techniques called ‘Vocal Processing Techniques’ used in the Holistic Voice Therapy and Transformational Voice Therapy Diploma Courses. Having worked with these techniques for many years they have become second nature to me and I rarely take time to step back and ask myself …
As it’s migraine awareness week and as someone who experiences migraine myself, I know how debilitating they can be. Mine tend to be silent, that is, a migraine without the pain, but over the years I have developed ways to use therapeutic sound and music as a way to reduce the frequency of attacks and these days I only get …
In 2017 the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) called for the introduction of a national sleep strategy and what they referred to as a “slumber number” – the ideal amount of sleep people should be aiming for each night. However, as many of us who have had 8 hours sleep a night will confirm – a night’s sleep is …
If music be the food of love play on William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Tonight all over the world millions of lovers are tucking into their Valentine’s day meal, or a box of choccies that their nearest and dearest has lavished on them. Think of how much more enjoyment you could get out of this experience with the added boost of …
“…music occupies more areas of our brain than language does – humans are a musical species” Oliver Sacks Sound is such a powerful vehicle for eliciting and communicating human emotion. In this post I will talk about how, as a sound therapist and therapeutic music composer, I use sound and music to boost your mood, enhance mood state and help improve …
Millions of people worldwide benefit from managing their health and wellbeing with alternative approaches, many of which are thousands of years old. I have been involved in holistic therapies for over 30 years and it is wonderful to see how the interest has grown over this time. I have worked with many therapies in my time but in 1994, following …
This week we’re focussing on getting creative, and in particular how you can use sound to get the creative juices flowing. We hope you’ll see how versatile sound can be, and how it can help with relaxation as well as improving the imagination. Following the relaxing rhythms, create a playlist of upbeat and inspirational music – start with slower tempo …
This week’s blog is dedicated to our very own Lyz Cooper who has been revolutionising the world of holistic health through sound therapy for more than 20 years. With a wealth of knowledge and a position as a research leader in her field, her dedication to sound therapy is undeniable. With this in mind, we wanted to get to know …
As the holistic and alternative medicine fields expand, there’s never been a better time to get involved and develop your skill set through a Sound Therapy Diploma course. Whether you’re an occupational therapist, nurse, or just someone with an interest in relaxation therapies, the Sound Therapy Diploma courses on offer at The British Academy of Sound Therapy could really suit you. …
How a simple session with a specific therapeutic sound sequence can reduce pain, improve emotional well-being, calm and clear the mind and a whole host of other positive benefits. BAST now has data to support the effectiveness of therapeutic sound.
Lyz Cooper MA, MSc, FICNM Introduction This article intends to provide some insight into musical expectancy and how we, at The British Academy of Sound Therapy (BAST), use it to help improve health and well-being. I will also give some tips as to how to bring sound and music into your life to help improve your mood-state. Despite our upbringing, …
Find out how and why the way our language evolved over millennia has resulted in our voices being so beneficial for improving health and well being.
We all know how stressful Christmas shopping could be. This is why Morrisons is trying to make this year’s holiday season a little bit more cheerful for us all. In collaboration with Lyz Cooper, founder of The British Academy of Sound Therapy, Morrisons came up with ‘Festive Fred’ who would replace the usual voice at the self-service tills at all Morrisons stores across the country.
Have you ever been moved to tears or had goosebumps or chills when listening to your favourite track? Do you find high pitched sounds such as alarms or nails down a blackboard really intrusive or even annoying? Have you ever wondered why this is? The way we respond to sound and music is down to the way we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
This is an exciting time to be alive! Advancements in science are helping to support, and add a new dimension to, thousands of years of spiritual teachings. This process is helping to increase the awareness and credibility of holistic therapies in the mainstream.
As I write this long overdue post I am in an apartment in Byron Bay, Australia. I have just finished running a five day intensive diploma in voice therapy in Brisbane, drove to Byron and spent a long but enjoyable day today playing and choosing crystal bowls for the next group of students that I will be teaching in a …
The power of the human voice never ceases to amaze me. Not only does it enable us to communicate, to tell great stories, to share our problems and our successes but it also helps boost our immune system – more of this later in this post. My first experience of the power of therapeutic sound was using the voice. I …
Module 1 – Gongbaths, Soundbaths and Relaxation Sessions – We will explore how to give relaxing sessions using the gong, Himalayan and crystal bowls and how these relaxation sessions affect neurology, biology and psychology. We will practice specific techniques to encourage maximum relaxation.
Module 2 – Rhythm Group Facilitation – Express your story in a rhythmscape offering an outlet for communication beyond words, explore the application of rhythm in a therapeutic context and the use of rhythm games to develop social skills, communication, expression, team building, conflict resolution and group interaction.
Module 3 – Soundscapes, Interactive Sessions, Sonic Art – Explore how to use sound as a dynamic ‘healthy art’ form. Soundscape sessions are interactive, dynamic and fun, encouraging communication, collaboration and artistic and emotional expression. This module is a perfect way to combine sound with other visual and written art-forms such as poetry, creative writing, photography, sculpture and so on.
Module 4 – Working with Unhelpful Narrative – How many of us go through life with unhelpful beliefs that hold us back? This module offers a powerful way to question these beliefs and offers an outlet for expression beyond words. As a result the unhelpful story can lose its power and a new potential way of being can be explored using …
