How Does It Work?

This non-invasive intervention involves listening to music that has been processed specifically to retune the nervous system to introduce a sense of safety and the ability to socially engage. This allows the client to better interpret not only human speech, but, importantly, the emotional meaning of language. Once interpersonal interactions improve, spontaneous social behaviors and an enhanced ability to learn, self-regulate and engage are often seen.

The human ear and nervous system are particularly sensitive to sounds of human voices, giving people the ability to attend to speech, even in the presence of louder sounds that are lower or higher in pitch than human voices. When the middle ear muscles contract, the human ear is ‘tuned’ to detect the sounds of speech and give less attention to other sound frequencies. When the middle ear muscles are inactive, lower frequency sounds (background noise) perceive stronger than human speech. If the middle ear muscles are not contracting adequately, the person isn’t as able to hear the frequencies associated with the human voice, which our nervous system uses to calm defense reactions. In polyvagal terms, these are “cues of safety.” The middle ear muscles are primarily fast-twitch, and they fatigue easily. Illness and aging also reduce the function of the middle ear muscles. When the Middle ear muscles work properly the background noise is dampened and the nervous system is not activated as easily, thus preventing flight/fight/freeze as easily.  The listener is able to focus and hear human speech (higher frequency) easier.  Listening is connected with the vagus nerve, our body’s internal control center for processing and responding to cues and signals from our environment. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system traveling from the brainstem to the colon. Polyvagal suggests that we have two branches of the vagus nerve (front & back).  The ventral vagal (front) is activated when we feel safe in our environment and connected with others.  The dorsal vagal (back) is activated when we are in a life-threatening situation, or flight/fight/freeze. The vagus nerve helps to regulate blood pressure, digestion, and heart rate. As the body monitors and receives information, the vagus nerve processes these signals/cues from the environment and determines how to react. SSP brings the client from a state of hyperarousal (fight or flight, defensiveness, cautious or nervousness) to a feeling of safety or calmness.  What you hear and how you hear it, influences how the body responds to situations. In polyvagal terms, these are “cues of safety.” Over the course of the SSP, the musical filters progressively elicit greater levels of muscle contraction, and thus strengthen the link between hearing, safety, and middle ear muscle.