The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a listening therapy designed to soothe your nervous system, supporting healing for your body, mind and spirit.
The SSP is grounded in neuroscience and helps us understand how stress impacts our emotions, behavior, and relationships. When stress is ongoing, the nervous system shifts into survival mode, prioritizing safety over connection, learning, and joy.
In this state, we tend to operate on autopilot - reacting impulsively or just going through the motions. Prolonged stress also disrupts the body's natural healing processes, increasing inflammation and reducing resilience.
SSP gently helps rewire these stress-driven patterns in the nervous system. By promoting a sense of safety and regulation, it supports you in feeling more present, calm, and connected—while also enhancing your body’s natural ability to heal.
Soothe Your Nervous System
Why SSP?
Your nervous system is meant to generally live in a state of ease, but to be able to meet temporary demands of stress when needed. Unfortunately, many of us - even children and teens - become stuck in patterns of stress. This may be related to specific stressors, or an accumulation of stress over time. When your nervous system “lives” in a stress state, this can be physically and emotionally exhausting, often leading to feeling overwhelmed or shut down - or a combination of the two.
SSP music was designed by neuroscientists to help soothe the nervous system. With repeated exposure to SSP music, the nervous system can shift to help you feel more at ease more often, and better able to create and use healthier stress response patterns.
SSP can be particularly effective when paired with a basic understanding of how your nervous system works, strategies to manage stress, and other healing modalities.
Re-Pattern Your Nervous System
How does SSP work?
SSP helps to gently re-pattern your stressed nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve through the ears. This nerve plays a powerful role in both your social engagement and stress response systems.
By improving the function of the vagus nerve and integrating practices to nurture the nervous system, clients often notice improvements such as better emotional regulation, more attuned connection with self and others, improved sleep, focus, resilience, and increased feelings of contentment.
SSP can benefit people of all ages, and family dynamics are greatly impacted by individual nervous system states. When parents and children engage in SSP together, it can create a shared experience of healing, deepen emotional connection, and enhance co-regulation—where one person's calm helps another feel calm too.
Discover the benefits of SSP
When working with a knowledgeable and supportive facilitator, SSP can be very effective for people of all ages experiencing a variety of challenges. It is gentle way to powerfully support the nervous system. While anyone with a nervous system can benefit from vagus nerve support, like SSP, you or your child/teen may particularly benefit from the full protocol if any of the following resonates:
You are often feeling stressed, which may impact personal wellbeing, relationships, or sleep
Often worried, overwhelmed, anxious, or having difficulty feeling at ease even in quiet moments
Having problems with emotional or behavioral regulation
Feeling stuck with a lack of change and progress in therapies for emotional or physical healing
Struggling with attention, focus, or follow-through
Feeling disconnected from others, shut down, or a lack of motivation to engage in usual activities
Difficulty advocating for yourself or setting boundaries
Frustrated with or lacking patience when handling children’s emotions or behavior
Lacking enjoyment with or feeling disconnected from your family members or friends
Feeling burned out or disengaged at school or work
Burdened with carrying the problems or emotions of others
Struggling to connect with other people or feel at ease in relationships
Coping with your own, or a loved one’s, chronic illness or chronic pain
Recovering from or grieving a difficult life event, traumatic experience, or loss
If you are a parent, educator, or caregiver, coaching sessions can include strategies to help you provide attuned support and co-regulation for children and teens, supporting healthier development and nervous system resilience. Engaging in SSP can help you to do this with more presence, compassion, and less burnout.
Want to learn more?
Schedule a free consultation with Katy.
SSP can also be highly effective when paired with other therapies. Katy cannot diagnose or formally treat physical or mental health disorders but can help clients connect with appropriate clinicians if indicated. She welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with your, or your child’s, care team to integrate SSP as a supplemental therapeutic approach.
Families often benefit from both parent(s) and child(ren) completing SSP: in this case, we usually have a parent begin the protocol first to increase their own ability to self-regulate and become a more effective co-regulator for their child as they complete the protocol.