No matter how experienced a facilitator may be, they cannot feel what you feel. They cannot sense your edges. They cannot track your capacity. They cannot know what safety means inside your nervous system. Only you can. This is not a responsibility to perform well. It is a permission to decide.

People often ask what is supposed to happen during sound healing. They want to know what they should feel. They want to know if they’re doing it right. They want to know how they’ll know it’s working. These questions make sense. Many of us have learned that healing looks a certain way—calm, emotional release, insight, lightness, peace. But trauma-informed sound begins with a quieter truth:

If you’re here, you may be curious about sound healing—but unsure if it’s for you. You may be living with trauma, grief, exhaustion, or a nervous system that doesn’t easily settle. You may have tried meditation, breathwork, or sound before and felt like it didn’t work—or didn’t feel safe. This space is different. There is no right way to be here. There is nothing you need to fix. You are welcome exactly as you are.

Even when these expectations are offered gently, they are still expectations. And for many people—especially those with trauma histories—expectations can feel like pressure. Trauma-informed sound healing begins with a different premise: Nothing is required of you.

Many people come to sound healing expecting peace.

In trauma-informed and somatic frameworks, it is understood that regulation often follows activation. The nervous system may need to recognize and move through held patterns before settling. Sound can catalyze this process. For someone accustomed to dissociation, relaxation can feel unsafe. Stillness may bring awareness that was previously avoided. In these cases, discomfort is not a sign of harm—it is a sign of contact.

We have been taught—through images, language, and expectation—to associate healing with comfort and visual harmony. If it looks serene, if it feels gentle, if it can be captured and shared, then it must be working. This belief confuses appearance with truth. Real healing is not a performance. It does not arrive curated. It often begins in discomfort, confusion, or a sense of disorientation as old patterns loosen their grip.

There are moments in sound work when nothing seems to happen. No waves of emotion. No visions. No release that announces itself. Just sound, breath, and the ordinary awareness of being in a body. These moments are often misunderstood. We’re conditioned to look for signs—proof that something is working. When nothing obvious occurs, it’s easy to assume the session failed, that the sound missed its mark, or that we somehow did it wrong.

Sound healing has gained popularity as a gentle yet profound way to restore balance and promote well-being. Among the many instruments used in sound therapy, the Neptune gong stands out for its unique vibration and deep connection to spiritual and physical healing. This post explores how Neptune gong baths, led by sound alchemist Julie Jewels Smoot, offer a powerful experience that nurtures the mind, body, and spirit.