Understanding Trauma-Informed Sound by Julie Jules Smoot: Prioritizing the nervous system, avoiding overwhelming tones, respecting boundaries, allowing for rest, and promoting choice over pressure for safety and steadiness. When I use the phrase trauma-informed sound , I am not talking about relaxation music. I am not talking about spa ambiance. I am not talking about forcing calm. Trauma-informed sound means that the nervous system comes first. It means the body is respected

In both movement and sound, there is an assumption that something must always be happening—another cue, another tone, another instruction, another layer. But my training, experience, and listening have taught me something quieter and more demanding: sometimes the most ethical choice is to pause.

It did not teach me how to recognize the quiet signals of a body that is dissociating, bracing, or enduring instead of receiving. It did not teach me how to sit with discomfort without trying to fix it. It did not teach me how to trust silence. Training also did not teach me how power moves in subtle ways—how even well-intentioned facilitation can become intrusive if listening is replaced by agenda.

I am an accredited Sound Alchemist through Medicine of Sound and Bliss Bowls, with formal trainings completed across 2022, 2023, and 2024. These years of study deepened not only my technical skill, but my understanding of sound as a relational and responsive practice rather than a performance.

I am a Certified Nia Floor Play Teacher and a Nia First Degree Black Belt. I name this not as a claim of authority over bodies, but as transparency about the lineage and training that inform my work. Nia offered me a structured language for understanding movement through sensation, awareness, and relationship rather than force. Through Floor Play in particular, I learned how profoundly regulating it can be for the body to move close to the ground—where support is constant