Enhance Well-being with Safe and Sound Protocol Therapy (SSP)
The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidence-based therapy designed to improve behavioral state regulation and social engagement behaviors, behaviors through specially-filtered music. The application helps retune the nervous system to be more regulated and resilient to life’s challenges.
The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) is a practical application of the Polyvagal Theory, developed by world-renowned researcher, Dr. Stephen Porges. The specially-filtered music (“Listening Therapy”) acts as a non-invasive vagal nerve stimulator, helping to retune the nervous system to better support connection, collaboration and resilience.
Developed by world-renowned researcher, Dr. Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory focuses on what is happening in the body and the nervous system, and explains how our sense of safety, danger or life threat can impact our behavior. The Polyvagal Theory offers a scientific framework that supports the integration of physiological (“bottom-up”) therapies with cognitive (“top-down”) approaches to help change and improve how we feel, think and connect with others.
The ability of the brain to change in response to stimulation is known as “neuroplasticity.” The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is based on this principle, providing gentle and specific stimulation in order to activate the neural pathways used in the processing of sensory information.
Neural connections in these pathways are strengthened and new connections are established through repeated sessions of multisensory input, allowing the nervous system to adapt and find safety more quickly and easily.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
The mind and body are connected through the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system, stretching from the brainstem to the colon. It is our internal control center, allowing the brain to monitor and receive information about many of our bodily functions.
The vagus nerve helps to regulate critical aspects of human physiology, including the heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion and even speaking. As the body takes in information automatically through neuroception, the vagus nerve communicates this information to the brain, which processes the signals and cues from the world around us and in turn determines how we react through three physiological states:
Parasympathetic/ventral vagal state: Our centered, “true self” state, where all social interaction, connection and creativity occurs.
Sympathetic state: Feeling of threat or danger, and feeling the need to either “fight” or “flee” from a situation to seek safety.
Dorsal vagal state: Our “freeze” state, when we feel our lives are so immediately threatened that we become immobilized.