How to Become a Sound Practitioner

Singing bowls are a beautiful tool for relaxing, rebalancing and reconnecting that we can use in our personal self-care practice. You can also use them with clients in sound baths, yoga classes or other complementary practices. It’s a great way to expand your offerings, elevate your client experience and draw new people to your business. 

When you’re in the role of facilitating sound healing through singing bowls and other instruments, we call that a sound practitioner. Before diving into playing singing bowls for clients, there are steps I highly recommend you follow to ensure it’s the right path for you and you’re equipped to provide a safe and soothing sound experience for others. 

First steps into sound healing

First and foremost, experience sound healing for yourself. Go to sound baths and events where sound healing is incorporated to see what it’s like and the different sound journeys you can explore. Is it a practice you connect with?

As most sound practitioner trainings will require you to have at least one bowl, look into starting your collection and playing them for yourself. In consultations, I help people find bowls that align with them energetically and what they’d like to achieve through sound healing. I also run workshops where I provide an introduction to singing bowls - how they work, looking after them and the main playing techniques. Dip your toe in and see whether it’s something you want to invest in professionally.

Recommended reading about sound healing

It’s a good idea to start building your knowledge of sound healing before committing to professional training. Do some research to gain insight into how sound healing works, the impact it has and how it would add to your professional skillset and client offerings. There are some highly experienced authors and professionals within the sound healing space. Their work is a great place to start.

• Jonathan Goldman & Andi Goldman - The Humming Effect and the 7 Secrets of Sound Healing

• Mitchell Gaynor, MD - The Healing Power of Sound

• Farzana Ali - Sound Healing: How to Use Sound to Beat Stress & Anxiety

• Interviews with Dr Jeffrey Thompson in the ‘Heal’ documentary on Netflix and multiple podcasts

• ‘The Art and Science of Sound Healing’ podcast with Thomas Orr Anderson

Accredited sound healing practitioner training

While independent research or a workshop gives you enough insight to play for yourself and start to experiment with the kind of sessions you want to offer, accredited trainings give you all the information and skills you need to work as a sound practitioner.

There is so much to learn! Comprehensive training courses teach you about singing bowls and how to play them, covering things you wouldn’t necessarily think about yourself. They also explore the business side of working as a sound practitioner such as pricing, insurance and promotion. It gives you a really solid knowledge base to launch the sound healing side of your practice. 

It’s not technically a requirement, as there are no restrictions on who can work as a sound practitioner, but accredited trainings give you legitimacy and the knowledge and skills to look after your clients during sound healing. It is possible to play in a way that keeps people in stress and tension instead of helping them float away into a meditative state. Understanding the nuances of singing bowls and how to play them gives you the expertise to safely take people on a sound journey. 

Of course, do your research and find a trainer who you connect with and has strong credentials behind them. There are two sound practitioners whom I highly recommend for their professionalism, wisdom, experience and style of teaching. Their courses are accredited by the CMA and you are issued a qualifying certification at the end.

• Holly Husler specialises in crystal singing bowl training and runs both in-person and online courses. 

• Nicole Shields offers in-person training events and great self-paced online courses on sound healing. 

If you’re looking to play singing bowls for 5 minutes of peace, my foundation workshop will be enough to get you started. If you would like to bring sound healing into your work with clients, after exploring and doing your research, look into becoming an accredited sound practitioner. It gives you the knowledge, skills and experience to create a safe healing space for clients and share good vibrations with the world.