The Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol
The safe and sound protocol is an evidence based therapy that supports the nervous system in experiencing safety, flexibility and regulation.
What is the safe and sound protocol?
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a non invasive, evidence based auditory intervention. It has been designed to help the nervous system feel safer, become more flexible, resilient and better regulated.
Dr. Stephen Porges created the SSP to help people learn to achieve a grounded state where they feel safe, connected, calm and social. The SSP comes out of nearly four decades of research, on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and the social emotional processes underpinned by Dr Porges’ Polyvagal Theory.
The safe and sound protocol and trauma
Our Physiological state plays a major role in how we express ourselves and behave. Our optimal physiological state is produced by our social engagement system (SES). Central to the activation of the SES is our vagus nerve, which is our tenth cranial nerve that runs form the brain stem al the way down into our gut. The vagus nerve oversees a range of functions including heart rate, respiration, digestion and more. This nerve communicates message between the body and our brain and signals whether we are safe or unsafe.
When we are able to pick on cues of safety and feel safe in our environment our SES can do its job and we can relax. We are open to new ideas, we can be playful, we feel peaceful and calm and we are able to socially engage and connect with others.
If we feel unsafe and we are picking up cues of danger in our environment our SES ‘switches off’ and our sympathetic nervous system is activated. This is where our body starts to mobilise, preparing us for action and readying us to move into a state of fight or flight, and in the case of life threat, we may move into an immobilisation response of collapse or feign death response, also known as dorsal vagal activation.
When our survival instincts are over-stimulated, as in the case of trauma survivors it is difficult to learn, socialize, and connect with others. This is where the SSP comes in. As an evidence-based auditory therapy, it assists people who experience this over-stimulation by calming their physiological and emotional state.
Different frequencies of sound communicate different information. Low frequencies are associated with sounds of threat and danger while high frequencies communicate alert. As described in the Polyvagal Theory, social behavior and emotional regulation are only possible when the nervous system deems the environment safe.
While we can hear sounds from 20-20,000 Hz, the frequencies associated with human speech (from about 1,000-5,000 Hz) are what convey that you are safe with your friends and family. This begins with our first breath; the melody and intonation of a parent’s voice calms an infant and we continue to subconsciously crave these signals as adults.
For various reasons (the effects of trauma, low muscle tone, or even a history of ear infections), one’s ability to process the sounds of human voice can be impaired. This can result in a learned disuse of the neural network associated with speech perception. Traumatic experiences also affect the way our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) operates, which can leave us more sensitive to orienting to 'cues of danger' where we become reactive. By emphasizing the frequencies of human voice and modulating the frequency bands within the music, the neural network associated with listening is exercised and perception of the full range of human voice is improved.
As our brain-body connection becomes more organized, we better process the world around us and become more confident, happy and engaged.
Based on the work of Dr. Stephen Porges, and his Polyvagal Theory, SSP can help with:
• Nurturing feelings of safety and helping how we engage within social relationships
• Receiving, processing and responding to cues from others
• Increasing emotional control while reducing reactivity
I use the SSP in my practice as a therapist working with trauma and as part of phase 1 safety and stabilisation work.
You can read more about the gold standard of trauma treatment, known as the 3 phase approach to treating trauma here.
I also offer the SSP to people who are working with a trauma informed therapist and who are interested in accessing a body-based intervention that can complement and support the work they are doing in their personal therapy.
How does the safe and sound protocol work?
The nervous system uses tone of voice as one way to determine safety. The SSP involves listening to specially processed vocal music. The SSP involves listening to music that has been processed specifically to re-tune the nervous system for regulation. The protocol works to introduce a sense of safety and the ability to socially engage. SSP reduces stress, auditory sensitivity, enhances social engagement, social communication, and resilience.
The SSP uses the auditory system as a portal to stimulate the vagus complex, which’s mentioned above helps to regulate and control our physiological state. Once this physiological state is regulated, we can accelerate or enhance therapy. The SSP stimulates nervous system regulation by exercising and systematically challenging the auditory system with specifically processed music. Listening to this specifically processed music, trains our auditory pathways by focusing on the frequency envelope of human speech.
As we listen to the SSP we learn to process these speech related frequencies, which improve the functioning of two cranial nerves including the cranial Nerve VII (Facial Nerve) helps clients focus on human voice and tune out irrelevant frequencies and Cranial Nerve X (Vagus Nerve) enables self-soothing and autonomic regulation. Both of these nerves are important for promoting overall social behaviour.
You may know th from popular music or movie themes, though they may sound odd at times, with changes in volume, and moving from one ear to another. This is because the purpose of the music is to exercise a tiny muscle in your middle ear. The fluctuating challenges of the music provide the ear with more or less forceful movement, like any muscle conditioning program. Fluid and pressure changes in the ear occur as well.
Once the ear begins to work more normally, resulting changes in your nervous system allow you to remain calmer and regulated even in the presence of things that used to be upsetting. This calming of the nervous system allows time for growth in the realms of social relations and self-regulation, when we feel calm we are better able to learn and engage in new things.
The five hours of listening to the SSP can restart this neural network to improve perception of the sounds of human connection. Positive social communication will maintain it. When the tone and prosody of human voice can be better processed, it can provide signals of safety and calm to the nervous system. Suddenly, cues of safety exist in the voices of friends and family. Once a sense of safety is achieved, emotional resilience and nervous system regulation are possible. This will activate the parasympathetic nervous system and enable not only better communication, but better regulation overall.
Following successful completion of the SSP, people find they are are better able to focus in school, therapy, and everyday life. They also experience more calmed emotional and physiological states.
Evidence from the research shows significant positive outcomes for:
Social and emotional difficulties
Auditory sensitivities
Anxiety and trauma-related challenges
Inattention
Stressors that impact social engagement
Difficulties in regulating physiological and emotional state
People who benefit from the SSP experience relief from
Chronic internal agitation
Reactivity
Explosiveness
Dissociation
Overload in social situations
Other related physical and psychological functioning changes
Additional Research And Publications On The SSP And The Polyvagal Theory By Dr. Stephen Porges can be found at the links below:
Completed Peer-Reviewed Studies (involving 292 subjects)
Reducing Auditory Hypersensitivities in Autistic Spectrum Disorder
5 clinical trials in progress to evaluate the effectiveness of the LPP/SSP in:
1. Children with a trauma history. Funded by the Australian Childhood Foundation.
2. People with ADD who have difficulties with autonomic and/or behavioral regulation. In cooperation with: ADD Centre and Biofeedback Institute of Toronto.
3. Emotionally disturbed and learning-challenged young people who have difficulties with autonomic and/or behavioral regulation. Funded by the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center of Vista Del Mar, California.
4. Decreasing the atypical features of the Social Engagement System in adolescents with Prader Willi Syndrome. In cooperation with the Latham Centers School in Brewster, Massachusetts.
5. Reducing chronic pain in a sample of older adults. In cooperation with the Meadowood Retirement Community in Bloomington, Indiana.