Invite support for your nervous system.

Soothe survival responses.

Befriend old ways of being.

Embrace new ones.

Welcome to the Safe & Sound Protocol Individual Experience

Transform your nervous system and survival responses through gentle listening, 1-1support and continued practice.

Our nervous system is always sensing our surroundings.

Through a process called neuroception, our brilliant physiology takes in sensory information (like sounds) to decide if we are safe or in danger.

And something happens next.

We move closer to what feels safe. What will help us survive.

Sometimes this is turning towards connection, but sometimes this means turning away from connection and towards protection. Flight, flee, isolation.

I’m here to tell you that our survival strategies are brilliant. They keep us relatively safe and alive. And if you are reading this, you might feel that these survival strategies haven’t turned off. Your nervous system is always on the lookout for danger, and the smallest things can set you off for days.

This is where the SSP can come in.

During the SSP, you listen to sounds of safety. These tones are soothing, comforting and attuning. The playlist sounds like regular music you might hear on the radio, but the tones coming through are saying to your nervous system: “this is safe.”

And after a lifetime of being attuned to danger (because our wellbeing depends on it), this can take the nervous system for a bit of a ride. In the SSP, the ride is gentle. For 5 hours, over slow doses of listening and steeped in individual support, your nervous system can become more accustomed to relative safety.

More connection, less protection.

More authenticity, less masking.

More boundary building, less fawning

More “I am here”, less “where am I?”

The SSP is magical, gentle, and a little bit mysterious. But there is science here, too. In our journey, we’ll explore: Polyvagal Theory, the vagus nerve, and the social engagement system, to name a few.

Folks arrive at the SSP for unique reasons. If you’re wondering if the SSP might be supportive for you and your nervous system at this time, I invite you to see if anything on this list resonates.

YOU MIGHT BE:

➝ In therapy, and finding yourself looking for more healing at the nervous system level

➝ Struggling with things that seem easy for other folks, but are hard for you, like getting enough sleep, nourishment and movement; returning texts or calls; quieting worried thoughts

➝ Trying to “get over” or recover from a traumatic experience (or just being alive in 2023) and needing more support that will help you find solid ground and make lasting change

➝ Deeply curious about your vagus nerve, sensory needs and integration, and looking to shift the ways you experience the world around you

➝ Struggling with receiving and relaxing and are ready for healing that isn’t such a heavy lift

➝ Curious about exploring different aspects of your identity (queerness, neurospiciness, etc.) and looking for a modality that doesn’t need you to mask to show up

➝ Itching to embody your boundaries, but struggling with older (and brilliant!) patterns of fawning, people-pleasing and avoiding. They’re keeping you safe, but they might not be getting you what you want or need

➝ Seeking to be held in a 1-1 trauma-informed container with a practitioner that honors your boundaries, affirms your body and nervous system wisdom and coping strategies, and partners with you as the expert of your experience during sessions

➝ Ready to make friends with your nervous system, understand your survival responses, and make space for new ways of being to unfold

➝ Looking for a) the steadiness and anchoring of a consistent healing container with a practitioner who can meet you where you are, co-regulate with your nervous system, encourage processing to happen in small and manageable doses, and even crack a few jokes

Listen to the specialized playlist

Receive somatic support

Wait, how does it work again?

Listening to the specialized SSP music playlist encourages the middle ear muscles to tune in to cues of safety signaled by the frequencies of human voice. For a nervous system that has been primed to detect threat and has experienced less safety, this can lead to profound transformations!

And, you’re not doing it alone! Being in an individual setting means you have real time support, and speaking of time, we can move slowly. The pace of listening is tailored to your nervous system and needs.

Throughout the SSP process, your nervous system can shift, and the ways you interact with the world around you and the people in it can become more embodied and easeful, too. This means you might notice changes in your relationships, boundaries, embodiment, and sensory experiences. Here is what some folks notice shifting for them.

DURING AND AFTER THE SSP, FOLKS OFTEN NOTICE THEY ARE:

➝ Embodying their boundaries through more communication and less body armoring

➝ Advocating for their needs in relationships

➝ More aware of their needs and able to act on them and honor them

➝ Feeling less sensory overload, overstimulation and startle responses

➝ Turning to supportive coping strategies that feel more nourishing

➝ In tune with their body and nervous system’s yeses and nos.

➝ More aware of their needs and able to act on them and honor them

➝ Feeling big feelings without the usual overwhelm that accompanies emotion

➝ Aware of hunger cues and shifting their relationship around food and nourishment

➝ Expanding their capacity for excitement, discomfort and growth (a.k.a. expanding their comfort zone)

➝ Engaging in connection, creativity and relationships with more ease

➝ Resting rather than shutting down and numbing out

Reflections from SSP participants

  • "The SSP experience has been tender and open; a gentle space to land each week and spend intentional time tending to my nervous system. I relax and my breath deepens as I arrive into this unique space with an open invitation to find the experience I need that day with the music and the group, but no expectation to do so in a specific way. "

  • “I’m more aware of my nervous system now. I make more sense to myself. And more than that, I have more self-compassion.”

  • “The SSP is helping my nervous system live in the present, and has quieted the alarm bells that were always going off inside me.”

  • “Part of what I loved about the SSP was Jess’s invitation to show up exactly as we were. Just before SSP began, I experienced some trauma in a group setting and felt hesitant about the group dynamic of this process. I was able to show up completely nonverbal and in tears the first day, and felt warmth and welcomed in this experience. As the weeks progressed, I was able to connect outward more to other members of the group as my nervous system allowed, and even initiated conversations and cracked some jokes! The SSP was healing on multiple levels for me, and this group dynamic was just one slice of the pie.”

  • “I was surprised by how much changed! And I was nervous about doing the SSP, but it didn’t feel as overwhelming as I thought it would.”

APPLY FOR A SPOT

THE DETAILS

The individual SSP experience is tailored to your needs—we will work at the pace of your nervous system. This means that we might take longer than 12 sessions to complete the listening, and we might listen to less than three10 minute rounds.

Sessions are 60 minutes each, and the SSP can be completed in as few as 12 sessions and as many as 20 sessions. Weekly or bi-weekly sessions take place on zoom with cameras on (so I can best co-regulate with you. If you’re nervous about this part, let’s chat! I want you to feel as comfy as possible.).

Session time includes: somatically settling in, 3 10-minute rounds of listening and processing, and integration.

When you register for the SSP Individual Experience Package, it includes:

➝ Twelve 60 minute listening sessions, complete with co-regulation, suggested tools and integration practices (our first session is 90 minutes and includes nervous system mapping)

➝ Access to the SSP Playlist for all listening during our time together

➝ Access to a gentle SSP follow-up playlist for the month after you complete SSP, for integration & added support

➝ An introductory guide to the nervous system, neuroception and mapping techniques to support your SSP journey and nervous system healing and navigation

➝ E-mail access to me for support between sessions when you need it

➝ The option of adding additional somatic support sessions with me if you’d like to listen at a slower pace, or other things come up that need somatic tending

Sliding scale 12 session package:

➝ $1,680 for 12 sessions | $420 initial deposit | $140 for per session | for folks with access to expendable or stable income

➝ $1,440 for 12 sessions | $360 initial deposit | $120 per session | for folks with limited to expendable or stable income

➝ $1,200 for 12 sessions | $300 initial deposit | $100 per session | for folks with limited access to cash, funds, housing security, etc.

You may choose where you fall on the sliding scale based on your financial access and needs. I don’t ask for proof.

For the individual SSP experience, following your initial deposit (your sliding scale rate x 3 sessions) to secure your spot, you may pay one session at a time, if you’d like.

Feeling the call to begin the SSP with me?

2 spaces are available. Perhaps one is yours.

♥

WHAT HAPPENS IN EACH SOMATIC SAFE & SOUND EXPERIENCE SESSION?

Our first session holds:

➝ Setting the container, getting to know each other*, connecting about your goals and intentions and the SSP, and mapping your nervous system

The following sessions hold:

➝ Arriving with a somatic practice, checking in and connecting, listening to the SSP playlist in three 10 minute portions and sharing and processing your experience, integrating your experience and closing our container

Please know there is spaciousness for flexibility. Some clients need multiple sessions before they begin listening, and I always hold space for that possibility. Some folks will complete the SSP in 12 sessions, some will take longer. I trust the pace of your nervous system and what you need.

*Getting to know each other is a process that will take time and can happen at the pace of connection and the nervous system. We have time to meet each other, there is no rush. I know connection and relationship building can feel risky and take time, so if you feel shy just know I’ll be doing my best to honor your introverted or internal needs and trust your timeline. Also, I don’t expect trust right away. After all, that’s not trauma-informed.

In our sessions, we will work with pacing, titration and pendulation, following body sensations, and resourcing to bring in more stability, support and safety. We will focus on resourcing and establishing safety as well as honoring the feelings and sensations that come up. My intention is to support clients in being with the waves [emotions + sensations] and wearing floaties and a wet suit [resources] so the waves aren’t too big or too cold. Instead of deep dives, we’ll be splashing toes in the water.

This is a wonderful time to let your nervous system unfold and unwind, allow rest to happen, and practice new tools that might support different nervous system states.

STILL HAVE MORE QUESTIONS? FIND AN ANSWER HERE:

  • SSP stands for the Safe and Sound Protocol. This is a supportive healing modality developed by Dr. Stephen Porges (who also created Polyvagal Theory). This listening tool bathes the vagus nerve and stimulates the social engagement system. How does it work? Listening to the SSP encourages the middle ear muscles to tune in to cues of safety signaled by the frequencies of human voice. This can lead to profound transformations in relationships, boundaries, embodiment, sensory integration and overall nervous system wellness.

  • You will need an internet connection and a zoom account, an iPhone or android smartphone and the unyte app, and around-the-ear headphones. You might also like to have some supportive tools with you while you listen. I’ll share potential tools (many you might already have around) in our welcome materials.

  • Maybe you’re zoomed out, which is so valid. But the very cool part of virtual sessions is that while you are experiencing the SSP, you’re in your own space! So hopefully this means you have tools, creature comforts and what you need nearby. Lots of folks lean on their environment as a resource during the SSP, and the virtual experience lends itself beautifully to that.

  • I honor that 12 weeks is a long time, and SSP is not a one-and-done experience. 12 weeks offers time to experience the medicinal qualities of the listening, track changes in your nervous system, and show up to new tools and new ways of being. Over time, the transformation/s can be profound. It also offers time to settle into our group and connect with one another at a slower pace.

    And, if you need more time, we can spread out our listening over more sessions, too! I trust the pace of your nervous system.

  • Feeling nervous makes sense. What I can tell you is this. The SSP is gentle and I am gentle, too. We can adjust the pace (listening less, for example) until we find what is “just right” for you and your nervous system. We can supplement with Somatic Experiencing, we can laugh, we can take breaks.

    And I am trauma-informed, so your agency and comfort is always prioritized. The SSP is not prescriptive and your needs and feelings won’t be in the way, they get to be here, too. There is space for flexibility and adaptability. There is space for YOU and what your nervous system needs.

    Also, you get to be nervous! I can welcome that, and other feelings you bring, too.

  • I invite you to notice (if it’s possible) what comes up when you consider or imagine doing the SSP in a group … and what comes up when you consider or imagine doing the SSP in a 1-1 format.

    I also invite you to consider your schedule and financial needs.

    Our SSP groups are very magical, it’s true, and 1-1 sessions offer really specific support. You can take longer than 12 weeks to listen. Space will be held just for you. So if you’re feeling like you might need a lot of care as things come up during the process, a 1-1 container might be the best fit for you.

Want to connect before committing? I get it!

Choosing a healing container is no small thing. I’m happy to connect and see if the individual SSP is the right fit for you. Feel free to schedule a connection call below.

Feeling hopeful about healing with the SSP?

Transform your nervous system and survival responses through gentle listening, 1-1 support and continued practice.