Steve and Johnna both provide excellent therapeutic energy treatments, individually and together. These mainly involve working with the client's energetic systems, using a variety of sound, qigong, meditations/visualizations, and quasi-shamanic techniques either separately or in combination. This approach seeks to enhance the person's relaxation, healing, and improved sense of well-being.
Sound healing uses a variety of tools and musical instruments which are directed toward or applied directly to the person's body. We generally use the voice and vocal harmonics; didgeridoos (based on the ancient Australian Aboriginal instrument); Himalayan metalophones such as bells, tingshas (small Tibetan cymbals connected by a leather cord) and Tibetan singing bowls; and large, powerful gongs from both Nepal and Switzerland (Paiste 24" Planetary Venus and 38" Planetary Earth). The approach is always geared toward the individual, based on a combination of experience and intuition.
A sound healing experience is highly subjective, with the person receiving often entering quickly into a state of deep relaxation or trance. The vibrations have can have both calming and energizing effects, and often provide quick and effective reduction or relief of pain, discomfort, and stress. The energy of the session can produce a dissociative state, in which cycles of physical and emotional suffering are disrupted, allowing body, mind and spirit to restore balance and facilitate the natural healing process.
All healing session rates are currently $90/hour. A sliding scale may be arranged for those in financial need.
Dual treatments with Johnna and Steve together are $150 hour/sliding scale.
Johnna and Steve are also available for group classes, private lessons and retreats, as well as presentations. Please contact us to arrange these.
Skysong Productions workshops are listed here.
Numerous medical organizations are recommending that playing the didgeridoo (also didjeridoo, didjeridu, didg, didj) can help people with obstructive sleep apnea, a common disorder that can have serious health implications, and also some cases of snoring that have a throat component. Playing the didgeridoo strengthens and tones the tissues of the throat, and can also provide good exercise for the respiratory system, as well as a meditation aid. We are NOT physicians and recommend that patients consult their professional healthcare providers and to follow their recommendations.
Also from NIH:
"One of the challenges in the treatment of sleep disorders is poor compliance. Thus new treatments not only need to be effective but also be ones that people are motivated enough to use. Didgeridoo playing seems to meet these requirements. Participants were highly motivated during the trial and practiced, on average, almost six days a week, which was even more than the protocol asked for. Regular playing of a didgeridoo reduces sleep apnea and snoring in people with moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and also improves the sleep quality of partners. Severity of disease, expressed by the apnea-hypopnoea index, is also substantially reduced after four months of didgeridoo playing."
The Mayo Clinic also recommends this in a recent book titled "The Mayo Clinic Book of Home Remedies" (2010).
Dr. Oz, of TV fame, recommends the didgeridoo for sleep apnea "to exercise the muscles in the back of the throat that cause snoring while you sleep. Those muscles get lax while you sleep so, by exercising them with with the didgeridoo, essentially a branch hollowed out by termites that turns into an instrument, you strengthen the muscles so they don't collapse while you sleep."
According to Rubin Naiman, PhD, an internationally recognized leader in integrative sleep and dream medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona: "Learning to play the didgeridoo is emerging as a surprisingly effective and practical strategy for managing snoring and sleep apnea symptoms. I encourage all my patients with these concerns to discuss this option with their doctors."
Read "Didgeridoo playing as Alternative Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome: Randomised Controlled Trial" at the British Medical Journal. This article presents the results of a 2005 Swiss medical study testing the efficacy of using didgeridoo to treat sleep apnea.
It's often recommend practicing 20-30 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week. I usually tell beginning students to play a few minutes at a time, a few times a day. This lets them get used to the instrument without tiring or stressing the lips. Keep your didgeridoo nearby, somewhere you'll see it; remember, out of sight, out of mind! Then, when they have built a little lip strength and endurance, they can increase the amount of time spent playing.
Playing the didgeridoo is fun, sounds great, and is easy for most people to learn! These qualities make it easy to stick with a program.
We have been contacted by sleep clinics and patients, and didge stores have increased sales and promotions. However, most health professionals dealing with sleep apnea and most suffers still do not know any didgeridoo teachers or didgeridoo suppliers. It is our goal to change this. There are opportunities available for didgeridoo players who want to teach!
If you are a didgeridoo player and wish to join our network as a teacher, please click here.
Individual lessons are $50/hr. Please contact us to arrange lessons and to inquire about group instruction.
Next Beginning Didgeridoo workshop and other Skysong Productions workshops are listed here.
Updated 2.1.12