Safe and Sound Protocol

Welcome to the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)

Safe – Effective – Easy to Use – Root Cause Focused

Have you tried therapy but felt only marginal improvement? Do you find it difficult to use coping skills or mental health tips even though you try? Do you find yourself feeling like there is a missing piece to your mental health care? You are not alone in feeling this way, but finally there is a solution.

Many people describe the experience of knowing what they need to do to change or feel better but finding that traditional therapy techniques don’t work well enough alone, only work to a certain extent, or don’t work for them at all. For many of these clients, chronic nervous system dysregulation, better known as being in fight or flight, is making their symptoms worse or harder to treat. That is where the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) comes in.

It's not your fault if traditional therapy methods have only partly worked or not worked at all. The SSP targets the root cause of clients’ symptoms and “stuckness” to improve symptoms and improve outcomes of talk therapy. By addressing the nervous system and getting people out of chronic fight or flight, we find that therapy outcomes improve dramatically.

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a science-based, listening intervention designed to accompany talk therapy and treatments like EMDR. Using filtered music, the SSP helps regulate the autonomic nervous system to bring clients out of chronic fight or flight states.

Decades of research on the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) shows

• 61% of clients with anxiety symptoms moved from clinical to non-clinical level
• 54% of clients with depression symptoms moved from clinical to non-clinical level
• 63% of clients with trauma-related symptoms moved from clinical to non-clinical level

This was through listening intervention alone (not paired with therapy)

*Unyte (https://integratedlistening.com/products/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/)

SSP Facts:

• It is designed to regulate the autonomic nervous system and decrease hearing sensitivity.
• It is based in polyvagal theory.
• It consists of 5 hours of filtered music spread out over a specific length of time.
• It can be delivered in person or remotely through telehealth.
• It is used in conjunction with talk therapy or EMDR.
• Click here to learn more about the science behind the SSP: https://integratedlistening.com/polyvagal-theory/

What does the SSP help treat?

• Trauma
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Autism
• ADHD
• Sensory processing issues
• Chronic pain
• Chronic health conditions
• And more

Regulating the nervous system can help with:

• Reduce symptoms of anxiety, trauma, and depression.
• Improve resilience and stress response.
• Build emotional awareness and resilience.
• Improve concentration and learning.
• Deepen social connections.
• Reduce chronic pain and health issues associated with nervous system dysregulation.

Who does the SSP work for?

The SSP is helpful for adults, children, teens, and even couples.

“The SSP has helped over 100,000 children, adolescents, and adults in more than 70 countries worldwide.” – Unyte (https://integratedlistening.com/products/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/)

Why nervous system regulation helps:

The autonomic nervous system regulates our bodily functions and our automatic survival instincts. You might have heard our survival instincts referred to as fight, flight, fawn, or freeze.

• In a fight state, people might react to triggering situations by yelling, lashing out, becoming defensive, or acting aggressively.
• In a flight state, people might avoid situations, feel the need to get away, or feel restless and fidgety.
• In a fawn state, people might find themselves trying to overly please others.
• In a freeze state, people might feel shut down, stuck, unmotivated, or avoidant.

These survival states should only be activated when someone is in a threatening situation. Unfortunately, for those who have experienced adverse events or trauma, experience depression or anxiety, or struggle with sensory processing issues, these survival states become chronic, or always “turned on.” The SSP helps “turn off” these states so they are only activated when necessary.

Chronic survival mode can lead to a range of mental health symptoms, digestion problems, sleep disturbances, difficulty connecting to others, difficulty concentrating, and more.

How does the SSP work?

We pride ourselves on offering high-quality therapeutic services, continuous learning, and adapting our methods to incorporate the latest research and best practices in child therapy. Our therapists are dedicated to creating a positive and lasting impact on the lives of the children and families we serve.

• SSP music is filtered in such a way to highlight sound frequencies that trigger a sense of safety.
• As the brain perceives cues of safety, it balances the autonomic nervous system out of a state of fight/flight and into a calmer, more balanced state we refer to as rest/digest.

What to expect?

• Your SSP therapist will consult with you to determine when you will start the intervention and how to coordinate it with therapy sessions.  You may have several therapy sessions before beginning the SSP, per your therapist’s recommendation. This ensures you get the most out of the SSP and therapy experience.
• The therapist will slowly introduce you to the SSP. This may involve listening to different playlists.
• As you listen, you and the therapist will determine listening times and schedules. There is no benefit to rushing through the SSP. The timing can be adjusted as you go.
• You may listen to all the sessions with the therapist present or be able to listen to some portion remotely on your own. This can be determined by you and the therapist partway through the program.
• When listening to the SSP in session, sessions are typically broken up between listening time and processing time.
• If completing the SSP as part of couple’s therapy, you may listen together in session.