Meet three women who use sound to help people with depression, anxiety, stress, chemotherapy treatments, jet lag and more.
‘The healing is fast’
Rosan Cruz had her first sound bath experience at the Kundalini Yoga Festival in 2013 in Fondjouan, France.
“Since March that year, I’ve been practicing Kundalini yoga, and I decided to join the festival as a birthday gift to myself. The festival is an annual event where over 2,000 yogis come together for eight days,” she told Lifestyle.
She arrived in France stressed. “I had to finish work so I could leave. When I got to France, I had a combination of a slight fever with joint pains and I was jet-lagged.”
Seeing that she was still in bed, one of her roommates recommended that she join the gong bath. “I didn’t know what to expect. When I arrived, there were seven to 10 gongs of varying sizes on stage and six gong players with mallets in their hands. What crossed my mind was loud banging, like in ‘The Gong Show.’”
Seeing hundreds of people lying on their yoga mats on the floor, Cruz decided to stay.
“I rolled out my mat, and the lead gong player introduced himself as Nanak Dev Singh from Berlin. He told us to lie down and just let go as his group would play the gongs. The sound was a soft murmur in the beginning and then turned melodious with the overtones. I was going in between states, from dreamlike to sleep, during the 50-minute session. I felt well-rested after and slept a good 10-12 hours that evening. The next day, I no longer felt feverish or jet-lagged. I was energized for the whole week! That’s when I discovered the gong’s healing sound and decided to learn how to play the gong and introduce it to my Kundalini yoga community.”
Cruz has been doing sound baths for seven years now. “Before the pandemic, I played the gong in my weekly Kundalini yoga classes during the eight- to 10-minute deep relaxation part. I also offered weekly one-hour public gong bath sessions, monthly Scent & Sound healing sessions, and hold quarterly Gong Pujas, an all-night gong bath session.”
She also does on-on-one sessions. “Since I’ve taken gong therapy, I do private sessions to complement my client treatments. I would have clients who’d see me before their chemotherapy to help energize them. I had a client who had a stroke. He couldn’t walk, had double vision and was stuttering. When he started, he came in a wheelchair and then gradually changed to a walker, and just before the pandemic, he was already on his feet walking with a cane, and his vision was much better.”
Cruz sees all kinds of clients. “Some are jet-lagged, depressed, undergoing drug rehabilitation and, believe it or not, some want me to space-clear their homes or offices, especially those who just moved in a new house or separated from their spouse.”
She’s continued her studies, too. “Before the pandemic, I would attend workshops and retreats abroad to learn more. In the last three years, I’ve been training with grand master Don Conreaux.”
During the pandemic, Cruz faced the challenge of bringing her sessions online. “I encountered some issues with the sound going over the internet. The best platform is Zoom, but I can only play one gong, and the participant should have a good audio device—headphones, pods or speaker. I used to play at least two gongs during public sessions. With the pandemic, I play only one.”
But her clients are happy with her sessions. One of her Kundalini yoga students wrote to her, “The Pluto gong was so cool. I could feel the vibes even though it was via Zoom. And I have had this metatarsal pain for the last three weeks. I felt energy shoot through and heal it!”She still accepts one-on-one bookings “as a complementary treatment for cancer, stroke, depression, jet lag, and even space clearing to get rid of negative energy like fear and worries imprinted at home.”
She announces online sessions on her website.
Cruz loves what she does, telling Lifestyle, “The healing is fast.” (Tel. 0918-8889198; rosancruz.com)
‘It’s important that people use their voice’
Sound has always been important for Yeyette San Luis.
“I’m a musician, I’m a songwriter, I sing,” she told Lifestyle.And she has always known that it has the power to heal. “Noon pa, in my own healing journey, I would listen to music. Singing has helped me. Later on, I realized that even crying—being able to sound it—is in itself healing.”
San Luis first got into energy healing, and then she discovered that a friend had crystal singing bowls. “I got my first bowl in 2010. That same year, I got my tuning forks. I completed the set in 2014.”
She went through an intensive nine-day sound healing program in the United States. At first, she would do sessions for friends and family. Then, in 2016, she went full time. “It was a big risk. I was doing freelance accounting, and I quit.”
But she has no regrets. “I do it as a service. This is what I do best. What better way to share with other people than through this? Sometimes, I get surprised by people’s reactions. They tell me how much I’ve helped them. These are the things that make me say, you’ve done well.”
San Luis integrates Reiki in her sessions as well.
Naturally, COVID has affected her practice. She had just come from the United States when the lockdown started. Months into the pandemic, she started doing online sessions. “[In-person] is better, of course. Your microphone has to be good. I always tell participants to wear earphones or use a good speaker.”
San Luis encourages participants to use their voices as well.
“It’s important for me that people use their voice. Spirit singing. You help yourself to heal. You heal yourself. We have to own our healing,” she said. “We can all be sound healers. We all have our instrument, that’s our voice.” (@ yeyettesanluis on Facebook; @soundhealer_yeyette on Instagram)
‘It helps people’
“My passion for healing just came naturally,” said Diwata “Diwee” Isidro. “I’ve been doing health and wellness for a decade now, and that deepened my curiosity and passion to discover other ways of healing.”
She does workshops and talks and customizes health and wellness programs for companies. “I also do yoga therapy as a supplementary approach for a certain treatment. I also do acudetox.”
It’s this passion for health and wellness that led her to sound healing. She started doing it three years ago. Sound healing can be especially beneficial now, Isidro said. “We are experiencing a traumatic situation that deeply affects our mental health.”
Isidro loves sound healing. “It really helps other people and I am humbled by their positive feedback and wonderful experience. It helps them emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically.” (Viber or Whatsapp tel. 0917-8392213; facebook.com/Holistic-Heals-351069215588377) INQ