Why I brought crystal singing bowls into The Hive—and how sound may support relaxation, regulation, and receiving
By Meg Reinis, LMFT | The Hive Therapy & Wellness Boutique
People often ask me two questions: What exactly is a sound bath? And why does it help?
A sound bath is an immersive listening experience. Participants typically lie down or sit comfortably while a facilitator plays instruments such as crystal singing bowls, chimes, drums, or other resonant instruments. The word bath refers to being surrounded—or “bathed”—in layers of sound and vibration. There is no water involved, and there is nothing participants have to perform or achieve.
You do not have to know how to meditate. You do not have to clear your mind. You simply settle into a supported position, listen, notice what is happening inside you, and allow yourself to receive.
That opportunity to receive is a large part of why I decided to study sound healing and bring the bowls into The Hive.
Why Sound Healing Became Part of The Hive
After more than 20 years as a therapist, I have seen that people can understand their patterns intellectually and still feel the effects of stress, fear, and trauma in their bodies.
You may understand why you overfunction and still feel unable to stop. You may know that you are safe and still notice your chest tighten or your mind scan for what might go wrong. You may recognize that rest is necessary while feeling guilty or unsettled whenever you slow down.
Insight matters, but the nervous system also needs experiences of safety, rhythm, connection, and rest.
I learned to work with crystal singing bowls because I wanted to offer another pathway into healing—one that did not always require people to explain, analyze, or work harder. The sustained tones of the bowls can focus attention, soften mental effort, and create an environment in which the body may begin moving toward a more restful state.
At The Hive, sound healing is not separate from the larger intention of the practice. It is another way of helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and receive support without always having to be the one doing the work.
What Happens During a Sound Bath?
A sound bath at The Hive begins by helping participants arrive. This may include grounding, a brief intention, gentle movement, guided breathing, or a body scan. Once people are comfortable, I introduce the bowls and other instruments gradually.
The experience may include sustained tones, layered harmonies, pauses, chimes, wave-like sounds, or gentle rhythmic elements. At times, I may intentionally move sound from one side of the room or body to the other to create a bilateral listening experience.
There is no single “correct” response. Some people feel deeply relaxed or notice their breathing slow. Others experience emotion, imagery, physical sensation, mental quiet, or a new insight. Some simply enjoy resting and listening. A person can also keep their eyes open, change position, step outside, or choose not to engage with a particular sound.
Trauma-informed sound work is grounded in choice. The goal is never to overwhelm someone or force a release. It is to create a supportive environment in which each person can listen to their own body.
Why Might Sound Help the Nervous System?
The autonomic nervous system helps regulate processes that happen largely outside conscious control, including heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and digestion.
When the brain detects threat or sustained demand, the sympathetic branch mobilizes the body for action. Breathing may become faster or shallower. Muscles tighten. Attention narrows. The mind begins anticipating and problem-solving. This response is essential when we need to act, but it becomes exhausting when the body rarely receives a clear signal that it is safe to stand down.
The parasympathetic branch supports rest, digestion, restoration, and recovery. Regulation does not mean remaining calm all the time. A regulated nervous system is flexible: it can mobilize when action is needed and return toward rest when the demand has passed.
A thoughtfully facilitated sound bath may help create the conditions for that return. Predictable rhythm, sustained tones, reduced visual stimulation, comfortable positioning, slower breathing, and permission to do nothing can all become cues that less effort is required in the present moment.
Sound does not “switch off” the nervous system. It may, however, support:
- Slower or more comfortable breathing
- Reduced muscular bracing and perceived tension
- A lower sense of urgency or vigilance
- Greater heart-rate variability, or HRV, which can reflect autonomic flexibility
- Reduced self-reported stress or state anxiety
- Temporary relief from mental overactivity
- Improved mood or emotional spaciousness
- Rest and recovery without another task to complete
What About Bilateral Sound?
Sound connects with principles I already use in trauma-informed therapy. Rhythmic and intentionally paced auditory input can help orient attention and support a greater sense of regulation.
When sound is deliberately alternated between the left and right sides, it creates bilateral auditory stimulation. I may introduce this by moving chimes or another instrument from one side of the room or body to the other.
A standard sound bath is not automatically bilateral, and bilateral sound should not be described as a guaranteed treatment for trauma. It is better understood as an intentional auditory technique that may support orienting, focused attention, body awareness, and regulation for some people.
The experience must remain responsive to the individual. Alternating sound can feel calming or organizing for one person and distracting or activating for another. Choice, pacing, volume, and the ability to pause are essential.
What Does the Research Actually Show?
The science of sound baths is still developing. Studies vary widely in their instruments, duration, settings, and measurements, and many include small samples. The research should therefore be described as promising rather than definitive.
Still, several findings are meaningful.
In a randomized controlled trial of 50 adults with elevated state anxiety, a single Tibetan singing-bowl session was associated with greater self-reported anxiety reduction and increased HRV compared with progressive muscle relaxation and a waiting-list control.
A 2025 systematic review examining 14 quantitative studies of Tibetan singing bowls found recurring reports of reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms, improved well-being, lower heart rate, increased HRV, and changes in brainwave activity. The authors also emphasized that the studies were too varied and limited for a formal meta-analysis.
An earlier observational study of 62 adults found significant reductions in tension, anger, fatigue, and depressed mood following a singing-bowl meditation. People who had never experienced this kind of meditation reported an even larger decrease in tension than experienced participants.
These results do not prove that every sound bath produces every benefit. They suggest that sound can become part of an environment through which the brain and body experience rhythm, predictability, focused attention, and rest.
Can Sound Shift Brainwave Activity?
Brainwaves are patterns of electrical activity measured through electroencephalography, or EEG. The brain produces activity across multiple frequency bands at once; it does not simply flip from one brainwave “mode” into another.
Beta activity is commonly associated with active thinking, concentration, planning, and engagement with the outside world. Beta is not bad—we need it to function. But a life dominated by vigilance, decision-making, and constant input can feel like being perpetually “on.”
Alpha activity is often associated with relaxed wakefulness, particularly when the eyes are closed and external demands decrease.
Theta activity is commonly observed during drowsiness, early sleep, imagery, memory processing, and some forms of meditation. People sometimes describe theta-associated experiences as spacious, dreamlike, intuitive, or deeply inward.
One small EEG study involving 17 adults tested a singing bowl that produced a 6.68-hertz beat, within the theta range. Researchers observed increased low-frequency EEG activity and synchronization near the bowl’s beat frequency while participants listened. Other studies and reviews have also reported changes in slower-frequency activity during singing-bowl interventions.
These findings are intriguing, but hearing a bowl does not guarantee that every brain will “enter theta.” A more accurate possibility is that rhythm, sustained tones, stillness, reduced visual input, and focused listening may help some people move away from high-demand cognitive processing and toward a more internally focused state.
Why Receiving Matters
Many high-functioning people approach healing the same way they approach everything else: they work at it.
They analyze the pattern, read the book, track the symptom, perfect the routine, and try to regulate correctly. These tools can be valuable. But healing can become one more place where the nervous system feels responsible for producing the right outcome.
A sound bath offers another possibility: receiving.
You do not need to make yourself relax. You can notice what is present, adjust your body, keep your eyes open if that feels safer, and let the sound meet you where you are.
Sometimes recovery begins not with greater effort, but with an experience of being supported while nothing is being demanded from you.
Is a Sound Bath Therapy?
A sound bath can complement healing, but it is not a replacement for psychotherapy, medical care, medication, or crisis support when those are needed. It is best understood as a wellness practice that may create space for rest, reflection, connection, and recovery.
Sound is also personal. A tone that feels soothing to one person may feel intense to another. Volume, predictability, choice, physical positioning, sensory sensitivity, and permission to leave all shape whether the experience feels supportive.
At The Hive, sound is not offered as magic or as a promise that one experience will reset everything. It is offered as an intentional pause—an opportunity for the body to experience rhythm, resonance, support, and stillness.
This is why sound belongs at The Hive. So many people who come through the doors are already doing everything they know how to do. They do not always need another assignment or insight. Sometimes they need a beautiful, intentional space where their bodies can soften, their minds can become quieter, and they can experience what it feels like to receive.
The bowls are one way I help create that space—a bridge between the clinical work I have practiced for more than 20 years and my belief that healing can also happen through rhythm, resonance, connection, and rest.
You are not required to perform your healing.
Sometimes you can simply lie down, listen, and allow yourself to receive.
About The Hive
Meg Reinis, LMFT, is the founder of The Hive Therapy & Wellness Boutique. She integrates more than 20 years of clinical experience with trauma-informed, relational, somatic, and nervous-system-focused care. The Hive offers private therapy, intimate groups, and curated sound and wellness experiences in the Denver area.
Sound baths are complementary wellness experiences and are not a substitute for medical or mental-health treatment. If you have sound sensitivity, hearing concerns, migraines, a seizure disorder, are pregnant, or have another health consideration, consult an appropriate healthcare professional and speak with the facilitator before participating.
Research Referenced
- Goldsby TL, Goldsby ME, McWalters M, Mills PJ. Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation on Mood, Tension, and Well-Being: An Observational Study. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2017. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27694559/
- Acute Relaxation Response Induced by Tibetan Singing Bowl Sounds: A Randomized Controlled Trial. 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36826208/
- Does the Sound of a Singing Bowl Synchronize Meditational Brainwaves in the Listeners? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10298245/
- Effects of Tibetan Singing Bowl Intervention on Psychological and Physiological Health in Adults: A Systematic Review. 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40868617/
- Saskovets M, Saponkova I, Liang Z. Effects of Sound Interventions on the Mental Stress Response in Adults: Scoping Review. JMIR Mental Health. 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40127440/