Is the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) Right for Me?

Who Tends to Seek Out SSP?

People come to SSP from a lot of different starting points, so there isn’t one single profile. In my practice, I see a few threads come up again and again: people managing a chronic medical condition whose nervous system seems to be working against them, people whose sensory world feels like consistently too much, people who’ve done real work in therapy but still feel stuck, and people carrying trauma that talk therapy alone hasn’t fully reached.

Could SSP Support a Chronic Illness Like POTS or Long COVID?

If you’re managing a condition like POTS, Long COVID, EDS, or another autoimmune or chronic illness, you likely already know what it’s like to feel like your body is bracing for the next flare, even when nothing is actively wrong in the moment. That’s not just in your head – there’s real, growing research connecting these conditions to autonomic nervous system and vagal dysfunction, and SSP is a therapy specifically designed to work with that same system.

With regard to my scope here, I want to note: there are currently no published clinical trials testing SSP specifically on POTS, MCAS, or Long COVID. I don’t offer SSP as a treatment or cure for any of these conditions, and I can’t guarantee outcomes. What I can offer is support for your nervous system’s capacity to regulate, which, for many people managing a body that already works overtime, is a meaningful piece of a much bigger picture of care. This work happens alongside your medical team, never instead of them.

Could SSP Help With Sensory Overwhelm?

Do ordinary environments regularly feel like too much? Noise that other people don’t seem to notice, lighting that grates on you, textures you can’t tolerate, a hard time filtering out background input so everything hits you at once, or needing far more recovery time after social or sensory demands than seems to make sense… This is one of the areas where SSP has the most established research behind it, particularly for autistic adults and people with auditory processing differences. If this is the thread that resonates most with you, this is likely where SSP has the clearest evidence to point to.

Could SSP Be Helpful If I’ve Already Tried Therapy?

There’s a real difference between understanding your patterns – being able to name your triggers, explain your history, and talk fluently about what happens to you – and having your nervous system actually respond differently in the moment. Talk therapy is often excellent at building the first kind of change. SSP works at the second, more physiological level.

SSP is not better than or a replacement for psychotherapy. For many people, it’s most effective as a complement that can make the insight work you’ve already done more accessible to your body, not a shortcut around it.

SSP and Trauma

SSP can be incorporated into trauma-informed care, and for many clients, it’s part of a broader course of trauma work rather than a standalone intervention. Pacing matters enormously here since trauma histories often mean a nervous system that’s especially sensitive to new input. Drawing from over a decade of trauma specific therapy, we go through SSP slowly, train you on how to read your own responses during your intake session, and stay in contact with you by email throughout so we can adjust together if anything feels like too much or too fast.

How is SSP different than Somatic Experiencing?

I’m often asked how SSP relates to Somatic Experiencing (SE), since I offer both. They’re related but distinct:

– Somatic Experiencing is a body-based psychotherapy – ongoing talk-and-body-awareness work that helps you process and release stored trauma responses, session by session, with me actively present and responsive throughout. You can learn more about this here at the Somatic Experiencing page.

– SSP is a music-based nervous system intervention – a defined, time-limited listening protocol, done largely on your own schedule between a structured intake and debrief session, and aimed specifically at shifting your baseline nervous system state.

Some clients do SSP on its own. Many do both, sometimes SSP first to help create enough regulation for SE work to land more easily, sometimes SE first to build a foundation before adding SSP. Which order (or whether you need both at all) is something we figure out together based on your specific situation.

What Happens When I Begin SSP?

The process starts with an intake session, where we talk through your history, your goals, and any relevant medical or nervous-system considerations. I’ll also train you during this session on how to pace your own listening based on how your body responds. You’re never handed the music and left to figure it out alone. From there, you move through the five hours of listening at your own pace, checking in with me by email as often as you need to along the way. We close with a debrief session to talk through what came up and where to go from here.

How Long Does SSP Take?

The core protocol is five hours of listening (in small increments of time), framed by an intake session at the start and a debrief session at the end. Because listening is self-paced, the total timeline varies from person to person. Some people move through it over a couple of weeks, others take longer, depending on how their nervous system responds along the way. There’s no fixed schedule you’re expected to keep; the pace is yours.

Can SSP Be Done Remotely?

Yes. I see clients in-person in Chicago and via telehealth throughout Illinois, and the listening portion of SSP is designed to be done independently through the Unyte app, wherever you are. You’ll need a set of over-ear headphones (I recommend the OneOdio A70) — we’ll cover the logistics of getting set up during your intake session.

Quick Self-Check

You might be a good fit for SSP if some of this feels familiar:

• Your symptoms (physical or emotional) flare in response to stress, even stress you thought you’d already handled
• You understand your patterns intellectually, but your body still reacts like nothing’s changed
• Everyday sounds, environments, or social demands feel like more than they should
• You feel disconnected from your own body, like you’re managing it rather than living in it
• You’ve done real work in therapy and still feel like your nervous system hasn’t caught up

How Do I Know Whether SSP Is Appropriate for Me?

Every nervous system and every history is different, and a short consultation lets us look at your specific situation rather than trying to generalize from a webpage. If anything on this page resonated with you, I’d be glad to talk it through.

This page reflects general information about the Safe and Sound Protocol and is not a substitute for individualized clinical assessment. SSP is not a treatment or cure for any specific medical or mental health condition, and outcomes cannot be guaranteed.