Is Your Nervous System Begging For Help?
Experience the Safe and Sound Protocol
Narcissistic Abuse Awareness and Guidance With Randi Fine
What is the Safe and Sound Protocol?
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidence-based listening therapy.
As a practical application of Polyvagal Theory, the SSP acts as a powerful, non-invasive, acoustic nerve stimulator, helping to retune the nervous system to better support connection, collaboration, and resilience.
The SSP involves listening to specific filtered music through headphones under the safe, comforting guidance of a certified provider.
What is the SSP Client Experience?
It is a five-hour (total) auditory intervention, developed and patented by Dr. Stephen Porges, author of the Polyvagal Theory.
It is designed to reduce sound sensitivity and improve auditory processing and behavioral state regulation.
It activates the client’s social engagement system, helping to accelerate and enhance therapeutic outcomes.
It supports physiological state regulation, allowing for greater resilience.
What People Have Shared After Their Experiences with the SSP
·“I’m less reactive in stressful situations.”
”I got unstuck with some creative projects I’ve been working on.”
”My concentration and mood have improved.”
“My quality of sleep has improved. I’ve also noticed a great reduction in social anxiety, and feel more able to confront social situations without panicking.”
“It was effective in getting me out of fight/flight and gave me the opportunity to strengthen my own ability to return there. I could feel my intuition/inner voice more clearly, my constipation and migraines got better (less frequent) and more. For me was such a gift.”
Watch Video: “My Experience With the SSP”
How Do I Find a Certified Provider?
There are over 1,000 SSP Providers worldwide with various specialties...but look no further. Narcissistic Abuse Expert and Coach RANDI FINE is now a fully trained and certified SSP Provider. Beginning January 8, 2024, Randi will add the Safe and Sound Protocol to the existing services she offers. – More provider details at the end of the article.
Article: It’s NOT All in the Mind!
Among this century’s medical and social breakthroughs is the recognition that the statement, "It's all in the mind," is not fully accurate.
Whether it’s due to our growing awareness of the effects of ongoing stress or the mixed results of behavioral therapies, we can now see that there are aspects of our health that are out of our conscious control.
Taking a fresh look at the way we as human beings develop and the way our brain connects with our body can give us insight into how we can become our best selves.
How Does This System Develop?
Finding Balance
The nervous system is oriented toward health and healing, seeking to find and maintain homeostasis, a steady state of internal physical and emotional balance that allows us to function at our best.
This balance can be disrupted in unexpected ways. Rapid societal change, chronic stress, and adverse life experiences are increasingly leading to physical and mental health challenges, including:
Chronic health problems
·Mental health conditions
·Substance use challenges.
·Attention and learning differences.
·Changes in appetite, energy, desires, and interests
·Difficulty sleeping
·Feelings of loneliness and isolation
Difficulty connecting with others.
While many innovative and life-saving treatments have been developed in the medical system to help some individuals, many with chronic or complex conditions are still not able to function at their best. This is partly due to the mind-body connection and influence of the autonomic nervous system on our health and well-being.
If we're feeling stressed, worried, or unsafe, our defenses go up, and whatever activity or therapy we're engaged in can be less effective.
Finding balance means regulating the nervous system to flexibly respond to challenges.
The Nervous System is the Key
The autonomic nervous system helps regulate important systems in the body, including our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and digestion.
The autonomic nervous system relies on a nerve that is hugely important to our overall well-being: the vagus nerve.
Connecting With the Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body, stretching from the brainstem all the way down to the stomach. It is often referred to as the mind-body connection.
The vagus nerve sends and receives information between the brain and body, helping us respond to changes in our internal and external environment.
By learning to better regulate our nervous system, we can change how we respond to life’s challenges.
Connected by the vagus nerve, the state of our autonomic nervous system can influence how we feel, think, and behave.
This connection is explained by Stephen Porges, Ph.D., whose Polyvagal Theory is widely accepted as a neurobehavioral scientific breakthrough and has revolutionized our understanding of the body’s response to stress and trauma.
When under stress, one part of our autonomic nervous system helps us to “fight or flee” by sending blood to our arms, increasing our heart rate and blood pressure, speeding up our breathing, and making us hyper-aware of our surroundings.
A Polyvagal Approach
Polyvagal Theory provides a new framework for understanding how the autonomic nervous system functions in our modern world.
According to Polyvagal Theory, the other part of our autonomic nervous system is guided by a ventral and dorsal division of the vagus nerve. The dorsal vagus helps our body "shut down" in response to stress, much like an animal playing dead when they can't run or fight.
When we feel safe, the ventral vagus brings our body into homeostasis, and is connected to a social engagement system. This part of our nervous system supports social behaviors like facial expressions, listening, and language.
Neuroplasticity Aids in Healing
We can’t control external situations or obstacles, but we can change how our brain and nervous system respond to them.
Integrated within our nervous system are sensory pathways that help us interpret our environment. Like the regulation of emotions, our ability to process sensory input determines our ability to think, learn and communicate with others.
For example, an individual with differences in how they process sensory information can feel isolated and have difficulty socializing, connecting with others and feeling welcome in the world. As a result, they can be less receptive to engaging in therapy.
The good news is that our brain and nervous system are plastic, meaning they can change. Listening therapies, like the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) can help re-pattern sensory pathways to be more effective at processing and responding to our environment.
The Ear as the Portal to the Brain
Listening therapies like the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) influence the nervous
system through specially filtered music, activating the auditory neural network, including a branch of the vagus nerve. Based on hierarchical recruitment of the autonomic nervous system, the SSP trains the auditory processing system to tune into cues of
safety signaled by frequencies of the human voice, which stimulates the social engagement system through the neural network associated with listening.
Want to know more?
For more detailed information and to learn how the SAFE AND SOUND PROTOCOL can help you or someone you know, please send Certified SSP Provider, Randi Fine, an email or discuss the SAFE AND SOUND PROTOCOL with her during a scheduled coaching session.
Your email must include your mobile phone number or if outside the United States other contact information such as your WhatsApp number, and the best time of day to reach you.
Please indicate the US time zone where you reside, or if outside the United States include the name of the country.
Send all inquiries to: Randi@RandiFine.com
