Dr. Stephen Porges’ Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, is a non-invasive application of Polyvagal Theory designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience.
The SSP is commonly used by mental health professionals, therapists, and sensory integration practitioners as an adjunct therapy to help their patients regulate their nervous system, process external cues and signals more effectively, and attain a grounded state in which they feel safe and calm.
How Does The Safe And Sound Protocol Work?
The first thing to understand is the importance of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is best described as our “personal surveillance system”, always determining and responding to the question “Am I safe?”
If our ANS is continually aroused through trauma or toxic, chronic stress, the muscles in our middle ear shifts away from listening for the human voice and instead listens for low-frequency background noises in preparation for the need to respond (fight or flight). This makes us much less able to be socially engaged and much more likely to be reactive.
The specially filtered music in SSP trains the auditory pathways to focus on the frequency of human speech and to tune out the frequencies of background noises. Once the ear begins to work normally, we are more available for social engagement (we must feel safe to be socially engaged) and thus can experience the safety of our relationships much more fully.
As we learn to focus on the sound frequencies of human speech through the SSP programme, the vagus nerve becomes stimulated and the state of feeling safer and calmer becomes accessible.
Once physiological state is regulated, people respond more effectively to life’s challenges, can access higher learning and cognition more easily, build positive social relationships, and ultimately can accelerate or enhance subsequent therapies.
The purpose of SSP is to create new positive connections in the brain that allow the client to regulate oneself by "stretching the nervous system, not stressing the nervous system.
Who Can Benefit from Safe And Sound Protocol?
The purpose of the Safe & Sound Protocol is to initiate and access a physiological state conducive to well-being, positive engagement with others, and progress in learning and therapy. In this capacity, SSP has been used to treat patients of all ages experiencing the following challenges:
Anxiety
Inattention and Focus
Auditory sensitivities
Behavioural Regulation and Resilience
[Physical] Coordination and Balance
Reading and Auditory Processing
Sleep disorders
Speech and Language
Social and emotional difficulties
Trauma and PTSD
Stressors that impact social engagement
Misophonia
Post-traumatic stress disorders
Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome
Change is truly comprehensive
The three SSP pathways are designed to meet client’s unique needs and give the provider the ability to adjust and titrate listening. SSP Connect can help clients ease into the more filtered music of the SSP Core programme, while SSP Balance can extend the state-regulating benefits beyond initial listening.
How is the SSP delivered?
SSP is not designed as a stand-alone process and is delivered alongside other therapeutic and nervous system regulation support. I have found SSP a good basis to then start other therapies that I offer, i.e. Rapid Transformation Therapy, Brainspotting, Complex-PTSD trauma informed therapy.
The specially filtered music is accessed through an easy to manage app-based platform which is available on Android and iOS. It is not available over the computer.
The client experiences the SSP through over ear headphones either in clinic or remotely (or a mix of both). I will send you a link to buy these headphones which are available via Amazon for about £40.
Delivery time is a package usually administered between 6-8 weeks approximately. Every client is unique and a time frame is hard to guestimate!
How long does it take to listen to the SSP?
The entire protocol takes 5 hours, but the length of the intervention depends on the individual capabilities of the listener’s nervous system. This can range from 10 days, with a listening frequency of 30 min / h, to several weeks, and even longer if the listening time cannot exceed a few minutes per day.
We will always start listening to the music together either in clinic or via Zoom. If I think it appropriate at a future date, you may listen to the music on your own.
Firstly, a Consultation will be required. Then we need another appointment on ‘mapping your very own nervous system’ and enable you to have full knowledge of the Polyvagal Theory. We will then book in another appointment to start listening to the music together.
SSP CONNECT
Warm up the nervous system with a gentle and slow introduction, establish familiarity and a sense of safety.
SSP CORE
The original 5-hour listening program designed to wake up, exercise and open the nervous system, to build capacity and achieve reduced sensitivity and a more resilient physiological
SSP BALANCE
Continue to stabilise and maintain a sense of calm and grounding, and further integrate the benefits of SSP Core.
Can you expand on the science of SSP?
The Polyvagal Theory states that in mammals the regulation of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) centres around listening and vocalization. Mammals are different than reptiles because 2 bones in the ear are detached allowing us to hear low amplitude and high frequency sounds in the human voice. The bones in the middle ear are a direct entry to our ANS. The muscles, Stapedius, in the middle ear provide input to the brain through vagus nerve stimulation. When the stapedius muscle is weak the brain struggles to attend and interpret sound & facial cues, as well as other dysregulation issues. These are outside of our conscious control. SSP exercises this muscle, increasing the range of input the client can take in. When the way we take in sound is distorted, it disrupts the entire ANS, interfering with the social engagement system.
What is The Science Behind the Polyvagal Theory?
The Vagus Nerve
The mind and body are connected through the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system, stretching from the brainstem to the colon. It is our internal control centre, allowing the brain to monitor and receive information about many of our bodily functions.
The vagus nerve helps to regulate critical aspects of human physiology, including the heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion and even speaking. As the body takes in information automatically through neuroception, the vagus nerve communicates this information to the brain, which processes the signals and cues from the world around us and in turn determines how we react through three physiological states: Parasympathetic/ventral vagal state, sympathetic state, or dorsal vagal state.
