Sound Healing Practitioner Spotlight: Simone Vitale

In this blog, we are talking to Simone Vitale from The Sound of Golden Light about his sound healing background and journey.

When he is not creating mindful music, he is using sound for healing, mainly focusing on tuning forks and vocal toning. 

Simone Vitale is a Sound Healer and Vocal Yoga teacher originally from Rome, Italy, and currently based in Auckland, New Zealand. With a background of many years as a musician and composer, Simone has dedicated the last 10 years to the deepening of his understanding of the healing qualities of sound and music.

His one-to-one sessions are centred around the use of tuning forks and occasionally include other instruments as well as toning and his warm personality, combined with his spiritual depth, is a key component of the healing space he holds.

Simone has a diploma in Integral Sound Healing With Tuning Forks (Sound Healing Academy) and as a Vocal Yoga VY Teacher (Vocal Yoga Institute). Over the last 5 years, Simone has been sharing his work with both Sound Healing and Music internationally in Italy, Germany, Finland, Estonia, France, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and New Zealand.

Other aspects of his work, often interwoven with his sound healing skills, include: Music of the Plants; Music for Pregnancy and Birth; Ritual Design and Live Music for Yoga.

How has your sound journey developed since you have qualified?

"I had been working as a sound healer for quite some time before starting the training with the Sound Healing Academy. This training has provided me with many insights and a number of new tools that I was very happy integrate into my practice."

Have you always been interested in sound as a form of therapy?

"Not always. I started playing music when I was very young, around the age of 12. For many years I dedicated myself to growing professionally as a musician and producer as well as a sound engineer and sound designer.

So, in a way, understanding sound has always been my main path.

Years later I became interested in meditation, alternative healing methods and esoteric knowledge. As a consequence, I naturally shifted my musical focus to the healing and beneficial qualities of music. A pivotal moment was when someone gave me a VHS of Jonathan Goldman's interview with Peter Guy Manners about Cymatics and the work of Hans Jenny.

After watching it, something in me just clicked and after that I was re-connected with the path of Sacred Sound. I spent a whole week in a sort of daze and after that my understanding of music had completely changed. That led me to buy a couple of singing bowls and start my first experience with sound healing."

What inspired you to train as a practitioner with the Sound Healing Academy?

"I was looking for a way to deepen my knowledge and expertise and, for various reasons, I needed this to be an online based course. As I said before, I was already practicing sound healing. However, I had taught myself everything so far and based my practice on my intuition and deep connection with the element of sound. I felt the need to enrich my experience with someone else's input.

So, I did some research and found that the Sound healing Academy was offering the most comprehensive online course I was able to find. I was very satisfied with my choice."

What instruments are you most drawn to?

"When it comes to sound healing sessions I am particularly drawn to tuning forks. I have used singing bowls in the past as well as other string instruments, but I find it particularly effective working with such precise frequencies.

I feel that tuning forks help me to be more specific and to focus the healing energy and the intention much more effectively."

One of your case studies I believe was with a plant! Do tell us more about this?

"Yes, that was a fascinating case study. The idea actually came into being during a Skype conversation with Tony. One of my main current projects is the “music of the plants” and, more specifically, inter-species communication with plants through music.

I have one of the U1 devices for the music of the plants produced in Damanhur, Italy and I have been experimenting with it for some years. I was telling Tony about it and we had the idea of using the device as a feedback of the effects of sound healing on a plant."

Tell us more!

"Briefly, here is how the U1 works: it measures the variation of the electrical resistance in the tissue of plants and transduces these into digital signals that can be directed to a synthesizer, therefore producing sounds. Basically, these electrical variations become musical notes.

In my understanding, the electrical signals that the device measures, are associated to the plant's response to the environment and their interactions with people. There is evidence that plants are very sensitive to people thoughts and feelings and that the communication channel between plants and human is a rich one.

This means that when a plant is making music through the device, the music often is a reflection of the plant's interaction with its environment.

I had these two plants of Echinacea and, even though they were in the same spot, same exposure to sun and receiving the same amount of water, one of them was not doing well.

So, I decided to dedicate a case study to this plant. For each session, I would connect the plant to the U1 device and let it play for some time and then I would start using my tuning forks. Almost every time I started the “treatment”, the music would either stop or change for a while.

At the end of the cycle of treatments, the plant was looking a bit better. Not yet as the other one, but definitely better than before.

I sent Tony pictures and recordings of the process, and he was also very impressed!"

What did you find most helpful for your current work in your training with the Sound Healing Academy?

"The two most helpful things I learned are the “scalar energy” technique, which I had not heard of previously and the kinesiology assessment. I have been experimenting with the latter and I feel that I want to learn more about it, maybe through a proper in-person course, as it can become a valuable diagnostic tool in my practice."

Tell me about a typical session with you. What would a client expect?

"Normally, when someone gets in touch with me to book a session, I ask them to send me an email with a few lines on what kind of issue they would like to address. This is the moment when the healing field between me and them is created and it gives me a chance to tune in and open my intuition.

When we meet in person, I ask them some questions to learn more about their problem and how it is connected to different areas of their lives.

After that, I usually start using the tuning forks to facilitate a relaxation phase. Obviously, the choice of the tuning forks is based on the specific needs of each client and session.

Sometimes I invite clients to share any image, thought, sensation or feeling they experience during the session and use that as guidance. It is not unusual for me to have a sort of “download” of the entire session at the very beginning. Other times I will navigate through the session following the client's feedback as well as my attentive observations.

These are the most recurrent characteristics of my sound healing sessions. Besides that, I will include spontaneous elements like, for example, asking the clients to speak certain affirmations while I work on specific areas of their bodies.

Or I may use my own voice as an additional sound tool. Other times I include light, gentle touch if I feel that they need it. In fact, for some people touch can be the most healing element."

You also work with the voice in your sessions, and teach voice workshops. How did this come about for you, and what's the most dramatic result you have had?

"It was a gradual process that started some years ago. I first got into singing sacred Indian songs, then chanting and integrating mantra yoga as a part of my meditation practice.

I became more and more interested in the effects of the voice as a self-healing tool. I learned the basics of overtone signing which led me to the experience of internal sound massage. In India, I earned a certificate as Vocal Yoga VY Teacher, a specific method taught in Auroville.

In my workshops, I bring these various influences together into an integrative body of work comprising the physiology of the voice and its energetic healing qualities.

From time to time I include singing and toning in my sessions, when I feel it is going to be particularly useful.

The results of such practices are normally quite subtle and deep, rather than dramatic and they bring about shifts in energy and awareness. However, in my workshops, different people experience different things, often quite strongly from increased physical energy to heightened awareness to shifts in consciousness.

Once I was able to take pictures of myself before and after practice with a particular technology that shows energy patterns around the body and the difference between the two pictures was striking, the second one showing more coherent structures."

Transitioning from practising on case studies to paying clients can feel quite daunting. Do you have any advise for those currently training with the Sound Healing Academy?

"I think this is a very personal process and there are different ways and opinions on how to go with it. To those who wish to charge money for their sessions (not everybody needs or wishes to) I would suggest to charge a reasonable price to begin with, based on current prices for similar services.

Always follow up and ask for feedback, as this will help you to have a clear idea of the value of your work."

What's in store for you in the coming year?

"More research on the music of the plants and how it can be integrated into sound healing practices. Creating a stable flow of activities between Europe and New Zealand and expanding my sound healing toolkit. I would like to include a set of crystal bowls and a sound bed."

What's the best place for people to connect and check out what you do ?

Through my my website www.soundofgoldenlight.com

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