Corporate Sound Healing

corporations tune into sound healing

Remember the cheery “Whistle While you Work” song in Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?” Businesses are updating this concept by putting a mind/body spin on performance enhancement and employee wellness by bringing scientifically designed music, nature sounds and group drumming into the workplace. Mattel, Nike and Boeing are all using sounds scientifically proven to reduce stress and induce relaxation– while also measurably increasing creativity and problem solving. What’s more, clinical psychologists, music therapists and others are working with other corporate wellness managers to implement the healing power of sound at work.

One of the main reasons why companies are tuning into sound is because of its protean powers to reduce stress, an epidemic disabler of corporate performance. According to the American Institute of Stress (www.stress.org/job.htm), job stress bleeds over $300 billion annually from U.S. industry as a result of diminished productivity, absenteeism, accidents, and direct medical, legal and insurance costs. “Stress has also been identified as a major co-factor in PMS, depression, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and other epidemic illnesses,” says corporate health consultant Dr. Jeff Thompson, director of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research in Encinitas, CA. “My clients use my sound projects to enhance employee health, creativity and productivity,” he says. “The pay-off for companies is a more relaxed, healthier and productive staff, which helps promote better business.”

Music and certain sounds can influence our behavior so strongly because our bodies automatically resonate with, and respond to, all rhythms and sounds in the external environment. “The biological law of rhythm entrainment holds that if we hear a slow rhythm, our heart automatically slows down and synchs up with it,” says Leesa Sklover-Filgate, Ph.D., a Sandyhook, CT. clinical psychologist who consults for corporations on sounds and music in the workplace.

“When our hearts slow down,” she says, “this brings brain waves into theta and activates the Relaxation Response, a medically confirmed condition during which the nervous system rests, heart rate and blood pressure drop, organ systems rest and repair and creativity and problem solving are enhanced,” says Dr. Filgate.

Rhythm entrainment also explains why the crazed tempos of punk rock, coffee bean grinders or even desktop computer blare can speed up our hearts and activate the stress response. This in turn raises blood pressure, and releases the stress hormone cortisol, which gives us that edgy, fight-or-flight feeling that characterizes anxiety and stress modes.

“Certain musical intervals are ideal for bringing about a peaceful state that enhances mindfulness and innovative thinking,” Dr. Sklover-Filgate says. “Music that cycles at 60 beats per second or less, such as slow Bach, promotes the Relaxation Response. The sound of ocean waves or burbling streams can also induce the Relaxation Response. “Fountains help promote more positive business interactions in conference rooms, offices or reception areas,” Dr. Sklover-Filgate adds.

Perhaps the most primal form of sound healing pulsing through corporate corridors is group drumming. New York-based psychotherapist Robert Friedman author of “The Power of the Drum to Heal,” leads Drumming Away Stress sessions at HBO, Xerox and Pitney Bowes. According to HBO Nurse Manager Lynn Hanley-Foster “Through the powerful use of the drum, people can convert tension and stress into laughter, joy and community.” “Everyone instinctively knows how to drum and trade rhythms,” says Friedman. “Drumming in the middle of the day gives people a break from their computers and a chance to manage stress while developing camaraderie in a fun and socially neutral way.”

At the high-tech end of the sonic spectrum, Dr. Thompson has created customized CD series for Cisco Systems, Nike, Mattel and other business behemoths. A composer and inventor, Dr. Thompson designed a Neuroacoustic® recliner that is wired with electric speakers throughout the chair.

Ivy Ross senior vice-president in the Barbie and Girls’ Division at Mattel, bought one of Dr. Thompsons’ Neuroacoustic recliners (available at www.neuroacoustic.com) and hired him to create six relaxing CDs to boost creativity and problem solving. Ross’s team then voluntarily listened to these through headphones for 20 minutes, three times a week for six weeks while seated in the Neuroacoustic chair, which literally played their bodies with performance-enhancing frequencies. Scientifically measured results proved that Dr. Thompson’s music exerted profound physical and psychological benefits.

“Before and after heart rate variability tests, EEG monitoring, and a standardized, widely accepted SOI creativity exam proved that the sounds induced the Relaxation Response and boosted creativity from 20 to 39% after just six weeks of listening to the music,” says Ross. Kristie Scott, a project designer for Mattel’s customized Barbie team, reports that her initial experience with the high tech sounds “dramatically elevated my creativity and moods. “I’ve been using the sound chair during lunch several times a week for the past year,” she says. “Everyone who experiences it,” Scott continues, “generates more high quality creative concepts while feeling more renewed. It’s like having a spa treatment at work that makes you feel better in your daily life, too.”

Kevin Carroll, a Nike executive whose official title is “Katalyst,” designed a creativity-boosting suite at Nike headquarters that features two neuroacoustic chairs programmed with Dr. Thompson’s customized soundtracks. “Everyone from Mark Parker, our president, to our number one footwear designer, Tinker Hatfield, uses the sound chairs,” he says. “We’re trying to figure out how to allocate space for more chairs as the program has generated so much positive feedback.”

Because the right kind of sounds can slow down heart rhythms, certain music helps retune our emotions, says Howard Martin, [contact HeartMath PR, Ms. Gaby Boehmer, executive vice-president of strategic development at HeartMath LLC, [www.heartmath.com]. This Boulder Creek, CA. company provides programs, services and products, including music CDs, that scientifically boost performance, productivity and well-being while measurably reducing stress.

“Scientific research confirms that music can help us feel more of the regenerative positive emotions such as appreciation, compassion, care, non-judgment and love,” says Martin, who executive produced HeartMath’s CDs “Heart Zones,” “Speed of Balance” and “Quiet Joy,” by Doc Childre. Steve Stephenson at Seattle’s Boeing office played HeartZones during his weekly leadership meeting when he was a senior manager “under extremely hostile schedule and cost deadlines in charge of organization and team development for engineering within Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division.” “HeartZones gives people some valuable tools for managing their internal environment,” he explains. According to Dr. Sklover-Filgate, “The scientific use of music and sound in the workplace can give employees and companies decisive health and business advantages. The field will continue to grow,” she predicts, “as businesses experiment and discover which sounds help enhance employee performance and meet project goals.”

You can use sound to improve your physical and mental state while on the job, commuting or relaxing. Here’s what the experts recommend:
for relaxation, creativity and “out-of-the-box” thinking: Ivy Ross at Mattel recommends Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s 4 CD set, “Brainwave Suite,” which can be ordered through his Web site at www.neuroacoustic.com.

to promote focus: Dr. Sklover-Filgate often advises corporate clients to work with the CD called “Focus,” which is part of The Thinking Music Series, available at www.appliedmusic.com.

to promote heart health and stress management: SONY, Unilever, Shell and Boeing employees are some of the major corporations that groove to HeartMath’s CDs “Speed of Balance,” “Heart Zones” and “Quiet Joy,” available at www.heartmath.com.

for safer driving:

Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University [www.racfoundation.org/releases/140302.rac.htm] found that drivers who listen to music that cycles at 60 beats per minute or more had twice as many accidents as those listening to tunes that ran 60 beats per minute or less. Some slow music that will promote safer driving includes:

“Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles
“Thank You” by Dido
Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1
“Angels” by Robbie Williams
“Evergreen” by Will Young

written by kyle roderick