Safe and Sound Protocol

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Stephen Porges · 2014

What it is

SSP is a fixed course of about five hours of vocal music, computer-filtered to emphasise the frequency band of the human voice, listened to through over-ear headphones while the client is calm and accompanied by a regulating person. It is a proprietary, licensed audio programme rather than a form…

Format

• Core filtered listening ("SSP Core", 5 hours). Core is the original SSP: the 5-hour Adult and Child playlists with progressive, dynamic filtering through Porges's patented algorithm, changing throughout each hour; Unyte calls it the strongest pathway. Unyte refers providers to its delivery manuals…
• Integration and close (1 session, plus check-ins during the course). Review change, complete ending measures, and plan ongoing therapy. One UK service offers a three-month follow-up to advise on further SSP "as clinically indicated".

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. SSP is not a regulated profession or a music-therapy method. It is a licensed product. Unyte offers its training to "licensed mental, neurodevelopmental and physical health professionals", and lists contributors from social work, occupational therapy, medicine, psychology, psychotherapy, marriage and family therapy, Somatic Experiencing and EMDR consulting. The foundational training is online, on…
• Assessment and preparation (1 session). Background, current concerns, sensory and sound sensitivities, current therapy and medical care, suitability. With children, carers attend. Introduce the idea, choose a playlist, set up the app and headphones, and sometimes begin a little listening. Move on when: the client (and carer) understand what will happen and can name a stop signal. The client has a calm,…
• Formats. Individual sessions in the clinic. Remote sessions with the clinician on video, which Onderko calls "very effective" and which became common during COVID; Unyte's training covers in-person, remote and hybrid delivery, and clients listen through the Unyte Health app while the provider manages the programme in MyUnyte. Home listening between check-ins. Carer-and-child co-listening. Group delivery in inpatient…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the therapy becoming "just the listening". Keep the treatment plan's main goals in view.
• group contagion of distress, and members who cannot pace themselves within a fixed group schedule.
• listening doses creeping upward, multitasking, listening at bedtime while lying down, or missed check-ins.
• startle, freezing, dissociation or sudden mood change on particular songs. Note the track and avoid that playlist.
• rising anxiety as the client relaxes, which is the calm-as-vulnerability pattern Porges describes. Name it and slow down.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.