Tuning-fork therapy and Biofield Tuning

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Eileen Day McKusick · 1996

What it is

Biofield Tuning is a sound-based biofield method. McKusick reports developing it from 1996 onward in her massage practice, first calling it "sound balancing". The practitioner strikes tuning forks and passes them slowly through the space around a fully clothed client, starting several feet from the…

Format

• Session structure (the standard session). The study protocol describes three elements, which frame every session:
• Closing sequence to integrate the adjustment into the whole system. In person the client lies fully clothed, face up, on a massage-style table; the practitioner begins about five to six feet away. Seniors and children are given shorter sessions ("less is more").

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Training and certification route (who certifies). Training is given by the Biofield Tuning organisation and its listed instructors; courses "must be completed in succession".
• Level 1, Foundations: in-person introduction to the standard session and foundational principles; usable on family and friends or as the first step to certification. Foundations homework must be submitted within a year before Level 2.
• Level 2, Practitioner Training: virtual (standard or accelerated) or three in-person days; content named as on-body fork techniques (Spine Walk, Spine Slide, Sacral Stabilization, Sonic Meridian Flush), an "adrenal reset" and tuning of body systems, scar (fascia) work, seated chair sessions, the ethics of sound therapy and energy medicine, and business practice. Pre-reading is McKusick's Electric Body, Electric…

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 intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• 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

• reliance on recordings in place of medical or psychiatric care; spending pressure.
• discomfort with someone behind the chair. Working signs: the client remains relaxed and upright.
• sunk-cost reasoning; wanting to please the therapist. Working signs: a clear, freely made decision.
• hesitation, a delayed or flat "yes", startle, dissociation. Working signs: unhesitating consent and relaxed response.
• dizziness on sitting up, lingering spaciness, unfinished emotion. Do not let a client leave or drive while disoriented.

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.