Healing through sound

On a winter evening in a warm, clean, and softly lit room in Sanyuanqiao, Beijing, 29-year-old sound therapist Hu Chong played various instruments.

Around 10 participants, either lying down or sitting, followed her guidance to experience the delicate sensations that sound can bring to the body and mind.

As Hu struck a singing bowl and slowly rubbed its rim, the ethereal tones crept into the participants' ears and "massaged" their scalps. She then gently tilted the ocean drum and stream drum, letting hundreds of tiny beads roll inside, mimicking waves crashing on the shore and the rustling of flowing water. Finally came the gong. With each strike, deep and powerful sound waves enveloped the entire space, guiding everyone toward deep relaxation and healing.

This practice, known as "sound healing", has become increasingly popular.

Every weekend, similar sessions are held in yoga studios, sound therapy centers, tea rooms, and other leisure spaces across cities nationwide.

Although most participants are young women, Hu has noticed a growing number of men attending these sessions in recent years.

Despite their diverse backgrounds, participants share a common experience: the burden of significant stress from work or life.

"Sound healing has been popular in Western societies for decades," Hu explained. "Now that our material lives have improved, more and more people are seeking spiritual fulfillment."

According to her, attending a sound healing session is like pressing pause on the outside world and entering a space where you can be fully present with yourself.

"This can facilitate self-healing," Hu said. "At every session, we take a moment to express gratitude to ourselves for making time for our own well-being, which is something to be thankful for."

Luo Dandan, 31, from Hefei, Anhui province, was among the participants that evening.

For several years, she has maintained a daily habit of practicing yoga for an hour. However, after attending sound healing sessions, she discovered the unique impact that sound could have on her.

"Yoga is primarily about physical relaxation, whereas sound healing allows me to mentally and spiritually reconnect with myself," she explained.

Experiencing sound

She described her first experience attending a sound healing session. "When the singing bowl first began to resonate, my mind was cluttered with thoughts — I couldn't focus or feel calm. It was as if I were trapped in a dark sphere. As the rhythm of various instruments guided me, I persistently tried to pierce through the darkness. I kept striking and striking until, finally, I broke through and emerged" she recalled.

"This entire experience happened in my mind. My emotions were liberated, and I even shed tears," she said.

Lin Ran, a Beijing-based middle school teacher and an avid sound healing enthusiast, holds a special fondness for the sound of the gong.

Her relationship with her mother had long been a source of emotional struggle, but the strong, enveloping vibrations of the gong made her feel as if she were "back in her mother's womb", allowing her to reconnect with her mother on a deeply intimate level.

Eager to further explore the world of sound healing, Lin enrolled in workshops to train as a sound therapist. While becoming a sound therapist doesn't require the rigorous practice or extensive musical theory demanded of a pianist, she found that the threshold was still quite high.

"Unlike traditional music performance, sound therapists must fully immerse themselves in sensing how the instruments affect different parts of the body and resonate with different individuals. There is also a lot of improvisation, which requires creativity," she said.

Hu fully agreed. According to her, instruments used in sound healing can generally be categorized into two types: those that mimic the sounds of nature and those that generate powerful sound waves to produce vibrations.

"These vibrations are the essence of the healing process," Hu said.

She explained that the gong creates a cleansing sensation from head to toe while the shaman drum evokes a heartbeat-like rhythm. Smaller instruments that mimic the sound of water help relax the brain, and vocal chanting — being closest to the body's natural sounds — can easily trigger reactions in the throat.

For Hu, the purpose of a sound healing concert is to immerse listeners in a dynamic range of brainwaves, moving through peaks and troughs.

She believes this is exactly what modern people lack, as they're often stuck in a constant state of tension and stress.

"We are not just helping people achieve slower brainwaves or a state of relaxation but reactivating the brain's natural ability to self-regulate and generate different brainwave patterns," she said. "This way, even after the concert, when they return to their daily lives, they can continue to benefit."

Healing from within

In recent years, more and more melodic instruments such as the guitar and the Chinese guqin (a seven-stringed zither) have been integrated into sound healing practices. Among them, the handpan has emerged as a particularly popular choice.

Huang Jiajin, 24, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is a skilled handpan player.

She noted that although the handpan is a relatively recent invention — dating back to around the year 2000 — it has been widely used in wellness, meditation, and sound healing sessions due to its otherworldly, pure, and piercing tones.

"The sound of the handpan is calming and soothing," she elaborated on the instrument's growing popularity. "Unlike many other sound-healing instruments that produce a white noise-like hum, the handpan offers a richer, more dynamic range and a sustained presence. It creates both melody and atmosphere."

Huang has used the handpan to heal others, but she more often relies on it as a personal tool for self-healing.

"Handpan playing is improvisational by nature," she said. "There are no strict rules to bind you, nor any standards to judge if you are playing correctly or not. The act itself is liberating and relaxing."

Every night before bed, Huang spends time playing the handpan. When troubled by worries, she turns to it for comfort.

She prefers to perform in nature settings — on the grass, under a tree, or by the seaside.

"Playing the handpan is a process of self-awareness," she said. "It makes you conscious of your surroundings and helps you capture your emotions and inner transformations, turning them into artistic expression."

Huang has struggled with anxiety since she was 16, often unable to stop overthinking. Neither sleep nor meditation could silence the voices in her head. Eventually, she discovered that listening to or playing healing music could help ease her mind.

"When you focus on genuine sounds, your thoughts won't be distracted by anything else," she explained.

Huang has been recording her handpan performances and is currently working on her first healing music album, Empty Space.

"My aspiration is to create a sanctuary of music — like an empty room where people can escape the overwhelming influx of information and simply lie down and rest," she said.