Andrea Williams is a sound healing practitioner, restorative yoga teacher, and sound artist. For over fifteen years she has been creating comfortable and compassionate spaces for restoration, creativity, and healing for communities through various modalities including yoga, immersive soundscapes, soundwalks and SleepWalks (soundwalks in people’s dreams) that encourage listening to the world around us and internally to ourselves.  She received her 200-hr yoga teacher training and restorative yoga certification at Heartspace Yoga in Troy, NY and is a member of the Sound Healers Association.

Andrea has performed at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces internationally including the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen and the Mamori Sound Artist Residency in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. She holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she taught Deep Listening classes with Pauline Oliveros and studied how sensorially-engaging soundwalks could be used internationally as a tool for developing local solutions for pollution and climate change. 

What is Sound Healing?

Sound healing is an ancient tradition that is fairly new to our Western world. It is the use of sound to create balance and alignment in the physical body and the energy centers called “chakras." The sound may be applied by an instrument such as a singing bowl or gong or by the human voice. Sound Healing is a vibrational therapy. 

What is a Sound Healing Session Like? 

Clients are encouraged to arrive to their session with an intention for personal healing as being open for the sounds can help with healing.

Sound healing sessions begin with a short discussion about the reason for coming in and what one would like to focus on during the session (such as simply for relaxation or for a specific physical or emotional reason). Due to the pandemic there is no longer an office space at Heartspace in Troy, NY. Sessions take place via Zoom or at a cozy location outdoors. 

The environment is set up similar to when getting a massage, but often instead of a massage table, to become level with the singing bowls, you will be on a yoga mat lying down with pillows and blankets or in a relaxing restorative yoga pose with supportive blankets or pillows. ​Essential oils are often used in my in-person sessions, but they are optional for clients with smell sensitivities. The sound treatment depends on the session that the client chooses and the reason that they come in. Various instruments are used, along with vocal toning.

The many benefits of sound healing or sound bath include:

• a relief from depression
• a rebalancing of energies within your body
• a form of meditation that can have a lower learning curve than traditional seated silent meditation
• provides a deep state of relaxation immediately
• accelerates tissue repair and pain management
• A 2016 study found that singing bowl meditation reduced stress, anger, depression, and fatigue. All of these things are known to impact physical health and raise the risk for disease, suggesting that singing bowl therapy may be good for your physical, as well as emotional, well-being.