Deafened by Trauma. Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP).

In his New Year speech President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said: "The explosions of February 24th stunned us. Since then we have not heard everything and we don't listen to everyone". These phrases immediately came to my mind as my psychologist explained to me how the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) therapy works and what the Stephen Porges Polyvagal Theory is all about.

To explain it simply, the nervous system of people who have experienced trauma is tuned to perceive sounds associated with danger - high and low frequencies: when a lion roars, a snake crawls, something falls or explodes loudly, we react with one of the three basic fight, flight, or freeze reactions. That is, we focus, hear, and prepare primarily for these sounds, which, accordingly, affects our emotional state and behavior.

SSP is an audial therapy that stimulates the vagus nerve and train it to hear sounds of medium frequencies again - those associated with safe social interaction. It reprograms the nervous system, helping a person develop neuroplasticity and better self-regulation. It allows them to perceive the actions of others, events, sounds, etc. calmly. And you no longer take simple questions from people as an attack and a threat to your life.

It only makes sense to use this therapy when you are physically safe. Otherwise, it just doesn't work.

Technically, this happens as follows: you download an application that has three musical blocks: Adult (80s-90s songs, such as ABBA, Modern Talking), Classical Flow (classical music), Child (songs for children from cartoons and fairy tales).

You need to listen to one part. The first sessions should be supervised by a psychologist. In my case, it was a Zoom meeting where I listened to my first 5-10 minutes.

Each block is a 5-hour long music that you need to listen to every day, starting from 5-10 minutes, gradually increasing or decreasing the duration depending on your comfort and sensations. The music you listen to is algorithmically filtered to the range of human voice frequencies, which trains the nervous system from a state of constant protection to a state of calm social interaction.

During the session, you should not engage in sports, be distracted by gadgets, read, etc. It is best to color mandalas, draw - any activity that helps you relax..."

You should only listen with open headphones.

When I listened to the first 5 minutes, my initial impression was that the music was too silent and distant, as if through a thick glass. My psychologist explained to me that this indicated trauma and that my perception of volume should change further. In subsequent sessions, I felt slight dizziness and limb tremors. Later, on the 7th-8th session, I already heard the music more clearly and louder, and all physiological issues were gone. The only change that I can see now - I listened to the first 2 hours - is that I noticed an improvement in mood and increased energy levels.

I take neither sedatives nor antidepressants. I have regular sessions with my psychotherapist relatively regularly - once a week.

I can definitely recommend this type of therapy. I believe it is very good for Ukrainians who had to go abroad, are physically safe, but still feel anxious and emotionally unstable.

I will definitely write about the results after the therapy. The link to the official SSP resource is in the first comment.

"The explosions of February 24th stunned us. Since then we have not heard everything and we don't listen to everyone"...

Perhaps we do not hear everything, but the whole world hears us...

They see us

They know us

They hear us

They stand up for us.

We will resist.

Dear Patrycja Weglorz and Marta Bakker thank you. I never knew people more empathetic than you.