What is the Safe and Sound Protocol?
The Safe and Sound Protocol is a five-hour listening programme developed by Dr Stephen Porges, based on his Polyvagal Theory. You listen through an app and headphones to music that’s been specially filtered to send your nervous system cues of safety.
People come to it for all sorts of reasons. Some want to feel calmer and less reactive day to day. Others are hoping to sleep better, or finally get some relief from sound sensitivity that’s worn them down for years. Some just want to feel more able to connect with the people in their life without so much effort.
It’s not a talking therapy, and it doesn’t teach you anything new. It works with your physiology directly, helping your nervous system move out of fight, flight or freeze and into a state where connection and rest are actually possible again.
What is the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)?
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a five-hour, evidence-informed listening programme developed by Dr Stephen Porges, based on his Polyvagal Theory. It uses specially filtered music, delivered through an app and headphones, to send your nervous system cues of safety.
For many people, this can mean:
- Feeling calmer and less reactive
- Better sleep
- Improved focus and emotional regulation
- Feeling more able to connect with others
- Reduced sensitivity to sound
- More capacity to be present in your body
SSP doesn’t work by teaching you something new — it works directly with your physiology, helping your autonomic nervous system shift out of defensive states (fight, flight, freeze) and into a state where connection, rest and growth become possible again.
Understanding your nervous system
Before SSP will make much sense, it helps to understand a bit about what your nervous system is actually doing underneath everything.
Your autonomic nervous system runs the things you don’t consciously control: breathing, heart rate, digestion. And underneath all of that, it’s constantly asking one question: am I safe?
There are two main branches to it. Your sympathetic nervous system is the mobiliser, it’s what raises your heart rate and tightens your shoulders when your body senses danger, real or not. Your parasympathetic nervous system is the opposite: rest, digestion, healing, connection. The state your body needs to actually recover.
The trouble starts when your nervous system gets stuck reading the world as unsafe, often because of things that happened in the past, or because of how your body processes sensory information in the first place. When that happens, you might notice:
- Trouble sleeping, or sleeping far too much
- Digestive issues that don’t have an obvious cause
- A racing heart or shallow breathing that shows up for no clear reason
- Struggling to concentrate, or feeling foggy
- Pulling away from people, even when part of you wants connection
- Or the opposite – total exhaustion, flatness, a kind of shutdown
SSP works on exactly this loop. The filtered music sends your nervous system repeated signals that it’s safe, which over time can help it settle out of that stuck pattern and into what Porges calls a social engagement state: calmer, more connected, more able to cope.
How I work with SSP
I’m a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, so I titrate the protocol, meaning I pace it according to what your nervous system can actually take in at each stage, rather than what a generic schedule says you should be ready for by now. In practice that looks like:
- Starting slowly and watching closely how your system responds before deciding what’s next
- Letting sessions be shaped by your capacity that day, not a fixed calendar
- Giving something more time if it needs it, even if that means going slower than a standard plan would
- The protocol bending to fit you, not the other way round
Pushing SSP faster than your system can integrate doesn’t get you to the finish line any quicker. More often it overwhelms the exact system you’re trying to calm. Going at the right pace is what makes this actually work, not just tick a box.
What’s included
1 Full year of SSP app access (£300)
- An initial assessment with me before we begin
- Full access to the SSP app and listening programme
- Pacing that’s titrated to your nervous system, session by session
- My ongoing support and monitoring as your certified provider
1:1 sessions to support you through the process are separate, and covered below.
Your role during a session
Honestly, your job during a session is fairly simple: listen, and tell me what comes up. That might be a feeling, a physical sensation, a memory, or nothing much at all, all of it’s useful information.
My job is to prepare you before we start, stay closely tuned in while you listen, and adjust our pace so you’re never being pushed through the protocol faster than your system can handle.
Who SSP may help
I mostly see this help people dealing with anxiety, depression, or a trauma history that’s left their nervous system on high alert. Sound sensitivity comes up a lot too: people who find certain noises unbearable, or who feel drained after being in loud environments.
SSP also pairs well with other work you might already be doing: EMDR, IFS, CBT, or body-based approaches like occupational therapy or Somatic Experiencing. It doesn’t replace any of that. It tends to make the rest of it land better.
Supporting your SSP journey
As your nervous system starts to regulate, things can surface: old memories, feelings you’ve kept at arm’s length, patterns you hadn’t quite named. That’s not a side effect to worry about; it’s part of the process, and it helps to have somewhere to bring it.
I offer 1:1 sessions alongside SSP, drawing on breathwork, Somatic Experiencing and Core Process Psychotherapy, for clients working through the programme with me.
1:1 sessions: £75
[Find out about 1:1 sessions]
Safe and Sound Protocol in Bath, Somerset & online
I offer SSP in person in Bath, Somerset, and online for clients across the UK and internationally.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What does the SSP music sound like? Familiar, mostly: classical and popular tracks you might already know, run through a filtering process that brings out frequencies close to the human voice. That filtering is doing the work, not anything unusual about the music itself.
Do I need 1:1 sessions alongside SSP? Some people are fine with just the listening sessions and check-ins along the way. Others want more support processing what comes up. We’ll figure out what suits you.
Why isn’t there a fixed listening schedule? Because your nervous system isn’t the same from one week to the next, and a fixed schedule assumes it is. I’d rather take a bit longer and get it right than rush you through a plan that doesn’t fit what’s actually happening for you.
Can I do this online? I work with SSP clients online just as much as in person.
Is SSP right for me? Hard to say without knowing more about you, book a free 30 minute call and we can talk it through properly.
Is SSP a replacement for therapy? No. It works on a physiological level and supports the rest of your therapeutic work, but it’s not a substitute for it. That’s exactly why I offer 1:1 sessions alongside it.
Ready to start?
[Book a free 30 minute call] · 07813 181288 · beth@beth-nicholas.com
