Founder Of The Sounding Heart Method with M.A. In Counseling Psychology, Marriage And Family Therapist, And Former Bodywork Practitioner – Speaker
Shira Stone has been blessed to have had deep spiritual experiences throughout her life. At times during her childhood, when Shira was feeling a lot of emotional pain, she suddenly became aware of a loving presence around her whose love lifted her up into a state of joy and expansiveness. These spontaneous spiritual experiences gave Shira the motivation and inspiration to pursue the deep emotional healing work necessary to experience that same joyousness as her norm.
Shira’s personal healing journey eventually showed her three interwoven parts of healing from emotional pain and trauma: first, with the help of a skilled and loving therapist, learning to feel the intense feelings instead of running from them; second, sharing these feelings, including feelings of shame, self-criticism, and insecurities, with other brave souls in a group setting to discover how un-alone we really are; and, third, experiencing direct and personal contact with Spirit that loves us now and forever with unconditional love and acceptance.
Before getting her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Humanistic Studies and becoming licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in 1992, Shira did bodywork (massage, deep tissue work, and Trager) for 15 years, which gave her a hands-on understanding of the connection between the body and emotions.
Sound healing came to Shira unexpectedly in 1988 as she was doing a bodywork session with a friend who asked her to do something different. Shira opened up to see what would happen, and she suddenly was making Tibetan bowl-like sounds that she had never heard of before. At the same time these sounds were coming out of her mouth, Shira saw herself in an ancient amphitheater. Everyone in this amphitheater was making the same sounds she was, and she was directing these sounds to a person lying in the middle of the circle. It became clear to Shira at that moment that this was her path. She started experimenting with people individually and in groups, and was blown away by how powerful sound is for healing.
While facilitating sound healing groups for the past 40 years, Shira continued learning. She completed a four-year training in Bioenergetic Therapy, and took other trainings in Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping), Focusing, Non-Violent Communication, and Hakomi for healing trauma.
Since becoming an LMFT, She has had a private practice, working with individuals and groups from all walks of life, and have also worked in various institutional settings. Shira has worked in psychiatric hospitals, including Good Samaritan in San Jose, California, and has been a program director at Rubicon Programs in Richmond, California, developing and managing a group program for severely traumatized members of the inner city population. She was a team leader at a case management program for the severely mentally ill, and brought sound healing to various psychiatric hospitals and cancer facilities, including the California Cancer Center in Marin County, California.
The Sounding Heart work was created out of all these experiences. It brings together the three elements Shira has found that healed her and those she has worked with over the last 40 years. The Sounding Heart helps her clients do the deep inner work of facing their feelings, being with like-minded brave souls in a healing group, and having direct and personal contact with the Divine through the sounds of the voice and crystal singing bowls.