Join MysticMag as we embark on a transformative journey with Dr. Aria Thomé, a multifaceted practitioner whose expertise spans sound healing, Reiki mastery, and spiritual exploration. Dr. Thomé’s profound insights into the intersection of sound and energy offer a glimpse into the depth of her practice. Reflecting on a pivotal moment during her training, she recounts the revelation of her innate ability to perceive energy shifts within the chakras and auras through sound. This awakening fundamentally altered her approach, leading to a more holistic assessment of her clients’ energetic complexities. With diverse certifications and a doctoral degree in Sacred Music, Dr. Thomé seamlessly integrates various modalities into her practice, including Reiki, shamanic drum circle facilitation, and world chanting practices. Her commitment to ongoing learning and her deep spiritual connection infuse each session with a unique blend of healing energies. As she continues to explore the therapeutic potential of overtone singing and community-based healing, Dr. Thomé invites individuals to embrace their own healing journey and discover the profound resonance of their inner harmony.
Can you share a pivotal experience from your sound healing journey and how it has influenced your approach?
A pivotal point in my experience occurred during my training when I discovered that I do have the ability to hear and discern energy shifts and changes within the chakras and the auras. I’m not expressing anything ground breaking by saying energy is vibration and vibration is sound, but to experience that reality by use of sound healing instruments astounded me. It changed my assessment process completely. While before there may had been more focus on the energy surrounding the immediate body, I have found we often have energetic complications in our emotional or mental body. I check different areas and further out of the aura more closely. I still rely on and treat with information based on our verbal consultation, but hearing the energy and where there might not be proper flow often allows me to assess the cause of the cause. I have found clients experience deeper and more profound healing because of this.
Your background includes diverse certifications and a doctoral degree. How do these elements contribute to your unique sound healing practice?
I always want to be learning and possess as much knowledge to be as well rounded of a healer as I can be. Becoming a Reiki master was important to me so that in treating energetic disturbances, I could double check myself, so to speak, using reiki methods after sound treatment. My certification in shamanic drum circle facilitating has allowed me to hold circle and space for people to explore their inner landscape, foster community, and get into intimate touch with their innate creative nature. The doctoral degree in Sacred Music and years of choral direction have certain taught me to listen to the quality of a person’s speaking voice and see that the body as one harmonious being and just as a choir can be tuned, so too a client in a way that their life can more freely sing. Currently, I’m studying various breathwork methods and shamanic practice, particularly overtone singing, which I believe will present itself to be integral to how I treat clients.
Bhakti yoga and kirtan add a spiritual dimension to your work. How does the intersection of sound healing and spirituality impact your clients’ outcomes?
Bhakti yoga, and its expression in Kirtan have always gripped me, particular in their devotional aspect and invitation to lose oneself in a chant whether to Guan Yin or Krishna, surrendering to All That Is (or whatever word you would like to use). Before a client would even arrive, I take part in my own preparation which includes elements certainly of the related spirituality. Watching science and spirituality continue to merge reaffirms my conviction that for a more comprehensive healing experience, there will inevitably have to be a communal aspect which occurs after our session and before the subsequent session. Though it might not look like Kirtan in the sense of losing yourself in devotion with others, your healing will be impacted by those with whom you decide to spend and exchange energy. As deeper healing occurs, a client finds that their circle of people in their lives shifts to one in which they can lose themselves in the One.
With your expertise in world chanting practices and voice reclamation, how do you integrate the human voice into your sound healing sessions?
The voice is the original healing instrument. We always have it with us, and when infused with intent, it becomes a healing force not to be taken lightly. Our words by their very nature our impactful and highly creative. I will use various chants, often in Sanskrit, related to various conditions that the client presents. I have found for example using Gregorian Chant, with its melismatic, naturally fluidity/floridity, and almost floating quality begins to transform the body’s energy in a similar way, promoting flow and a type of seamlessness. The voice is also easiest to explore with the client in after care discussions. If they seem open to the idea, I will offer a chant to them to continue to work with, or encourage directed humming to continue the healing process between sessions.
You use various instruments in sessions. How do you choose which ones to use for an individual, and what factors influence your decision?
The use of instruments to use depends on what you are using it for and it is largely an intuitive process that I have learned to trust over the years. For example, you can break up stuck energy with a gong, tuning fork, or even a shamanic rattle. When in the session it comes time to work on a particular area, one instrument over the others will just feel like it makes perfect sense to use. I know that might not feel like a very exact answer, but trusting intuition has just brought about greater results. Intimately knowing your instruments and their capabilities is crucial, but how I use them, in what order, and for how long becomes almost like composing a Kirtan melody. Just as a chant almost tells you what notes it wants in order to be sung, so to does a body tell you what instrument it needs or desires at a given point so that as I mentioned, the body can be tuned and sing itself.
What do you love most about your profession?
I love how many people have come before me who were sound healers and never called themselves sound healers at all. They just did what was intuitively necessary for healing. The records and writings of these people continue to inspire me and shape the way I practice. Mostly, regarding my profession, I love to see people after their session and the way they feel as compared to when we began. Discussing with them ways to continue their healing and then seeing them again, seeing and hearing positive results, gives me great hope and reaffirms that if you help to heal one, you necessarily help to heal the whole.
