The GongPractitioner Course that I run for the College of Sound Healing is a trainingCourse that teaches you how to become a Gong Practitioner, for both individualclient sessions and group gongbath sessions. We cover all the material you needto set you on the road to a therapy practice with the gongs at the centre.However, there is another, equally important side to the training, which cannotbe underestimated : the self or spiritual development that happensautomatically as you open yourself up to the healing power of Sound – in thiscase, mainly gong sounds.
As the studentsconnect with the gongs and start working with them, we find, certainly by thesecond session if not before, that a lot of their own stuff is coming up to becleared – physical issues, old injuries, old patterns, conditioning and beliefsystems, perceptions that are no longer serving our best interests, buriedtrauma from the past – it all begins to surface from the sub-conscious as wework more closely with the gongs. The first session of the Course is an introduction– we cover all the basics. During the second session we start on the workneeded to give one-to-one sessions to clients – a preparation for the students’case studies. By Session 3 we are going much more deeply into the gong work,and I usually find that if anyone is going to drop out of the Course becausethey are not ready or can’t hack it as the heat ramps up in the Gong Space, itusually happens between Sessions 2 & 3. I lose very few students on my Course– they are mostly totally ready for the work, and very committed. Hence theGong Practitioners who make it through are of a pretty high standard – some ofthem absolutely outstanding. And through their own personal development workwhich has happened naturally during the Gong Course, they have done a largeamount of healing work on themselves as well as on their case study subjects.This means they are well placed to begin helping others.
The clearing work wedo with the gongs has become much deeper of late. We are getting reports of, tomention a couple of examples : bone/muscle adjustments happening during gongbaths,and people with neurological complaints like Parkinsons and Fibromyalgia havingrelief from tremors and pain, at least temporarily. My students have to do 36case studies on at least 12 different people, to graduate from the Course asfully fledged Gong Practitioners. As I read through their Coursework (and it’scoming in steadily at present, as they are due to graduate in October), it tellsme that this form of Sound Healing, with gongs, is really getting down to thenitty gritty of addressing deep issues that need sorting now in these turbulenttimes of personal and planetary transformation.
Certain case study clientcomments stand out : “I didn’t realise I was so comfortable with my own discomfortuntil the gongbath”... “I saw a long spindly finger point straight at my leftankle and a hot poker-like pain went straight through my ankle and through myleft hip – I’ve been having a lot of pain with my ankle”.... “I was told to eathealthily as it was important what I put into my body for it to cleanse”... “Icould feel blocks in my body but my body was desperate to keep hold of them.Once I allowed my body to release them it was like the sound blasted them away”...”as the treatment carried on I felt the energy move up my body and back down –it felt like an energy scan to see if the blocks had been removed; if they hadn’tthey had another blast – this happened at least four times”... “feeling ofbeing energetically fortified”... “I felt the physical flow alter and felt ashift from the left to the right side of my body as it balanced”.... “hard tocome back this time – felt I’d been taken apart and put back together again”....“I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in many years”. We are getting some quiteprofound healings with the gongs at a very deep level at this time.
By the time we reachSessions 4 & 5 of the Gong Practitioner Course, the personal transformationin the students is very apparent, and wonderful to see. This is my real reward –to see how people grow in awareness during the Course in their work with theseamazing sacred healing instruments. For some it can be life-changing, leadingto a different way entirely. For others it’s less dramatic, but all are clearlybenefitting, and the changes and growth in everyone are clear to see each timewe meet. And lastly I just want to say that this is work of empowerment – the gongwork is raising people’s energy vibration and empowering them to be the bestversion of themselves that they can be. It’s giving them the self worth and confidenceto go out there and live life to the full, doing something they love and makingchoices which serve their highest potential. And who could ask for more thanthat.
Sheila Whittaker 10/5/19
