Spirit Song

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In addition to being a licensed psychotherapist, Sally is a trained vocalist and has advanced certification in uses of music and imagery in the therapeutic process. She believes in the healing power of music and uses various forms of music and vibration in her practice. "Music transports us. Music bypasses the left, cognitive brain and opens our hearts, allowing us to be aware of our feelings and to connect with our deeper selves. Music heals and inspires."

For several years, Sally has been drawn to learn the traditional healing chants from diverse cultures. Long ago, people sang as part of their daily life. They sang to wake up to the sun, to gather the water and start the fire. They sang gratitude for abundance and pleas for help. They sang to soothe and to heal.

Spirit Song has 39 chants (unaccompanied), two songs, two guided visualizations and a crystal singing bowl meditation. Many of the chants are Native American and sing of the connection between spirit and nature. Others come from Sally!s Christian faith or from her explorations into Sufi, Hindu, Buddhism and Gaia spirituality. All of the chants are selected to help us connect with our inner wisdom, with each other and with our sense of the Divine.

In this collection, the first are grounding chants, connecting with the support of the ancients and the elements of the earth. Next come chants of gentleness and self- acceptance. The third series invites us to go deeper inside and be still with Spirit, inner wisdom and self-healing, feeling gratitude for all creation. The CD ends with soothing lullabies, two guided visualizations and a crystal singing bowl meditation.

Sally has recorded Spirit Song with her daughter, Kate Strosahl-Johnson. Her niece, Abby Strosahl Kellermann, shared her beautiful voice on some of the rounds with three parts. The CD is offered in response to many requests over several years from clients and others wanting to go home from a session or a workshop with a recording of the chants to keep letting the music work its “medicine” on body, mind, heart and spirit.

Sally shares this selection of chants as a beginning place for each of us to explore what music and words have meaning for us. Each chant may be used as a meditation, or as a journal exercise, while walking in nature or exercising on the treadmill, doing the dishes or heading to work. Use the chants when you want to balance your energy, tune in to your feelings, or connect with your inner self, or when you want to be in closer connection with God.

Repeating the chant can be very calming and meditative. Singing reminds us to breathe deeply, which brings more oxygen to our system. It energizes. Chanting, toning and humming gives the body an inner massage and helps the organs work together.

The chants may also be helpful as part of a wellness program when faced with a health challenge or crisis. Being gentle with ourselves, releasing negative, critical scripting, can help us manage anxiety or depression, lower blood pressure and cope with with chronic pain or insomnia. Visualizing wholeness and health can help when faced with a cancer diagnosis. Find what part of this “visualization medicine” works for you.

The CD also has a brief guided meditation to encourage letting go of stress and tension and promote deep breathing. It is followed by a five-minute guided visualization which takes you on a “mini-vacation.” The final three-minute cut begins with the free-note chimes tuned to G and then the crystal singing bowl, tuned to D. Allow yourself to be with the tone, your breath and your heartbeat and connect deep within. Let the music carry you where ever you need to go, returning feeling more relaxed. Some people may want to use the last three cuts on the CD as a nighttime meditation to enhance sleep.

Please do not listen to the last three cuts while driving. They are designed to slow your brain waves, which may interfere with your alertness and your ability to be safe. Thank you.

"Ever long for an infusion of the sacred feminine? This music lifts up the inward in each of us, whatever our gender, offering balance to our busy, doing-oriented lives. This CD brings together music and voices to make the heart sing."
    - Marty Deming, Madison, Wisconsin

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