Music as Medicine

In ceremony, music is more than background - it is the landscape. It holds, reveals, softens, and stirs. Music has the power to shape our emotional terrain, open the heart, move energy, and guide us when words fall short.

I often describe music as a technology, one that works in direct conversation with the mind, the nervous system, and the medicine itself. In altered states, music becomes a bridge between the conscious and subconscious. It can unlock buried memories, summon grief, awaken joy, and call forth insight that language alone could never touch.

This is why I spend countless hours crafting each ceremony’s playlist. No two journeys are ever the same, and neither are the soundscapes. I tune into the group, the energy, the intention - and curate a sonic flow that gently mirrors the arc of the journey. From grounding tones to expansive textures, ancestral rhythms to ambient stillness, every note is chosen with care.

I’ve never used the same playlist twice.

And at the end of each retreat, I gift each guest their ceremony playlist… a sacred souvenir, if you will. Something to return to during integration. To re-enter the felt wisdom of their experience. To remind the body of what it knows, and the heart of what it touched.

Because music doesn’t just accompany the journey, it is deeply intertwined with medicine. It reverberates with the ineffable. It takes us on a journey of the mind, heart and soul, and safely carries us home.