Sound Baths, Trauma Talk, and the Wellness Paradox in the USA

Bibliographic Data

ID4564432
AuthorsE J Sobo (0000-0002-7711-9873, Anthropology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume43
Issue5
Pages367-382
Publication date2024-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2024.2377289
PMID39046336
OpenAlexW4400954060
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited22

Yoga-informed sound bath providers orchestrate vibrations from singing bowls, chimes, gongs, and other simple instruments to promote client well-being - sometimes in ways that create a trauma trap. Drawing on immersive research with sound bath providers and receivers in California, USA, I explore how these ritual performances feed on and fuel narratives regarding trauma, stress, and dysregulation, diverting attention from structural and cultural factors creating said disharmony. Beyond thereby ensuring a market, they can perpetuate a trauma-informed self-identification and subjectivity that harmonizes with the American work ethic, diminishes nonproductive sensual enjoyment, promotes self-care over community care, undermines resilience, and amplifies suffering

Acoustics · Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Literature · Narrative · Psychological resilience · Resilience (materials science · Singing · Sociology · Sound (geography · Subjectivity · Empathy and Medical Education · Music Therapy and Health · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology