The Human Wellness Practice | One-on-One Program | In Person in North Scottsdale or on Zoom
The Safe and Sound Protocol
A listening program developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, the brilliant founder of Polyvagal Theory, that uses filtered music to exercise the middle ear and send a repeated signal of safety up the vagus nerve, so your nervous system can move out of chronic defense and into regulation, connection, and rest, guided across 12 sessions at the pace your body sets.
The Patterns It Addresses
Chronic Activation Shows Up in Familiar Ways
Scanning a room before you can settle into it. Bracing before a conversation even starts. Waking in the middle of the night with your heart already racing. Needing real effort to stay present with someone you love while your body tracks the exits. Feeling steady one moment and flooded the next, with no clear trigger you can name.
These patterns developed as protective adaptations, survival strategies your nervous system built when circumstances required constant threat detection, and they continue running because the danger cue was never updated.
The vigilance kept you scanning for danger before your conscious mind could catch up, the bracing kept your muscles ready to act before a threat arrived, and the difficulty settling kept your sympathetic nervous system engaged long after the danger passed. The Safe and Sound Protocol works directly with the physiology underneath these responses, building ventral vagal pathways through repetition so regulation becomes available to you in daily life.
The Mechanism
Filtered Music Trains the Middle Ear and the Vagus Nerve
Neuroception, Dr. Porges' term for the body's automatic detection of safety, danger, and life threat, runs continuously and below conscious awareness. Music filtered to emphasize the frequency range of the human voice exercises the stapedius and tensor tympani, two small muscles of the middle ear controlled by the facial and trigeminal nerves, which share pathways with the vagus nerve, the heart, and the muscles of the face. Listening repeatedly sends a predictable signal of safety to the brainstem, and your nervous system recalibrates what it treats as safe.
Listen
Filtered music plays through over-ear headphones in short sessions while you rest or color, giving the auditory pathway a structured, predictable signal.
Notice
With guidance, you begin registering shifts in activation, tension, breath, and attention as they happen, mapped onto your own autonomic ladder.
Regulate
Through repetition, returning to a calm and connected state becomes a capacity your nervous system can access on its own in daily life.
Measured Outcomes
Results Across More Than 100,000 People in Over 70 Countries
Real-world data alongside more than a dozen peer-reviewed clinical trials shows measurable improvement after the Safe and Sound Protocol, from early childhood through late adulthood, including gains in heart rate variability and vagal tone.
- Decreased anxiety and a calmer resting state
- Better sleep, falling asleep more easily and waking more rested
- Lower hypervigilance in rooms and situations that are safe
- A wider window of tolerance for difficult feelings and sensations
- Restored vagal tone and faster recovery after stress
- Increased heart rate variability, a measurable marker of regulation
- Deeper presence and less bracing with the people close to you
- More focus and cognitive bandwidth once defense uses fewer resources
- Less sensitivity to sound and other sensory input
- More self-regulation, self-agency, and self-trust
Your Path
Four Steps From Your First Assessment to Reassessment
Full Assessment Session
One hour together to map how your nervous system responds to stress, what already supports your regulation, and your relationship to sound and headphones. You complete the intake forms before we meet.
Your Listening Plan
We choose your pathway, playlist, starting minutes, setting, and the pace option that fits your life, and I set up your access in the Unyte Health app.
12 Guided Sessions
You listen while I stay present and attuned, lengthening sessions only when your nervous system shows it is ready, with home listening added as trust and capacity build.
Reassessment
We retake the questionnaires, review your autonomic map, and decide on a second round, home maintenance with SSP Balance, or both.
Three Pace Options
12 Guided Sessions, Delivered at the Pace Your Nervous System Needs
Every option includes the same 12 one-hour guided sessions. We choose your pace together at the end of your assessment, based on your capacity, your schedule, and how your nervous system responds to listening.
Steady Intensive
- 2 guided sessions a week
- For people ready for steady momentum and quicker integration
Steady Standard
- 1 guided session a week
- The most common rhythm, with a full week to integrate between sessions
Tapering Intensive
- Weeks 1 to 3: 2 sessions a week
- Weeks 4 to 7: 1 session a week
- Then 2 sessions spaced every 2 weeks
- For people who want closer support at the start and more independence over time
A Full Year of the Safe and Sound Protocol
Your program includes unlimited access to the full SSP in the Unyte Health app for 12 months: SSP Connect, Core, and Balance, with all eight playlists, so you can return to the listening whenever your nervous system needs support.
25% Off When You Pay in Full
After your assessment, you can pay for all 12 sessions upfront and receive 25% off the full package, or pay session by session.
Repeat the Program at 50% Off
Three months after completing your 12 sessions, you can repeat the full program at 50% off to deepen and consolidate the shifts in your nervous system.
Integrated With Your Other Care
The SSP works alongside EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, psychedelic-assisted therapy, talk therapy, and bodywork, and I coordinate pacing with your care team when needed.
Your First Step
Book Your Full Assessment Session
Choose a time below for your one-hour assessment, in person in North Scottsdale or on Zoom. After booking, you'll receive a welcome email with the intake forms to complete before we meet.
Your Practitioner
Alessandrina Dorer Brings 25 Years Across Somatic, Mindfulness, Meditation, and Hypnosis Modalities
Alessandrina is a somatic nervous system practitioner, wellness educator, and founder of Beautiful Human, with advanced training under Dr. Stephen Porges, the visionary founder of Polyvagal Theory, Dr. Peter Levine, the pioneering developer of Somatic Experiencing, and Dr. Frank Anderson, the renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, along with training at the Polyvagal Institute.
She has authored 9 books and more than 800 guided meditations, and guides each Safe and Sound Protocol session at the pace of safety and trust, for children, teens, families, and adults.
Questions
Common Questions Before Starting
Who is the Safe and Sound Protocol for?
Children from age 3, teens, and adults living with anxiety, trauma responses, sensory sensitivity, sleep difficulties, or chronic stress. For children and teens, a parent or caregiver joins the intake and receives a family guide for supporting regulation at home.
What happens in the assessment session?
We map your three nervous system states in your own words, review your intake questionnaires, practice one regulating activity together, and build your listening plan. When you're ready, we can complete your first minutes of listening in the same session.
Do I need special equipment?
Over-ear headphones with noise-canceling and bass boost turned off, and a phone or tablet with the free Unyte Health app. If headphones feel uncomfortable at first, we begin with speakers.
Can I listen at home?
Yes. Once your nervous system has shown it settles well in our guided sessions, home listening is added between sessions, with check-ins in the app so I can follow your minutes and adjust your plan.
When is the SSP not the right fit yet?
Active or uncontrolled seizures, active psychosis, active self-harm or thoughts of suicide, and current ear pain, infection, or tinnitus call for other support first. We review this together before any listening begins.
Begin With Your Full Assessment Session
One hour to map your nervous system and build a listening plan that fits your pace.
Book your assessment session