In-Person & Online Therapy  |  1780 S Bellaire St #485, Denver, CO 80222  |  303.809.3341

Safe and sound protocol IN DENVER, CO

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a music-assisted therapy that improves emotional and nervous system regulation through the calming effects of sound. It can help you to reduce stress, create greater body awareness, and build resiliency by stimulating your ability to self-soothe.

Nervous system dysregulation can manifest in various ways, affecting physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of your life. Symptoms may range from physical difficulties (like fatigue or digestive problems) and emotional distress (such as anxiety or depression) to behavioral imbalances (including hypervigilance or difficulty focusing).

The Safe And Sound Protocol

Perhaps you’re in talk therapy, but you find the process overwhelming and unproductive.

The problem is, when your nervous system is in a constant state of alert, it’s hard to slow down, connect, or access the tools you’re learning in talk therapy. This is often because your body doesn’t yet feel safe enough to relax and engage. In other words, if you are in a heightened state of arousal (fight-or-flight), your body cannot settle down long enough to absorb new ways of handling stress. Taking a deep breath or pausing actually isn’t accessible.

That’s where SSP can come in as an add-on to talk therapy (or even a standalone process). It doesn’t ask you to talk your way through distress. Instead, it helps your body feel safe enough to experience calm, balanced connectivity and curiosity so that other therapeutic work can go deeper and become more effective.

When Coping Skills Aren’t Enough

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Who Can Benefit From SSP?

The SSP is particularly effective for intelligent, high-performing individuals who may function well externally but feel flooded, disconnected, or fatigued on the inside. It’s also a powerful resource for parents seeking tools to help their child regulate emotions more effectively—at school, at home, and socially.

In particular, the Safe and Sound Protocol can help individuals of all ages who are dealing with:

  • ADHD/difficulty with focus and attention
  • Anxiety, panic, or chronic stress
  • Mood swings and emotional outbursts
  • Sensory sensitivities or processing disorder
  • Trouble forming or maintaining social connections
  • Trauma symptoms or nervous system overwhelm
  • Gastrointestinal difficulties or physical symptoms connected to dysregulation
  • Autism spectrum-related challenges

SSP therapy is a Polyvagal-theory-informed approach based on the brain’s ability to learn via stimuli, or its “neuroplasticity.” The sound frequencies and tones in the music used during the SSP gently stimulate the vagus nerve, which communicates safety to the brain and body and leads to a sense of calm that, ultimately, creates resilience.

While many traditional talk therapies often target thoughts and behaviors, SSP therapy starts with the physical foundation of well-being—your nervous system.

By resetting how you process sound and stress, this protocol can help reduce overwhelm, improve attention, and support emotional balance. And because the Safe and Sound Protocol helps with regulating emotions, it can be incorporated with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and other trauma therapies to help connect mind and body and prepare the nervous system for trauma work.

How The Safe And Sound Protocol Works

At DMC, your Safe and Sound Protocol experience will be tailored to your pace, needs, and capacity. The process includes listening to specially filtered music through headphones. Each individual program contains five hours of music, broken into manageable sessions supported by our trained facilitator.

In your scheduled check-ins following the listening process, you and your SSP facilitator will explore together:
  • How your body and emotions respond to internal and external stressors
  • Changes in your ability to connect socially and tolerate stress
  • Improvements in focus, learning, and emotional resilience
  • Development of personalized self-regulation tools
  • Shifts in your thinking, self-awareness, and energy levels.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Our SSP facilitator will support you with attunement and flexibility, allowing you to build a foundational sense of safety, both physiologically and emotionally

What SSP Looks Like At Denver Metro Counseling (DMC)

Emily Hennes is a Board Certified Physician Assistant and Certified SSP Facilitator with Sound Mind Solutions, LLC. She has supported Denver Metro Counseling in business development and client onboarding since 2020. After she saw the dramatic improvement the Safe and Sound Protocol had produced for her daughter with sensory processing disorder, Emily approached DMC founder, Julie Reichenberger, with the idea of adding this program to their practice.

During sessions, Emily provides a warm directive approach to her facilitation of SSP. She looks forward to supporting more people in growing their felt sense of safety through this powerful nervous system tool.

About Our Safe and Sound Protocol Facilitator – Emily Hennes

Rates & Packages

We offer different packages based on your needs and preferences for in-person or virtual support.

Basic – $895 (virtual)

  • Session one: initial assessment, individual 4-6 week SSP plan created, support materials provided, 6-week access to MyUnyte App for listening
  • Session two: 15-30 min check-in to share what you are noticing, repeat initial assessment, and discuss coping skills
  • Session three: upon completion of the SSP, review progress and ways to support the benefits in your life
  • 4-6 week post-completion, 20-minute check-in with SSP facilitator
  • Email support for up to 6 weeks from the initial session

Basic Plus – $1,295 (virtual)

  • Everything in the Basic plan, plus up to 5 hours of virtual support from our SSP facilitator while listening.

Clinician Supported Listening – $995 (plus cost of session with DMC clinician)

  • Everything in the Basic plan, plus listening during your scheduled session with your DMC clinician for added support. With this plan, you will have access to the MyUnyte App for 4 months. 

If you or your child is struggling with big emotions, difficulty focusing, social disconnect, or trauma symptoms, know that it’s not a matter of willpower. It may be your body’s well-intended way of doing its best to protect you. SSP therapy offers a gentle way to help your system reset so you can access more of who you are: present, grounded, and engaged.

While every journey is unique, many people have experienced transformative changes:

  • Feeling calmer and more emotionally balanced
  • Experiencing heightened resilience to navigate social situations and life transitions
  • Improving sleep and creating a greater sense of well-being
  • Reducing anxiety and noticing a shift in physical symptoms tied to stress

Enjoying more presence and connection with loved ones
These are signs of a regulated, resilient nervous system that can better handle the ups and downs of daily life.

A Path Toward Connection And Regulation

1780 S Bellaire St #485, Denver, CO 80222

Safe and sound protocol Denver ,CO

Please type your name below to acknowledge that Denver Metro Counseling is a private paid practice so we do not directly bill health insurance and are not a Medicaid provider.

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