The Healing Sound of Singing Bowls

Jesse Stark, founder of Singing Bowl Healing, poses against a redwood tree.

Jesse Stark’s first exposure to singing bowls occurred roughly a decade ago when his mother brought a good-sized crystal singing bowl over to his Santa Rosa apartment. They put it down in the middle of his living room, and touched it lightly with a mallet. “That first strike, I felt something familiar in my body, but I couldn’t explain what it was,” Stark said. “It almost brought up certain encoded information within me.” Stark wasn’t at a good place in his life mentally at the time, so after that brief encounter, the singing bowl sat in his mother’s garage, collecting dust.

Stark engaged in several years of personal work, including guided meditation and other forms of energy clearing to address issues from his childhood, 20s and 30s – and then returned to pick it up. He also bought several more metal, Tibetan-style bowls and started playing them every day after work. The sound was so soothing that it inspired Stark to offer it to others; not long after, he founded Singing Bowl Healing in January 2016. Today, Jesse provides sound healing sessions to individuals or groups of up to four people at his Santa Rosa studio, and travels to serve larger groups at their home or workplace. 

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What is your approach to sound healing? 

I became interested in singing bowls as a form sound medicine, vibrational medicine, so what I offer is different from a sound bath, in which a practitioner plays multiple instruments for a group. It’s unique because the sounds that I tap into are harmonic with our bodies, and I’m playing them in a very specific approach in alignment with the body. So it would be one thing if I just stood back and played the bowls for acoustics. But it’s another thing when you take a sound, and move that sound wave in a certain sequence around the body. You might see some people out there place a metal bowl directly on the body and strike it – I don’t do that. I think it’s a great technique, but I prefer to work above the body and around the energy field. A lot can happen when you tap into certain points, certain information – stuff can be accessed that you typically can’t in everyday life. 

What kind of stuff? 

You can move and shift a lot of energy. For example, if somebody went through a divorce 10 years ago and their heart is still wounded from that divorce, a tone can actually fill up their heart, rejuvenate that energy and heighten their consciousness. It’s almost like reinserting a memory. It gives you the ability to look back at that point 10 years ago with new admiration, and experience a release and cleansing of the body.  

Stark poses with his singing bowls and other tools.

It sounds like you use guided meditation a lot, as well. How is that helpful? 

I incorporate guided meditation into every single session. First of all, it gets the person grounded. I spend 5-10 minutes walking them through beautiful visuals involving the planet, mother nature and animals, as well as these energies within our bodies. This activates people’s third eye, which is a term that we use for visuals. And people need to keep in mind that as soon as you close your eyes you can still see, you’re just seeing with visualization – and you’re now seeing with a lot of clarity, because you can always trust in the information that’s coming to you when your eyes are closed in a peaceful, meditative trance. So meditation is a warm-up of the body, a warm-up of the visuals. 

What other tools do you use in your work? 

I have two fans, one with hawk feathers and another with eagle feathers, that I will sometimes use in combination with the sound. I also have crystals at my office space to create a crystal grid. If I hold them out in the sun, they reflect colors, but what happens when we take them indoors and there’s no sunlight? But wait, there is sunlight, because in my view our energetic bodies are sunlight. So if you lay down in my office, if you have the eyes to see it, you’ll see the crystals reflecting colors. 

Crystals and singing bowls in Stark’s Santa Rosa studio.

Can you share a client experience, while maintaining confidentiality, that was impactful for the client or for you? 

I once had a lady with a severe case of Parkinson’s who was shaking very badly. Her friend brought her into my office, and within the first 10-20 seconds of the sound starting, the shakes from her Parkinson’s stopped, and they stopped for the whole session. Now after the session was over, the shakes came back, but they did seem a little more subtle.  

I also had a gentleman who had a very tough case of leukemia, and he saw me every Saturday morning at 11:00 am for two months straight. I found that pretty powerful, for him to put that much trust in me. When he first came in, he was acting a little manly – like “Oh, well, I’ll just try this.” But you could tell right away that it just softened him – it warmed him up, it opened his heart.  

How many sessions do clients typically see you for? 

It’s hard to put a number on that. Just over the last weekend I had two people come in; both had seen me a year ago. I have a girl right now who sees me once a month – she owns a business with eight employees, so her monthly visit is really keeping her focus. She told me that before she saw me, she’d tried everything, and nothing worked.  

My recommendation is that people see me twice, and I like for people to see me for one indoor session and one outdoor session. From there, if you want to come back six months or a year from now, that’s fine. My recommendation is two visits, 3-4 weeks apart – that first session needs to sit for a few weeks, because it’s going to be a big shift.  

How long are your sound healing sessions, and how much do they cost? 

They’re an hour long. For an individual it’s $75; for two people it’s $100; for three people it’s $125; and for four people $150. The group sessions run a little more because of gas and travel time. A lot depends on the number of people in the group, but it’s typically $250-$400 for a group session. 

What kind of events do you do? 

I do a really wide range of events. It could be showing up to somebody’s home and setting up in their living room or backyard. Or it could be a tourist visiting Sonoma County, staying at an AirBnB, and looking for local stuff to do. Because my setup is just singing bowls, I’m very mobile – I just have a couple of containers I can drop down and set up within minutes. Over the weekend I played for a group of employees at a tech company – health and wellness is popular in Sonoma County, so you’re starting to see employers creating a positive workspace to keep their employees healthy and energized and motivated. 

Stark prepares for an outdoor event in Sonoma County, California.

How does the experience differ for groups as opposed to one-on-one sessions? 

When I’m working one-on-one, I can really hone in on how I’m moving the vibrations and the sound waves through the body. There are always two bowls playing together – I have one at the top of your head, and I use that one as an anchor. When I strike that bowl, it has a deep, smooth resonance. Then I take another bowl in my hand, strike that, and move it around so that the two sound waves are communicating with each other as I move it around the body. 

I can’t do that in a group setting, so I have to expand the bubble. If I’m working with 5-10 people, I strike that anchor in the middle of the room. Then I stand back about five feet with the one in my hand, and instead of going around someone’s body I go around the room. When I initially got into this, I didn’t want to do group sessions, but today, if you ask me which one I like better, I love them both.  

Do you ever offer sessions online? 

During the middle of the pandemic I did some sessions on Zoom, and it was okay – it was limited because the sounds from my bigger bowls get muffled in the audio. So I used my smaller singing bowls to bring out a higher pitch. I would provide sound healings over Zoom, but I don’t get those requests. 

When should people seek out sound healing? 

It’s hard to say, because it’s so welcoming for anybody. No matter where you’re at in life, it’s such a positive experience that you could be in a great place with life, and a sound healing is still going to enhance things. But you could also be in a tough space, and it’s going to be profound, for sure. 

What’s some of the feedback that you’ve gotten from clients after sound journeys? 

I would say the most consistent feedback is a new, positive outlook on life. There’s a big shift that people go through. I like to use the word recalibration; the body recalibrates. 

Stark prepares to lead an off-site sound healing event.

Do you work with people who are sick, and what can sound healing provide, or not provide, for them? 

I do have people who come to me that have illnesses. They’re not necessarily looking for a cure, but for an alternative from what doctors are able to offer. One of my first sessions was with a lady with fibromyalgia. She’d gone through a divorce many years earlier, and she told me specifically about a certain fight that she got into with her husband at the time. She shared that her husband said something that broke her heart, and as we were talking, she seemed to realize that’s when the fibromyalgia engaged. Things can happen in our lives that create a disease or an ailment. And if you know what it is, you can reinsert a new memory chip into that specific argument, so that you’re no longer holding a certain tightness related to your ex-husband. It’s a release, like, “I’m okay now,” and the body can go through that recalibration. 

Have you ever worked with people with a terminal illness or at the end of their lives? 

I was once asked to play my singing bowls at a grave site for a family burying their loved one, right before the casket was lowered. Singing bowls had played a significant role for this family, so they thought this would be the best way to honor that person’s life and death.  

Another time, a woman came to my studio space to share a sound healing experience with her three children after their father had died. I focused on bringing loving energy into their hearts. This is where group settings can potentially be very powerful, because the unifying energy creates an even greater resonance. It’s similar to light bulbs and wattage – more wattage, more light.  

How might sound healing be of use at the end of life? 

We have two vehicles: the body and the soul, which are intertwined. As we age, the body declines, but the soul inclines. So the powerful thing about getting old is not just wisdom, but the soul also has access to higher perspectives. It’s extremely powerful for an elderly person to reflect and look back on their life. Going back to the third eye, it’s always there – the visuals are always there, your eyes don’t have to be closed. It’s just like reading a book. 

At the end of life, people often do what’s called a life review – reflecting on their life and what it meant, including triumphs and regrets. Are you saying that sound healing could help with that?

Yes, sound healing could make that process easier. 

Do you have any advice for people interested in seeking out a local sound healer? 

You should be able to go onto Google and find a sound healer, or some sort of sound bath event, in your area. Most of what you’re going to see is ticketed events for a sound bath, which is a great introductory way to get a feel for things. There are practitioners out there who may have a studio, but those will be harder to find.  

Can you sum up sound healing in a sentence? 

Sound healing is soul work, and everybody can benefit.