If you’ve ever sat down to begin Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) or Rest & Restore Protocol (RRP) listening and wondered, “Am I doing this right?”—you’re not alone. These are not protocols you power through. They are experiences you listen into, with curiosity, patience, and respect for what your nervous system is communicating.In my work with clients and in mentoring providers, I often say: we don’t think our way through SSP or RRP - we feel our way through. What follows are principles that apply to both protocols, along with important distinctions between them.
One of the most important skills you can develop with either protocol is learning how to ask your body how much listening it wants - and even IF it wants to listen - and to know how to hear the answer. This is subtle, and it’s very different from how most of us are socialized to approach healing. We’re used to setting goals, following schedules, and pushing through discomfort to get results. With SSP, less is often more, and slower pacing frequently leads to smoother, more vivid, and more lasting improvements. For some, the same is true of RRP as well. Before each listening session, I encourage people to pause and ask internally:
The answer may come as a sensation, an impulse, a feeling of openness or resistance, or even a simple “yes” or “not yet.” There is no need to force clarity. If the answer feels unclear, that itself may be information.
With both SSP and RRP, it’s essential to understand that dysregulation can be delayed. Someone may feel perfectly fine - or even wonderful - during listening, only to feel unsettled hours later or the next day. Because of this, the most important data we have about pacing is not what happens during listening, but what happens in the 24–48 hours afterward:
This is why careful pacing and tracking patterns over time is so important.
When clients begin SSP or RRP with me, I give them a detailed handout outlining many areas of physiology and experience to watch. I tell them: “We’re going to play detective together.” Some things people may notice during or after listening include:
None of these are automatically “good” or “bad.” They are data. Anything that feels off, overwhelming, or uncomfortable may be a sign to pause, shorten sessions, slow pacing, or add more support. Things that feel good may indicate that listening is well matched - but we still wait to see how things unfold over time.
In between listening sessions, we watch for signs of both improvement and dysregulation. If dysregulation does appear, it's likely to show up in one or more areas that improvement is possible in, for that specific approach.
With SSP, it’s important to know that you cannot go too slowly. In fact, many highly sensitive or complex individuals experience astonishing improvements with extremely gentle listening - even just a few seconds at a time. During SSP listening, it’s fine (and often helpful) to:
These activities can help regulate the nervous system while still allowing the music to be actively listened to.What we generally avoid during SSP listening:
These activities tend to pull attention away from the music. We want the experience to be active listening, not merely background sound.
RRP has a different intention. Here, we are encouraging the physiology to settle, soften, and release. For that reason:
When the body has to hold itself upright or mobilize, it’s harder for it to fully let go. Many people naturally feel sleepy during RRP, which is likely why fewer questions arise about what to do during listening. Sleepiness itself can be a sign of nervous system downshifting.
Official Unyte guidance recommends listening for at least 5 minutes at a time as long as that goes well. That caveat matters. Some individuals - especially at the beginning of the process or when starting a new level - may find that even 5 minutes is too much and becomes dysregulating. Although this is outside official recommendations and remains experimental, I have found that some people show vivid improvements with micro-sized RRP listening. In these cases, I keep them at that level until:
Only then do we consider moving forward.
Ideally, SSP and RRP are done with some form of coregulation - the presence of someone safe, supportive, and attuned.That said:
In these cases, people still tend to experience meaningful improvements. They may just need to pace more conservatively. Capacity can also sometimes be gently expanded by adding supports such as:
Another important reframe: you don’t need to wait for a clear sign to stop listening. If something feels off, you can pause at any time. .Likewise, if you feel drawn to listen again later the same day, that can be perfectly fine - as long as you ask your body first rather than trying to reason your way into it. The goal is not to reach the end of the protocol as quickly as possible. In my experience, people who pace carefully often have smoother processes and deeper, more sustainable improvements than those who try to move faster.
SSP and RRP are not about endurance. They are about relationship - developing a trusting dialogue with your nervous system and responding to it with respect.When we slow down, listen closely, and let the body lead, the process often becomes not only safer, but more effective.