SSP Core involves listening to 5 hours of specially filtered music.
While, as with any other approach, there are people who don't respond on a first round of SSP Core, that is quite rare. The vast majority of those people will experience quite significant improvements if they choose to repeat the protocol.
SSP Core can be repeated as many times as one likes, but it is important to wait at least three months in between rounds.
One of the things I most love about SSP is that people who are the most sensitive and have the most significant concerns are often the ones who have the most dramatic improvements - and that is so much the opposite of most approaches.
I often am asked what improvements are possible with SSP.
While we can't predict which improvements will show up for any one person, here is a list of common known improvements:
Reduced anxiety, especially social anxiety
Reduced sound sensitivities, including misophonia
Improved assertiveness and self protectiveness
Increased displays of affection-seeking affection-expressive contact
Increased facial flexibility and expressiveness
Increased body flexibility
Reduced chronic pain
Change in throat tension/sound of voice
Improved eye contact
Reduced repetitive motions and restlessness
Increased feelings of calmness
Hearing changes/reductions in sensory hypersensitivities
Finding transitions much easier
Speech and language improvements
Reduced sensitivity to food tastes and textures/less "picky eating"
Improved reciprocal communication
Thoughts and behavior have more purposeful flow
Improved comprehension
Easier to follow directions
Improved processing speed
Improved organization
Improved dexterity
More active participant in classroom, able to tolerate and overcome challenges
Improved visual focus/tracking
More able to put words to feeling
Able to remain regulated during face to face communication
Improved self-awareness (particularly of emotions),
Improved communication about self (again particularly about emotions),
Decreased panic, fears and phobias
Improved cardiac function
Improvement in breathing patterns.
Able to tolerate busy environments
Increased sense of humor
Improved ability to read social cues
Less easily stressed
Improved digestion
Hormonal shifts for women
It is important to know that it can take between two and seven weeks AFTER the entire SSP process has been completed for improvements to appear. Although many people do notice shifts appearing immediately once the process has begun, for some people they don't notice anything at all for a few weeks after completing the process and this can be quite normal as well.
In order to have a gentle process as well as to obtain best possible improvements, it is important that delivery of SSP be geared to the specific nervous system response of each individual. If you are considering trying SSP, please ask the providers you are speaking to what to expect during the process.
Some people will finish SSP within a couple of weeks. Many may need a month or so. The majority of people can complete SSP within a few months. And there are people who may require several months or even a year or so in order to complete SSP. The nice thing is that when people need to go very slowly because they are very sensitive to SSP they still tend to experience wonderful improvements and those improvements will show up during the process.
What you should be hearing from any prospective provider is that they will stay in touch with you throughout the process (over email, by phone or in person) and assist you in knowing how much to listen to and when to take time off from listening.
If they give you a schedule whether It it is listening to 5 mins per day, 15 mins per day, or 30 minutes per day, this is not a provider who quite understands how to administer SSP in order to get the best possible results.
If the provider tells you that you (or your child) will listen for one hour per day then this is especially a provider to avoid as this recommendation is extremely outdated, having changed in June 2020 - and even then it was only the recommendation IF the process stayed gentle for someone throughout at such a fast speed. In my experience is rare - with this approach slower is often better than faster, for many.
Ideally what we want is to figure out the fastest speed that that particular nervous system can listen at, while still keeping the process gentle.
A provider should let you know that it's very important that the process be monitored AND ensure that you are aware that, at first, some things may get worse before they get better.
Sometimes this information scares people but things only get "worse" if we go too fast with SSP. This is why it's so important to choose someone who not only will stay in touch but someone who is very well versed on the nervous system and watching for the earliest signs of dysregulation as things will not get too rough as long as we start slowly, build up gradually, watch for warning signs and respect them, allowing things to fully settle before continuing further.
Having offered SSP to a few hundred people aged 2- 72 since May 2019 I can count on one hand the number of people who have had any significant amount of dysregulation. In all cases, it was because they would not slow down when I asked them to. Each of them eventually figured it out, and once they then started to follow my advice, life got a lot easier for everyone concerned. :)
Have you had improvements from SSP that aren't listed here? Please let us know!