Exploring Sound Healing at Sydney’s Frequency Lab

A cosmic awakening was not my expectation for an experience at Newtown’s Frequency Lab. I wasn’t hunting for buried trauma, hoping to vibrate it out with a gong, but I insisted on attending with no expectations and an open mind. 

I’d booked in for the Release session, one of several multi-sensory sound medicine offerings they run here. Part sound therapy, part meditation, part light-induced technicolour trip, all tucked inside a hidden studio that resembles a cross between a high-end recording studio and a forest hideaway.  

My facilitator was Eleanor – a calming presence – who briefed me and another participant on what was about to happen. We were ushered into the studio room and invited to pick our own sonic waterbed, engineered to deliver vibrations directly into your body.  

After a mildly uncoordinated fumble trying to tuck myself in and close my eyes, the light and sound release began. An intricate 90-minute soundscape with gongs, didgeridoos, voice and an electronic undercurrent that felt like someone had sampled a thunderstorm and mixed it with moonlight. Add to that the ambient white noise of rushing water and the occasional chant, and my whole body felt like it was being slowly untangled. 

This might sound intense, and I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but the combo of the multi-sonics, strobe lights flickering at different tempos, and vibrations thrumming through the water in the bed was stunning. I was told I’d see things and enter that limbo plane between wakefulness and the unconscious, and that’s exactly where I went.  

With your eyes closed, these lights pulse in synchronised patterns that activate the pineal gland (also known as the third eye). Behind your eyelids, a private universe blooms. Fractals. Geometry flashes. At one point, the image of a wolf appeared – I was unsure if it was the moving tribal track playing, or my spirit animal was saying hello.

What is sound healing?  

At the heart of this sonic medicine is the idea of frequency, the rate at which something vibrates, measured in Hertz (Hz). Every organ, cell and system in the human body has its own natural rhythm. When those internal frequencies fall out of sync, because of stress, illness or emotional strain, it can show up as tension, fatigue or imbalance. Sound healing works by gently guiding the body back into harmony, using vibration as the tuning fork. 

Before the session, Eleanor explained that people come here for all kinds of reasons. Some for creative inspiration. Some for therapy and healing. Some just want to feel the trip without the come down. And if you need science to hang your scepticism on, sound healing isn’t new. Ancient cultures have used it for millennia, whether it was Pythagoras with his harmony theories, or the Tibetans with their bowls and chants. These days, we have fMRIs and data to show what they already knew: certain sound frequencies can lower cortisol, shift brainwave states and regulate the nervous system. 

During the experience, I did struggle to stop “thinking” only a handful of times, and there were a few moments of surprise tears. The music is moving and emotional, but it sends you to a place where you’re gently orbiting yourself. It’s all-encompassing thanks to the speakers bordering your whole body. 

After 90 minutes of leaving your everyday reality, you’re gently guided back and given as much time as you need to come to (and gracefully roll out of the jiggling bed) and then invited back for an optional debrief. It was interesting to compare experiences with the other participant, and it’s a nice moment to try to make sense of what you felt emotionally, mentally and physically during the session – no one could give me an answer for the manifesting wolf face… 

I didn’t walk out a changed woman. But I walked out more me. Just for a bit. Before I had to go back into the world and be whoever it needed me to be. The shift is subtle, which I think is the whole point. Like with any therapy, what you intend for your own healing is a work in progress and consists of many layers of effort. Frequency Lab, for me, wasn’t about revelation; it was about recalibration through sound and light… and wolves.