Floating Sound Therapy ∙ The Must-Try Wellness Experience

Floating sound therapy, aka the ultimate immersive wellness experience you just have to try.

Have you ever tuned into just how much music can affect your mood and change how you feel? That is the exact concept behind sound therapy; the fact that a melody can truly help improve your wellbeing. Today, we all turn to Spotify to select songs that will help us when feeling stressed, if we are struggling to sleep or perhaps need to relax.

This concept was historically rooted in ancient cultures from India, Tibet and Greece, where sound healing was a holistic therapy used to harness the power of sound vibrations to restore balance to both mind and body. Simply put, sound carries frequency, and since our bodies are made up of energy, sound frequencies can balance out our own vibrations to promote healing and restore harmony. Within a session, these healing sound waves are created using gongs, singing bowls and even the human voice. Certain sound waves can slow down your brainwave activity, coaxing you into a meditative state. Various vibrations are designed to slow your heart rate which can help to reduce stress levels, while other sounds can encourage an emotional release that you might subconsciously be holding onto.

Just when it can’t sound any better, this experience has taken to the water, in ‘Floating Sound Therapy’. This water-based version combines water immersion with sound healing, which makes sense, since humans are made up of 60-70% water. Water also happens to be an excellent conductor of sound and vibration, so while you effortlessly float over the top of a pool, sound waves travel through the water to amplify the vibrations and improve all of these sensory-rich benefits in one peaceful float.

Here at PIBE, we tested out two floating sound therapy experiences, so that no matter if you live in the city or countryside - you can be bathed in sound and find your balance again.

CITY: The Art of Reset: Floating Sound Therapy at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair

Standing tall in the heart of historic Mayfair, the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair offers a sleek boutique hotel stay for those wanting to dart away from the fast-paced London life for a luxurious reset.

From contemporary designed rooms and suites with hand-painted de Gournay wallpapers and sheeny metallic finishes, to the iconic Atrium restaurant setting that serves refreshing breakfast plates and vibrant lunches, the hotel is a hub for food, art and culture loving quests. All set on the corner of Mayfair's most recognized square. Now, onto the spa. Known as a subterranean urban sanctuary, it’s descended underground and designed with rich green marble walls, smooth stone surfaces and moonlight lighting. The spa is home to Mayfair’s longest swimming pool (25 meters) as well as a steam room, sauna, whirlpool and Technogym and Reform RX Pilates packed fitness centre. Few city spas manage to be both hi-tech and holistic as here, scented treatment rooms focus on relaxing therapies led by the principles of traditional Chinese medicine.

It is within the spa that the hotel has launched a programme in partnership with wellness leader Laura Dodd, founder of The Yoga Class. At the core of the programme lies the The Art of Reset, a restorative floating sound bath experience just metres under the busy city streets. Guests are invited to wrap up in fluffy white robes and pull a silky eye mask over their eyes before floating weightlessly out onto the warm pool water. Once floating freely, the practitioners start creating a live soundscape of crystal bowls, gongs, monochords, and therapeutic percussion. These sound frequencies and gentle vibrations echo off the water as your body softens and your mind escapes. Alongside this, you are guided through a calming breathwork exercise to regulate your nervous system further. Soon the memory of tramping along the London streets is released and your body and mind find clarity, balance and an emotional reset, unlike any you've had before.

How to book: £145 per person, including access to the spa facilities after the class and 15% off any treatment booked within 4 weeks of the class.
Mandarin Oriental Mayfair Wellness

COUNTRYSIDE: Floating Sound Healing Spa Day: A New Moon Ceremony at Beaverbrook

Beaverbrook is a quintessentially English country house estate, sunken into the heart of the Surrey Hills. With characterful country bedrooms, timeless restaurants, charming bars, a private cinema and beautifully manicured grounds, it offers the perfect quick escape from nearby busy London.

With an exceptional spa on site, the Coach House Health Club & Spa is Beaverbrook’s luxury wellness offering. With six treatment rooms, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, heated pools, a beauty room and a barber’s salon. To a bubbling jacuzzi, spacious steam room, sauna, and ice fountain, the spa has been exquisitely designed by Brian Clarke, who was inspired by flowering plants found on the estate. This is reflected beautifully in the titled corners and within the stained-glass windows that create a tinted view of the surrounding fields. A haven that is soundtracked by birdsong, all day long.

Beaverbrook offers their take on a Floating Sound Healing experience, in the form of a new moon ceremony spa day. This is arestorative floating therapy that is bookable only when there is a new moon, to coincide with the natural point in the lunar cycle to help with release, reflection and new intentions. Arriving in the afternoon, you will be treated to a wholesome light lunch in the Coach House Deli and Pizzeria, followed by a chance to start unwinding with access to all of the spa facilities. Come 6pm, the Floating Sound Healing Ceremony will begin on land, with a mini mindful meditation practice, where you are given a reading card to set an intention for your session (and beyond). You are then peacefully guided to Beaverbrook’s heated candlelit indoor pool, where you are gently drifted out across the water on a float and covered with a light blanket and eye mask, to allow you to fully immerse. Here, your body is supported as each muscle relaxes into stillness, while the practitioners guide you through an intentional breathwork exercise and the vibration of live gongs and layered frequencies surround you. Minutes in, you can sink into a deep hazy dream-like state, where your brain fog clears, perhaps images flash into your mind or you fall into a peaceful sleep, releasing tension and built-up emotion. As time passes, you are left feeling utterly weightless, both within your mind and body.

How to book: £195 per person for a half-day experience including a restorative floating sound healing experience, timed with the new moon.
Beaverbrook Floating Sound Healing Spa Day: A New Moon Ceremony

Travel Writer / Sarah Barnes