Session given to satori by Jill Robinson
Carnforth Therapy Centre

I first saw Jill doing her thing at a New Music North West night at the Gregson Institute. She sat calmly on a wide soft rug, surrounded by beautiful crystal and metal bowls and bells. With precision and sensitivity, by striking them with a wooden pestle or by stroking them around the rim she elicited resonating sounds that physcally penetrated the ear and semed to made the cavities of your body vibrate in sympathy. The room was spellbound - you could have heard a pin drop.

Now I'm a woman who loves therapy - and being the kind who could talk the hind legs off a european standard donkey I find I get better value from the kind that bypass the talking altogether and just head straight for the big insights.

As every schoolgirl would know, if I was designing the curriculum, each of the body's 7 chakras governs particular functions and aspects of the individual's psychological, physical, emotional and spiritual organisation. Each chakra resonates at a particular frequency - the seven creating a set of harmonies which are the basis of a great deal of eastern devotional music.

So, ok, imagine you are out clubbing. Some music has a very strong bass beat. This type of music will resonate with the lowest chakra, down at the sex centre, causuing it to release energy and will elicit hip swinging, very strong and earthy dance movements. Quite ethereal, high 'whooshy' type music, will tend to activate higher chakras, in the heart and head - so arms will swirl up in the air, heads will sway, and the dancing will feel high and floaty. A competent DJ will take people up and down through the different energies, activating each one and building on the energy to go to the next, so eventually the crowd is totally lit up at every chakra level like a pinball table and kicking with energy, then taking it down to build it up again.

Chakras can become weak- through overuse (you can soon get tired of dancing to the same tune if it's not varied), or self-neglect / abuse, stress, you name it. When this happens, Jill explains, they don't sing 'in tune' and the energy of the unhealthy area becomes heavier and denser, resulting in blocks and potentially illness.

Jill Robinson uses the energies released by different sound resonances for healing. The beautiful, highy crafted Tibetan and crystal bowls that she uses emit very pure vibrations desgned to harmonise with the natural frequencies of your chakras, relaxing and 'bringing them into sympathetic resonance', recharging them. Rather than simply working with one, she aims for harmonisation, seeking a balance between all the body's energy functions.

When I first arrived there she welcomed me and showed me around the centre. It's been open for about a year now, and offers a range of therapies, which include shamanic healing, and indeed one room contained a circle of shamanic artefacts, evidently in use. The ambience of the place is itself very calm and easy - Jill tells me that a Feng Shui expert advised them on colour schemes and furnishishings and indeed the place has a very harmonious feel - without falling into the trap so many 'new age' centres do of looking (and smelling) like a temple service suite for crystal worshipping priestesses. Not an overblown lily or churchy flower arrangement in sight, phew. I felt very comfy.

Jill sat me down and took down my case history. Then I lay down on a comfortable mattress and closed my eyes. The sunds of the bells were lovely. Very strong and resonant, I could feel them vibrating through my body and head, and it was strangely lulling. I really can't say the order in which things happened - there were bells, and some chanting / singing. It all seemed to flow together into a big, gentle vibration. And if that sounds very hippy, well, there it is. At first it was just a sound, but after some time I felt as if muscles in my belly and back were loosening where I hadn't even realised there was tension. The different notes from the bowls and bells seemed to come in waves. At one point I felt as if I might weep as something melted deep inside. It semed very beautiful and I felt deeply meditative and conscious, with my body very heavy and utterly relaxed.

When it was over, Jill made me a nice cup of tea. I felt light and high and filled with joy, with a strong feeling that something very wholesome had just happened to me. She took good care that I was settled back on the ground though before she let me out into the street!

It's a great thing to get out of your head and into your body. The day after I went away for the weekend with my partner. I'm not giving Jill the full credit here, but boy did we have a good time.

Different people engage differently with different types of therapy and of course, with different therapists, at different stages of their lives. Or, what works for one person might not work for another. However, even when you understand all the causes of a condition, and can talk all about it, that may not actually fix things. Sometimes everyone needs sto go to a bio-energetic level. Different people have different ways of getting there. If you didn't find yours yet, Sound + Vibration Therapy with Jill Robinson could really be worth checking out.