Sound
Therapy
Scotland.
ABOUT
Pauline Speirs
Scotland's most comprehensively qualified gong and sound therapy educator. Founder of Sound Therapy Scotland.
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BA (Hons) Music · Open University with Trinity Laban Conservatoire
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PhD researcher, University of the West of Scotland · Safeguarding in sound therapy practice
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In holistic practice since 1998
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Sound therapy since 2005
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CMA Inspirational Teacher Award 2025
MY BACKGROUND
Sound and music have always
been a huge part of my life.
From the age of around ten until my late teenage years, I played baritone in a brass band. The gong appeared in the music score occasionally with a single strike, and that was all I knew of it for many years. I had no idea then that it would become an instrument I would spend a significant part of my life learning about.
For many years I trained and competed in martial arts as part of the Scottish and British Kickboxing team. To support my body through the demands of training and competition, in 1998, I started studying holistic therapies: reflexology, aromatherapy, massage. These were practical tools to help support my body and mind. They gave me a working knowledge of how the body functions and what it responds to and was a great basis to build on when sound was reintroduced into my life.
I was searching for something to help with my growing anxiety when a Kung Fu master told me that meditation helps. I took the advice seriously and spent years trying different approaches. None of them quite did what I needed, until I found a Himalayan singing bowl.
2005
From the first
strike of the bowl.
In 2005 a Reiki practitioner I occasionally visited let me borrow her Himalayan singing bowl. After a few years of trying different methods of meditating with no real success I was sceptical but I took the bowl home and started to play it, listening to the sounds. I noticed that my mind felt calmer and I was able to breath a bit deeper and steadier than I had in a long time.
It quickly became a daily practice as I started to feel the beneficial effects it was having on me. I began researching what was actually happening, and I fell into a subject I have never stopped exploring.
MY PHILOSOPHY
We only create the environment.
A safe space for people to learn to relax and let go of tension and stress.
I say this to every new practitioner I train. It is grounded in personal and professional experience, and informed by teachings from Bruce Lipton, whose Biology of Belief is one of the first books I recommend to anyone starting out. Sound therapy, practised well, can create the conditions for the body to regulate, repair, and rest. In a field where overclaiming is common, that restraint is something I take seriously. It is what makes the work trustworthy.
Sound can be a genuinely useful complementary tool with groundbreaking research being done and showing some fantastic results. However, if you are dealing with anxiety, depression, or any other mental or physical health difficulty, please seek support from a qualified health professional. Sound therapy is not a replacement for that. Used thoughtfully and alongside appropriate professional support, it can be one part of a broader approach to your wellbeing. I do not use the word healing in my sessions or my teaching, nor do I claim that sound therapy treats, cures, or diagnoses any condition. That distinction is very important to me, and it is built into everything I teach.
INTERNATIONAL STUDY
Who I have
learned from.
I have been very fortunate to study with some amazing people and training schools over the years. These are some of the teachers and practitioners I have studied with directly. What has always fascinated me is not just what each person teaches but how they came to it as well as their beliefs and understandings of sound. No two are ever the same, and every one of them has shaped how I understand and approach this work.
This list is not exhaustive, and the learning has not stopped.
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Don Conreaux
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Richard Rudis
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Tim Wheater
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Remo HealthRhythms
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Fabian Maman
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Frank Perry
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Rasmus Gaupp-Berghausen
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9Ways Academy
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Aidan McIntyre
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Bear Love and Shion
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Mitch Nur
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Mike Tamburo
“
Pauline is a sincere, heart centred, authentic down to earth teacher. She has a vast amount of knowledge and experience that she has built steadily over the past 20+ years by studying extensively with world renowned teachers, and shares her teachings from the heart.
Pauline's eyes and ears for detail are second to none and this shines through in the courses and events she creates.
Her dedication, passion, experience and continued studying shall definitely put Scotland on the map for Sound Therapy.
Highly recommend Sound Therapy Scotland.
Morag
“
Pauline's continued support and genuine interest in how I evolved as a practitioner once the course finished gave me the confidence and desire to bring the beauty and power of sound therapy to as many people as possible. A truly remarkable and gifted teacher.
Carole
GONG PRACTITIONER GRADUATE