Throughout the ages, cultures across the globe have used music and sound to communicate, to tell stories and to heal the mind, body and spirit. Sheri Bauer, founder of Angel Light Center for the Healing Arts, long intrigued by how sound can heal the body, immersed herself into the realm of sound healing and eventually combined forces with other sound healers to form the School of Sound and Healing, offered through Angel Light.

After working in middle management for nearly 25 years, Bauer experienced the corporate reorganization shift that became common during the 1990s and early 2000s. The concept of placing profits ahead of people didn’t align with her beliefs. “I always wanted to help people,” Bauer says. “If your intention is to assist others, then everything you need financially and in every other way will come to you.”

Bauer had held a strong interest in metaphysical and spiritual healing since 1981. While it was difficult to find others interested in alternative healing arts during the 1980s, she was able to connect with a small group of people and add herbal remedies, crystal healing and other natural and spiritual modalities to her toolbox. She thought it would be ideal to have all the healers in one place, and eventually left her corporate job, using her business and training experience to open Angel Light in December 2006.

In addition to Reiki, therapeutic bodywork, acupuncture, spiritual books and CDs and crystals, Bauer offers sound healing services and classes at Angel Light. She started with tuning forks—a metal acoustic resonator with two prongs that can vary in pitch, depending on the length and mass of the prongs. She discovered how tuning forks of varying frequencies could affect different organs throughout the body.

“I won’t say that a tuning fork will correct your physical disease,” Bauer stresses. “What I will say is that a tuning fork can help access a relaxed state to facilitate one’s own healing.” During her healing sessions, she has found that tuning forks have helped clients improve their memory and regulate heartbeat. “The whole objective is to use a resonant frequency to bring the body back into alignment with its natural healthy frequency,” explains Bauer.

Bauer found satisfaction teaching tuning fork healing classes at Angel Light, but she felt limited because she knew there were other sound techniques such as drums, bowls, bells and vocal sounds. She wasn’t aware of any other sound therapy school in the state, so she decided to offer one through Angel Light.

The School of Sound and Healing was developed as a collaborative effort between local sound healing teachers eager to share their knowledge with others. Bauer will be teaching sound healing using tuning forks and crystal bowls. Kathryn Rambo, a music therapist who taught at Alverno College, will use her expertise with Tibetan bowls to teach energy diagnostics and healing protocols. Holly Emmer, a nurse and drum healer, will teach voice healing and sacred sound ceremonies. Dr. Dan Huber, a psychologist who combines shamanic practices with sound to heal, will be teaching the neurobiology of sound and shamanic drum healing.

Confirmed guest instructors include sound healer Delbert Charging Crow, who will teach song and ritual traditions from a Native American perspective. Peruvian whistles, gongs and tingshas and other cultural instruments and their healing histories will be included in the curriculum.

Classes begin the second weekend of February with sound basics and the history of sound healing. “We’ll go over rhythm, harmony and melody, frequency, pitch, resonance, how sound works and how to use that frequency to bring the body into balance,” Bauer explains. Classes continue for one full weekend per month in March, April and May, covering topics such as sacred space, healing diagnostics, healing sounds of different cultures, use of sound and music in ceremony and ritual, and more.

American mystic Edgar Cayce said, “Sound is the medicine of the future,” and Bauer says that is her mantra, as well. She attends sound healing conferences and is optimistic about the research that sound healers worldwide are doing to improve human health and wellness. She believes the sound school will attract those that are just curious, people in poor health that would like to be healed and budding therapists seeking new modalities to incorporate into their own practices.

“We are on the verge of a new medicine,” Bauer enthuses. “My hope is that Angel Light’s sound school can be the impetus for further exploration and change.”

Angel Light Center for the Healing Arts and School of Sound and Healing are located at 13300 Watertown Plank Rd., in Elm Grove. For more information, call 262-787-3001 or visit AngelLightLLC.com.

Sheila Julson is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine.