I trained to become a gong practitioner under the tutelage of gong master Sheila Whittaker becoming a qualified gong practitioner and member of the College of Sound Healing in the UK in 2018.
Unlike many gong practitioners I’m not a yoga teacher or even practitioner nor am I a healer in another modality. I am, believe it or not, a business resilience strategist who quite unintentionally got involved with gongs and sound healing. Having discovered the gongs I rapidly became captivated by them and the beneficial effects they can have on people both physically and emotionally.
Before Covid I regularly gave gong baths to friends and associates as they lay down in my home surrounded by the gongs. Then I started to give gong baths to people all over the world using Zoom. It’s not quite the same thing but participants can still benefit from the therapeutic sounds of the gongs.
The gongs I currently work with are Uranus, Chiron and Niburu which are tuned to the planets (based on Hans Cousto’s research). I complement these with the beautiful tones of a 32″ Symphonic gong. I also have a a 20″ Symphonic gong which I tend to use when someone is in the gong space with me as it’s light enough for me to hold and waft around them. All my gongs are made by Paiste in Germany. You can read more about them on the gongs page. I also use singing bowls and other percussion instruments and chimes.
As part of my gong practitioner training I had to write an essay which had to include a section on how I came to the gongs. This is what I wrote:
“How did gongs come into my life? They insinuated their way in, subtly, stealthily, tiptoeing in. Over three years Airbnb guests arrived from Edinburgh, Holland, Dublin to train as gong practitioners. Finally I checked out gongs, gong baths, Sheila Whittaker. I read her website. I decided to learn more and did a sound healing weekend. At my first ever gong bath little miss curious peeped to see which gongs Sheila was using. I was a spectator, a receiver not really a bather. Forever afterwards I bathed, caressed and enveloped by the sound of the gongs, invariably switching off completely and waking with a snort – OMG have I been snoring all the time….
When at last I had the chance to take up a mallet and strike a gong – what a devastating disappointment. It sounded so very, very – and horribly – different. I didn’t like it at all and there I was thinking of doing the gong practitioner training. Did the gongs insist? Did I feel an overwhelming calling and recognised that an open mind and perseverance was required? who knows. I signed up for the gong intensive weekend – make or break. At the end of it I was still unsure but I was determined I’d get to like the gongs up close. Then came the turning point – Sheila Whittaker’s December gong puja where I played for 30 minutes with a guy called Phil (later learning that this wasn’t just any old Phil but… Phil McNamara). I loved the sound of those gongs even though I was up close and personal with them. Little did I know I was being sucked in – deliciously, delicately sucked in. Those gongs are so wily! Recently I was reading Frank Perry’s book The Language of Singing Bowls and there was this quote: “And thine ears shall hear a Word behind thee, Saying this is the way, walk ye in it.” (Isiah 30:14). Very apt I thought. It was definitely a case of being mysteriously pushed to follow the sound of the gongs and walk whatever the path they took me along.“
