The sound of solace

NEW YORK — Julie Andrews’ swirling in an Alpine meadow bursts with joy in “The Sound of Music.”

The lilting harmony of Simon and Garfunkel and the earthy register of the vocalist Disturbed speak of solace in “The Sound of Silence.”

In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a little girl excitedly teaches her daddy that the tinkling of a bell announces that “an angel gets his wings.”

On a recent Thursday morning, the sounds of the city bleeding through the front window in the flexible space that is the sanctuary of Manhattan’s avenue church nyc, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation, are being challenged by the random sounds caressed by Tiffany Morlock Steen.

Tiffany Morlock Steen Sound Healing

The certified sound healer uses seven tuned crystal sound bowls of varying dimensions arrayed before her in a semi-circle, each aglow in the light cast by six candles, one of which sits on a slice of olive wood and another next to a bottle of water from the Jordan River, each hand-carried home from the Holy Land.

Seated cross-legged on the leading edge of the platform where the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jordan Tarwater, preaches most Sundays, Steen opens each 30-minute experience with a biblical passage; this morning it is Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Steen punctuates this with the ping of a tuning fork. Her choice this morning, D above middle C, prompts the half-dozen neighbors lying at her feet on individual exercise mats to nestle in. Shoes are shed and eyes are closed. Some curl up under a blanket.

Over the next 20 minutes, Steen utilizes rubber-tipped mallets to elicit the musical notes from her instruments. Each sustained note triumphs above the competition from the outside world: a helicopter’s slow flyby, short blasts from a passing ambulance, the warning beeps of a delivery truck taking seemingly forever to ease into a parking space, before the sound healing experience moves into a five-minute period for the gathered to absorb the sound of silence, concluding when the tuning fork pings again. Unprompted, some participants preparing to resume their daily activities share their experience of the previous half hour.

Steen, 36, who moved to New York with her husband Matt full-time after several years of being a resident of both New York and the St. Paul, Minnesota area, explained that career stress — the trap of feeling the need to chase the dream 24/7 — combined with the aftermath of several tragedies in her life led to a personal diagnosis of PTSD.  

Steen acknowledges that her diagnosis could have taken a dark turn. She quotes the saying, “Hurt people hurt people while healed people heal people.” 

While maintaining her personal faith journey — she hasn’t given up on prayer “as a way to healing,” having found the book “Contemplative Prayer,” the classic 1969 volume by Trappist monk and noted theologian Thomas Merton which “transformative in my relationship with God,” Steen said — she discovered that her healing journey needed “something more.”  

Partly because she was a percussionist throughout her school days, Steen found that “sound healing proved to be very impactful on my pathway to healing.” She suggests that Western Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity, “lost something” when some of the chants and rhythms employed by early Christians were discarded along the way to modernity.

The theme drawn from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God,” a verse familiar to those who have participated in a Taizé service, will continue to light the way for Steen as she continues sharing the full-body experience of sound healing, working to conquer her PTSD while providing one example of Christian love and comfort for others through sound healing. She always closes each experience with the benediction, “Lord, let us leave this space lighter in spirit.”

Ruling Elder Jim Nedelka of New York is a longtime contributor to Presbyterian News Service. He contributed this story along with the photo and video.