Growing up in the country, east of Gunbarrel, now Longmont resident, Christina Hildebrant always felt a connection to the vibrations she found in the sounds of nature, particularly in birdsong. As an adult she now draws on her passion for music to heal using singing bowls.
When Hildebrant was young she found herself singing and playing pretend with the birds she loved so much. Her passion for music continued as she grew and she insisted her music teacher, Mr. Hill, create a choir for her middle school.
Since then, Hildebrant has never stopped singing and has joined a variety of singing groups including Harmonia, which grew out of a small group that formed out of the Rocky Mountain Chorale for a church service. She met her husband, Paul, in the Rocky Mountain Chorale and while Hildebrant has moved on from that group, Paul is still a member. She also sang in The Longmont Chorale for many years and currently sings in Seicento Baroque Ensemble.
As Hildebrandt has grown in her music, she has also grown her healing practice at which she incorporates singing bowls, her voice and her harp — highlighting singing bowls — into powerful healing modalities through her studio, Sound Heals Holistic Health.
Hildebrant said, "I remember thinking from a pretty early age: 'I want to sing to make people cry,' But, it wasn't a manipulative thing; it was a harbinger of the healer that I became."
In addition to being a certified clinical musician, she is a certified massage therapist — trained in craniosacral therapy and healing touch energy work — has studied bioacoustics through Sharry Edwards’ Sound Health Options,.
Hildebrant uses vibrations from singing bowls to help heal her clients. She says it's her way of helping them find their inner healer, particularly in light of the trauma and stress of the pandemic.
Singing bowls are a type of musical instrument that, when struck, makes a sound through vibration, according to shantibowl.com. Different sizes of bowls produce different sounds. These bowls are used to invoke meditation and relaxation and can be used in “treating various illnesses through sound therapy,” the site states.
"Every person has an inner healer that knows exactly what they need all the time. It's like the body's on the phone, saying, 'hello, could you pick up, please?' And then, if you do pick up, as the practitioner, then the body will say, 'Oh, thank God, somebody is listening to me, finally. Would you please go down to my right knee, I need an E (the musical note the singing bowl makes). If the body's not ready, it's not going to do it and then you have to find another way to work with the body and the mind."
Though she primarily works through her own intuition, her clients are partners in their healing.
"I start out by asking the client, which type of bowl do you like? Do you like the sound of metal? And I'll ring a couple of metal bowls or do you like crystal, which is quartz. And, and they'll usually tell me, and sometimes they know, very specifically, oh, I don't like that one, or I love that one. And other times they say I don't know. So that's when I just have to use this intuition. And I usually have an idea ahead of time what they should have and I'm usually right, but I ask them anyway," Hildebrand shared.
That's not to say she gets it perfectly right each time. Hildebrant, like many, still works to give herself permission to trust her intuition.
"I'm sure you've had the experience of second-guessing yourself … you second guess yourself and you do something else. And you were right the first time. I have had that over and over and over. Wherever that information comes from, I need to trust it,” she said. “That gets back to the whole idea of vibration. So, not only are our bodies vibrating, but the energy field that extends from our bodies is touching or interacting with its environment. ... That's what's happening with the intuition; my energy is picking up their energy and it's translating into my mind somehow as I understand what you need."
Hildebrandt said the proof is in the pudding. She has used a cymascope service to turn the vibrations into visuals with color.
