Rejuvenation for the Faint of Heart: Facial Soundscapes

Many, many of us, both women and men, are searching for a non-invasive way to improve facial skin tone and retain a youthful appearance, and some have turned to acupuncture. However, there are those of us – myself emphatically included – who are phobic about needles. Enter Mary Elizabeth Wakefield.

In her Manhattan Chi-Akra Center she has long used acupuncture to improve balance and health, with benefits targeted to women who want to improve skin conditions caused by hormonal imbalance, get help with menopause and PMS, digestive issues and depression. Other benefits include retarding hair loss and graying, reducing bags and sagging, diminishing wrinkles and improving facial color. She has trained more than 1,000 practitioners in her treatment protocols and been named 2005 Educator of the Year by the American Association of Oriental Medicine.

However, for us chickens she has created a tuning fork facial – Facial Soundscapes, Harmonic Renewal – using Acutonics tuning forks, and it was this that drew me to her Manhattan studio. I have encountered effective light therapy for the skin and microcurrent therapy, but there is something especially appealing to me about using vibration to awaken and balance the system, since my background is in music and I have always been greatly intrigued by chant and sound mantras. Testimonials are very dramatic and the Facial Soundscapes treatments were written up in the June 2007 issue of Alternative Medicine as a holistic alternative to Botox.

Wakefield is not only a licensed acupuncturist and a Zen shiatsu and cranial-sacral therapist, she is an opera singer. The co-creator of the Facial Soundscapes treatment is another opera singer, composer and pianist, MichelAngelo, who teaches Acutonics sound healing systems in the US; he has co-authored the new Acutonics text, "From Galaxies to Celts."

The Acutonics system of sound healing brings together the theories of Pythagoras, Johannes Kepler and Swiss scientist and musicologist Hans Cousto, who in 1978 discovered the Cosmic Octave as the link between different kinds of natural phenomena including planetary orbits and the human body at rest.

A great deal of Eastern medicine and spiritual teaching rests on sound as the essence of life, from the cosmic Aum to the chant of Tibetan monks and ragas in India. Sound is vibratory motion, and everything produces a sound vibration, only a small of range of which is audible to human hearing, but even the portion of the spectrum we can hear produces strong results in heartbeat, blood pressure, relaxation or stimulation.

Acutonics tuning forks are set to a harmonic series based on the orbital properties of a planet or heavenly body and they are used on acupuncture points along the meridians and at the charkas and on the face. Wakefield says tuning forks can "lift" the pterygoids (mastication muscles), masseter (the most powerful muscle in the body that works the jaw) and platysma (the sheet of muscle up the neck where sagging and bagging can occur) by using carefully chosen vibrating intervals. I couldn't think of a more perfect way to get a noninvasive facelift and revitalization…

…provided it worked.

The initial consultation for Facial Soundscapes is two hours and includes an extensive interview on lifestyle and goals, facial analysis. Wakefield gave me one of her products – a rich, very effective cleanser – to take off my makeup, and I relaxed on her massage table.

Although MichelAngelo explained the astrological connection between the vibrational level of the tuning forks, the chakras and the planetary bodies, I was soon too pleasurably zoned out to follow much. They placed singing bowls places on the charkas and began to work with the tuning forks, sometimes using them near my ears, sometimes on my face; after a short time I couldn't have told you which. The entire experience produced a kind of dynamic peace.

I could feel vibrations pass through my body, at times intense enough so my face flushed, and the result was extreme relaxation. Wakefield worked on my face and neck, around my eyes, and MichelAnglo worked at my feet. When the treatment was finished I had gotten much more than I bargained for; my chin was indeed much firmer, the bags under my eyes nearly gone, skin glowing, but also I had a huge fund of energy, not the kind that makes you feel antsy, but an available flow of energy that was sustained for the rest of the day and evening.

Wakefield suggests a series of nine treatments for full, permanent benefits, with monthly maintenance thereafter. Each session is $100-150, depending on the individual practitioners and the area in which they are practicing.

Visit www.chiakra.com/soundscapes.htm

Muse L'Herbal products

Wakefield and MichelAngelo have also created a product line for their practitioners to use, based on herbs, essential oils and botanicals that are organic, natural, without chemical preservatives and have not been tested on animals. These include the cleanser I used, a renewing mask, crème vital, a goat's milk cleanser, herbal facial teas and essential oil.

The nourishing and moisturizing crème vital is quickly absorbed, leaves no greasiness and is very light on the skin but very effective. The microdermabrasion treatment is a combination of organic oats, organic rose flowers, organic lavender flowers, organic almonds, and French white clay that gently sloughs off dead skin, improves the appearance of lines and wrinkles, and prevents the cross-linking of collagen elastin fibers.

The goat's milk cleanser contains natural fruit and alpha-hydroxy acids that nurture and feed the skin with vitamins and essential oils. This cleanser is unusually gentle, and can be used for sensitive skin, with issues of eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea, as well as for oily skin. It is also recommend for men; when used for cleansing the face, and as a shaving cream, it can heal ingrown hairs, as well as prevent razor burns.

Visit www.muse-lherbal.com
by Marilyn Green -- Manhattan, New York

by: http://www.spareviewmag.com