The course is backed by the College of Sound Healing, and is provided for anyone who wants to learn to work therapeutically with the drum, whether as part of an existing practice or as something new.
The diploma is taught across ten sessions, usually five weekends, though other arrangements exist and the listings say which. It runs over the course of several months to a year, with practice and case studies expected in between.
What a practitioner does
Most of it is quieter than people expect. Holding a session safely, reading a room, knowing when to play and when to stop. The drum is the tool rather than the point.
Some practitioners work one to one, and some hold groups – many do both, and many build it alongside something they already do.
What the course covers
The course is broadly core shamanistic in approach, and that is worth knowing before you start. It teaches healing with the drum, and it asks you to do that work on yourself first.
Five modules, taught in succession over a year. Each module is two days of in-person experiential learning and practice, usually about twelve hours.
- Module 1, The Journey Begins. Shamanic practice, the medicine wheel, cleansing and smudging, honouring your drum, working with the rattle, sound mapping and self-healing.
- Module 2, Extending Practice, Drum Journeys and Power Animals. Drumming in nature, drum journeys for yourself, the lower, middle and upper worlds, and power animals.
- Module 3, Feather and Sound Healing With The Drum. Working with feathers, creating safe space, the healing protocol itself, client responses, contraindications, consent and aftercare, power songs and the ancestors. Case studies begin here.
- Module 4, Practice and Distance Work. The talk before a session and the talk after it, extending your practice, and working at a distance, remotely and online.
- Module 5, Group Drumming and Assessment. Drum circles and how to facilitate one, drum journeys for other people, self-assessment, the practical assessment, and a celebration at the end.
Becoming a tutor requires having completed the course and then shadowed a more experienced tutor at least one time, so by the time somebody teaches you, they have been through the material twice themselves and have their own practice.
What you need before you start
A handheld frame drum, a rattle and a feather, all of your own choosing. Your tutor can advise you on where to go to make or to purchase a suitable drum and rattle. Natural skin and vegan fibre are both accepted, for drums and rattles alike, and your tutor can advise you on where to find workshops for anyone who would rather make their own.
Previous experience of healing or sound work helps, but it is not required, and provision is made for people who arrive with none.
Before you can begin the case studies in module 3 you need three further things: a current first aid certificate, insurance, and student membership of the College, again your tutor will guide you through those.
How it is assessed
- A practical evaluation in module 5, in which you give a drum healing.
- Eighteen client case studies and eighteen drum journey case studies, carried out and written up.
- One assignment of 2,000 words or the equivalent.
If you want the learning without the qualification, there is a certificate of attendance instead and the assignments are not required.
What you come away with
A College of Sound Healing diploma, and with it eligibility to join the professional bodies, the Complementary Medical Association among them. Tutors on this site show any bodies they belong to on their own profiles.
What it costs
It varies by tutor and by area, check the individual course listings for more information and contact tutors to discuss payments.
Where to start
If you feel the drum is calling you, perhaps find a workshop to complete first so that you know for sure that the drum is the sound healing instrument that you want to learn (You can learn others afterwards or before, of course, but there is something about the drum that is deeply grounding, and this will be reflected in you as you learn).
If you want to get a feel for the drum first, go to a drum circle. It is a different thing from the training, and it will not teach you the work, but you will find out quickly whether you have a connection with the drum.