A former headteacher cured her burnout, insomnia and depression by listening to bells and meditating - and now works as a sound healer helping others.

Tia Harris, 43, decided to leave her role as an interim headteacher after suffering a breakdown.

A friend suggested she try sound therapy - a process that uses sound and music in therapeutic ways to improve health and well-being.

During her first session, she experienced sounds from crystal bowls and Tibetan bowls and found it helped immediately with insomnia she had been experiencing.

She says the experience also helped her feel relaxed following a long period of stress.

She was so amazed by the effects that she decided to become a sound healing practitioner herself.

She spends up to three hours a week immersing herself in healing sounds, alongside the time she spends with one-to-one, group, and corporate clients.

Now she treats people with conditions including insomnia, anxiety, depression and high blood pressure at her studios and during home visits.

She plays Tibetan singing bowls and crystal bowls to people to help ease symptoms - but says different sounds affect people in different ways, making each session unique to the person being treated.

Also in her sound armory are wind chimes, bells and tuning forks to help treat her client's various maladies.

Tia said: "I recommend getting a tiny little Tibetan singing bowl as they’re not very expensive - I like the notes G and A. "

"There's not one instrument over the other - I love the Kalimba and wind chimes but a lot of my clients love the bells. "

"It's so auditory and sensory I couldn’t pinpoint one piece of equipment that is my favourite. "

"[Since being a sound healing facilitator] I've got a different perspective and am far more regulated and aware, I’m sleeping better, I've lost weight and I feel physically my body shape has changed." "

Tia says she began experiencing heightened symptoms of burnout in October 2021 after her mum underwent a stem cell transplant.

She began suffering with insomnia and struggled to take care of herself while working long hours.

After taking some time off, she was due to return to work in February 2022 but felt unable to return and was signed off on medical reasons for another four weeks.

However, in April Tia says her mum went onto life support and she felt she had to step away from the school.

Her friend reached out and suggested she try sound therapy, and Tia says after attending one session she felt the benefits immediately.

She realised she wanted to provide other people with the same relief and after attending a course and completing a diploma in April 2022, she started her sound healing venture in August 2022.

Despite no longer earning close to the £80k per year she made as a headteacher, she says the risk has been worth it and she is now seeing her business grow.

"I work with some secondary schools, and I’ve got case studies where we’ve cured teaching staff's insomnia and they’ve asked for downloads of the sounds to use over the summer," said Tia. "

"I worked with a member of staff with high blood pressure, her attendance wasn’t great and now we’ve improved her attendance and her heart and blood pressure had reduced in the last tests. "

"I believe I'd never been interested in holistic therapy – I never thought about being facilitator but I couldn’t manage going back to conformity of my previous role now. "

"I’m very into universal energy now - my mum being unwell plus the pressures of work shifted something in me energetically. "

"I work with one-to-one clients, women's circles, we work with the moon and manifestation - the whole thing is about energy. "

"I’m over the bowls four to five hours per week."

"I'm a lot more centered person with clearer boundaries and all of that has come from a change of life - the modality that brought that change is sound. "

"I'd say to people interested just go for it - you need to live it, breathe it and feel it for it to become successful for you. "

"If anyone is thinking of participating, the benefit is instantaneous and the healing benefit of sound is transformative." "

Tia’s recommendations for instruments to assist with sound healing at home are:

- Wind chimes to help with high blood pressure

- Tibetan singing bowls to help with grounding

- Bells for burnout and insomnia