Connect, Core, Balance.
Your individualised SSP programme will be made up of one or more of these 3 pathways, depending on how your nervous system currently responds to stress.
If you were unfit and wanted to start working out, you wouldn’t start by lifting the heaviest weights. It would be important to build up your strength gradually, to gain fitness optimally, whilst avoiding serious injury. You could think of the SSP as a structured exercise programme for your nervous system, where Connect is the warm-up, during which you become aware of your body, its capacity and its limitations, Core is the workout, and Balance is for maintenance.
As with building muscle, it is important to stretch your nervous system at a pace that builds resilience without causing injury. This is why it is important to listen to your body while you are listening to the music, and that you feed back your experience to your provider, so that adjustments to your programme can be made as necessary. “Less is more”, as far as the SSP is concerned.
Connect
The SSP Connect pathway consists of full-spectrum unfiltered music, and may be offered by way of a gentle warm-up for SSP Core. Connect may be recommended as a starting point if you are feeling anxious about the SSP, if your nervous system is particularly reactive or if I need a little more time to understand your nervous system before you begin the Core pathway. Connect also provides an opportunity for you to experiment with different listening conditions (eg the environment, the time of day) before you move on to SSP Core.
Core
The SSP Core pathway is the original 5-hour listening programme designed by Dr Stephen Porges to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity, while enhancing social engagement and resilience. SSP Core uses special filtration to modulate the frequencies and acoustic energy of the music. It is a progressive programme, which needs to be followed in order. Over-ear headphones without bass-boosting or noise-cancelling need to be used for maximum benefit.
Balance
SSP Balance was developed as a follow-up to the SSP Core, to help integrate the gains of the SSP. SSP Balance consists of lightly-filtered music, which sends cues of safety to the nervous system as required. The playlists used in SSP Balance are the same as in SSP Core, but it is not necessary to play the playlist in any particular order – you can choose which music to listen to, and can play it through speakers or any type of headphone.