What to Expect: Tuning Forks at SHINE
I have been calling tuning forks the most underrated frequency healing modality for years.
And I think the rest of the world might finally be catching on.
They aren't as beautiful or Instagram-worthy as a room filled with crystal singing bowls. They don't have the immediate recognition of Reiki or massage. Honestly, if you've never experienced them, they don't look particularly impressive at all.
They're metal forks.
And then someone who knows what they're doing uses them on you.
That's when things get interesting.
First, What Are Tuning Forks?
At their simplest, tuning forks are calibrated instruments that produce a specific frequency when activated. But in sound and frequency work, we're interested in more than the sound you hear. We're working with vibration, resonance and entrainment—and with the way the body and nervous system respond to coherent sound.
There are weighted forks, which create a stronger physical vibration and can be placed directly on the body, and unweighted forks, which sustain a clearer audible tone and can be used around the body and within the biofield.
One of the methods that heavily influences how we teach at SHINE is Biofield Tuning, developed by researcher, author and sound-therapy pioneer Eileen McKusick. Biofield Tuning works with the electrical system of the body and the magnetic field surrounding it. During a traditional session, an activated tuning fork is moved through that field while the practitioner listens and feels for changes in resistance, tone and vibration.
McKusick's work proposes that our life experiences can create patterns within this field and that coherent sound can interact with areas of what she describes as dissonance through resonance and entrainment. Her Biofield Anatomy model extends approximately five to six feet around the body. These ideas remain an evolving area of biofield research rather than established medical science, but after experiencing the work myself, I became fascinated.
Actually, fascinated is an understatement.
The Session That Started All of This
Years ago, our Director of Sound, Auburn, told me about a tuning fork session she had experienced and suggested I check it out.
People tell me about healing modalities all the time. But for some reason, this one caught my attention, so I booked a session.
The practitioner was about an hour away, and my husband happened to have some high school friends who lived nearby. Perfect. He dropped me off, went to visit his friends and picked me up when I was finished.
I got into his truck completely dazed and confused.
He asked, "How did it go?"
I just sat there.
He looked at me and said, "What is wrong with you?" 😂
I literally couldn't explain what had just happened.
It blew my mind.
And I knew almost immediately: I need to bring this to SHINE.
Since then, Auburn and I have spent years exploring how tuning forks fit into our work, developing experiences and trainings that allow other people to experience what I experienced that day.
And Auburn didn't just dabble in this work. She became a certified Biofield Tuning practitioner and spent more than three years studying under Eileen McKusick. That depth matters to us because if we're going to teach a modality, we want to understand the practice behind it—not just own the tools.
Why Do I Think Tuning Forks Are So Powerful?
I believe healing modalities are what I call permission slips.
They aren't the source of your wholeness. They're catalysts that help you access something already available within you. Breath can be a permission slip. Reiki can be a permission slip. Sound can be a permission slip. Meditation can be a permission slip.
And I think every permission slip has its own unique frequency.
For me, tuning forks have always felt particularly suited for deeply seated work.
I've watched enough happen around this modality over the years that I have tremendous respect for it.
One of my favorite stories came from one of our students, Tracy.
Her son has experienced a nighttime seizure disorder for more than 20 years, sometimes having multiple seizures in one night, with longer episodes followed by migraines the next morning. After her training at SHINE, Tracy began working at home with a pair of weighted Schumann tuning forks. She reported that his episodes became shorter and less intense, that the clustering decreased and that his recovery afterward changed—including not waking with the migraine she had come to expect.
Her words to us were simple:
"Tuning forks are a game changer in my home."
That is one family's experience. It isn't a medical claim, and tuning forks aren't a replacement for medical care. Even McKusick explicitly describes many of the reported health benefits of Biofield Tuning as anecdotal rather than established medical treatment.
But stories like Tracy's are part of why I remain so curious about where this work may eventually lead.
And Then The Telepathy Tapes Came Up
More recently, I was being interviewed by producers connected with The Telepathy Tapes.
If you haven't listened to Season One, the podcast explores extraordinary claims involving non-speaking autistic children and telepathic communication with parents and caregivers. It dives straight into the unseen world—and if you know SHINE, you know that's a world we're not exactly afraid to explore. 😂
During our conversation, tuning forks came up.
The producer shared with me that they were hearing more conversation and seeing emerging interest around tuning forks and work involving autistic children.
My ears immediately perked up.
And Then I Got Shingles
Yep. We're going there. 😂
Recently, I had a private sound session with Auburn that included tuning forks and drumming. We set very specific intentions at the beginning around some things I was ready to release and heal.
The session was deep.
About a week later, my body experienced a mild case of shingles.
Do I think the two were connected?
I do.
Can I prove that?
Nope.
Do I need to?
Nope.
And to be very clear, I cannot tell you that tuning forks caused shingles. Shingles is caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, and my personal interpretation of the timing is exactly that—my interpretation.
What I found interesting is that Biofield Tuning itself discusses what it calls a post-session "detox response." Its published materials acknowledge that some recipients report temporary physical or emotional reactions following sessions, although that framework should not be confused with established medical evidence or used to explain a medical condition.
But the experience reinforced something I already believed very strongly:
We should have reverence for this work.
If You Believe It Works, Learn How to Use It
This is the part I care deeply about.
If you believe a tuning fork is capable of interacting with the nervous system, shifting energy or helping someone access deeply held patterns, then doesn't that very belief create a responsibility to learn what you're doing before you start doing it to people?
Buying a set of forks online doesn't make someone a tuning fork practitioner any more than buying a set of golf clubs makes someone a golfer.
You need education. You need technique. You need context. And then you need reps.
I learned this lesson in a much funnier way the first time I ever taught a tuning fork class years ago.
A yoga teacher was sitting in the training and suddenly said something along the lines of, "Ahhhh. NOW I know how to use them."
Apparently, before the training she had just been taking two tuning forks and smashing them together to make sound. 😂
Well.
At least she came to class.
And THAT is why we train.
So, What Happens in Tuning Forks Level One?
Level One is where we slow everything down and actually teach you the modality.
You don't need previous experience, and you don't need to arrive with your own tuning forks. We provide what you need to practice and then teach you what we recommend purchasing after you've had the opportunity to understand the differences.
You'll learn the foundations of tuning forks, resonance and entrainment, the body and biofield, what changes in the sound can tell you, how to properly activate and work with the forks, and practitioner responsibility.
Then you'll learn the structured eight-step Biofield Tuning process that our program bases on McKusick's work.
Level Two Is Where We Go Deeper
Level Two is practitioner-level training, and this is where weighted tuning forks become the star of the show.
You'll build on the eight-step process from Level One, but now we're bringing vibration directly onto the body and expanding your toolbox with more advanced applications.
There is substantially more hands-on practice: giving sessions, receiving sessions, working with weighted forks and boots, and exploring advanced techniques such as body points, limb walks, spinal work, figure-eight techniques, cocooning and seated sessions.
This is where something starts to shift from I understand tuning forks to I know how to work with tuning forks.
And there is a difference.
After completing both levels, SHINE graduates may use the designation Sound Balancing with Tuning Forks Practitioner or Tuning Forks Practitioner.
But Training Isn't the Same as Practice
This is why we also created our Tuning Fork Clinics.
Because confidence comes from competence, and competence comes from reps.
You can read every book about swimming. You can watch Olympic swimmers on YouTube for six months. You can memorize exactly where your arms and legs are supposed to go.
Eventually, somebody has to get in the damn pool. 😂
Healing work is no different.
At our clinics, students get the opportunity to work on real people in a supervised environment, notice what happens when every person's field responds differently, ask questions and keep building the muscle memory that simply can't come from a manual.
That is how you become confident—not because someone handed you a certificate, but because you've practiced enough times to trust what you're doing.
So Where Should You Start?
If you're reading this thinking, Okay, Cortney, now I need to know what these things actually feel like, start by experiencing them.
Come to our Tuning Forks Workshop, attend a Tuning Fork Clinic as a recipient, or book a private session with Auburn and experience the work one-on-one.
And if you already know you're ready to learn, start with Tuning Forks Level One. From there, Level Two takes you into practitioner-level work, and the clinics give you the reps to turn knowledge into competence.
I still believe what I said years ago after climbing into my husband's truck completely unable to explain what had just happened:
Tuning forks are one of the most underrated frequency healing modalities there is.
The difference now?
I don't think they're going to stay underrated for much longer. Are you ready to be part of the leading edge of frequency?
xo,
💚 Cortney
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