Spas in Macau are pioneering sound therapy with new technologies and the world’s first fully immersive music spa

Few need proof of how sound can stir our emotions and transform our mood.

When you consider the countless styles of music, from classical to heavy rock, there’s a rhythm and a melody to reflect or transform every mood. It’s little wonder that for centuries sound has been used for its therapeutic and healing benefits, especially as a means to help induce deeper relaxation.

More recently, therapies and treatments using sound have advanced well beyond a few striking gongs, singing bowls and tuning forks. 

Unique to the Macau market at MGM’s Tria Spa, a new therapy lounge has launched using a technology called So Sound.

Already well-received in the United States, So Sound is said to balance your heart rate and blood pressure, and displace tension and stress, using musical vibrations that travel throughout your body as you lay in a lounger. 

“For me it lifts the fog of stress. I am able to more easily let go of mental and physical distractions and feel more relaxed and clear,” says Misty Stewart, spa director at Tria Spa, MGM Macau. 

Stewart, originally from the US, was won over by sound therapy 10 years ago, after a treatment using Tibetan Singing Bowls convinced her of the ability sound and vibration have to quickly and deeply help the body to relax. She believes treatments like the So Sound technology, can also help to maximise the benefits of treatments such as massages.

“I have known people who get regular massages and it takes them almost the entire treatment to relax enough to begin reaping the greatest benefits,”  Stewart says. “Imagine if that person could begin the massage in a more prepared state, how much greater could their results be? That’s essentially what So Sound can help with. It enhances the whole spa experience, so it was only natural to incorporate it into the Tria menu.”

Some physicians remain sceptical about the benefits of sound therapy, claiming there is little clinical proof that it works, something that Stewart believes will take time to change. “I remember years ago when I first received acupuncture and many people thought it was odd or even outright silly, and yet now it is being accepted within western medicine as effective for pain management. So I think I’ll rely on my own personal experience and the anecdotal evidence of our spa guests.”