Choice over compliance
You can adjust, opt out, or change your mind at any time.
About Alisa
I know what it is to live switched on.
I’m Alisa Doran—a medically retired first responder and trained Sound Guide. My work is informed by lived experience with complex PTSD (C-PTSD).
For years, my work rewarded readiness: read the room, anticipate what comes next, stay useful under pressure.
That skill can be essential in high-pressure work. It can also be hard to turn off when the moment has passed. Buffalo Sound Waves grew from my own experience of learning that recovery is not automatic—it is something that needs to be practiced.
I use sound as a structured invitation to pause. My approach is trauma-informed, direct, non-dogmatic, and shaped by professional experience and ongoing training in sound work, yoga, and Reiki.
I call myself a Sound Guide, not a healer. I can create the conditions and hold the space. The healing happens because of the work you choose to do. There’s no right way to experience a sound bath, and no pressure to do anything beyond simply listening.
Buffalo Sound Waves
Where Listening Is the Medicine
“Where listening is the medicine” is about more than listening to sound.
It is about learning to listen to yourself.
We spend a lot of time overriding what our bodies and minds are telling us. We keep going when we are exhausted. We hold tension without noticing it. We push past discomfort, ignore what we need, and sometimes do not realize how much we are carrying until our system finally demands our attention.
Listening can interrupt that pattern.
Sound can give us a place to begin. As you listen, you may also begin to notice your breathing, the places your body is holding tension, the thoughts moving through your mind, your emotional state, or the simple realization that you need rest.
There is nothing you are required to feel, release, understand, or accomplish.
The practice is simply noticing.
Over time, that kind of listening can help us recognize what is happening within us before stress, exhaustion, or overwhelm has to get our attention for us.
I can create the conditions and hold the space. The healing happens because of the work you choose to do.
Sound gives us something to listen to, but the deeper practice is learning to listen to ourselves.
Sound baths, plainly
What is a sound bath?
A sound bath is a listening experience in which you rest—seated or lying down—while sounds from instruments such as singing bowls, drums, chimes, gongs, and other acoustic instruments fill the space. The sounds are layered and change over time, giving your attention a place to land without requiring you to participate or perform.
No prior experience, special clothing, or spiritual belief is required. You may keep your eyes open, change positions, or simply listen in the way that feels most comfortable to you. Every person’s experience is different, and there is no required response.
Operating principles
Grounded enough to trust. Spacious enough to be yours.
Plain language over promises
No exaggerated claims, just real talk from my lived experience.
Practice over perfection
Recovery is a skill we can make more familiar—one pause at a time.
Start small