August 4, 2004
Traverse City resident finds good vibrations
Mark Handler practices Eastern therapeutic art form of singing bowls and harmonic overtones
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Emerging from a traditional therapeutic model after a 27-year career in community mental health, Mark Handler now delves into Eastern philosophies and practices to offer peace and relaxation to groups and individuals.
Instead of therapy or medication, Handler offers sounds and vibrations as a bridge to harmony.
"A lot of my interest in the Eastern work I'd do part time, on the side, integrating pieces of it into therapeutic modalities," said Handler, now a self-employed composer, writer, speaker and seminar leader and founder of Sound Therapeutics. "At this point I'm at a time in my life where I can focus much more on it, this is a natural sequence."
In September of 2001, Handler retired as an associate director of Midland-Gladwin Community Mental Health Services. He left with community acclaim and a sense of satisfaction at helping guide the community mental health movement from a model of in-patient treatment to community integration.
"Helping people who experienced these kinds of challenges to have a meaningful and purposeful life, that is what it was all about," Handler said of his years in community mental health. "For people to have possibility and a life with friends, work, accomplishment and recreation - in previous times in our society these would not have existed for the mentally ill."
Moving into the Eastern philosophies and therapeutic techniques, Handler can offer a path away from fear, at a time when he said fear is a huge slice of the modern world.
"People need a break from fear, if you're too busy being afraid, you'll miss your life," he noted. "If you're too busy being afraid, you might miss an opportunity to share and contribute to others."
Handler's studies and experience has found the singing bowls and harmonic overtones help induce a state of peace that is an antidote to fear.
For an individual bowl session, he places a series of brass bowls of varying sizes around the listener's body. Using a soft mallet, he strikes the bowls in sequence moving the sound up and down the listener's body. This resulting field of sound encourages the muscles to relax, the mind to unwind and worries to dissipate as the vibrations ebb and flow.
Marti Copplestone, co-founder of the Just Imagine Creative Arts Healing Center, experienced a 45-minute individual session with Handler. An experienced consumer of a range of alternative healing therapies, she was amazed at the peace that ensued.
"The sound vibrations, the chanting plus the bowls made some wonderful, wonderful harmony in my body," she recalled. "It just really took my whole entire spine and vibrated it right out. There was just such a sense of peace and I've never had anything done like that."
Handler, a Long Lake Township resident since 2003, has long explored these alternative methods for healing, self-awareness and transformation. In 2000, he began studying this harmonic overtoning, counting the Dalai Lama's chant master among his teachers. That same year, he acquired a singing bowl but did not study them further until 2003, when a series of coincidences brought the techniques to his attention.
While visiting a healing spa in California that his son managed, he listened to a demonstration of the Tibetan singing bowls. Handler experienced an instant affinity with the sound and scheduled a private session with the man who later became his teacher.
"When I experienced it, it was such a wonderful experience for me in terms of contentment and the individual bowl experience was even more wonderful," Handler recalled.
The history of these sound traditions has deep roots in Asia, where they are used both in art and religious ceremonies.
"Harmonic overtoning, changing, in Tibet is part of their spiritual tradition," said Handler, who has a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. "In Mongolia, the harmonic overtones are more of an art form. The bowls have been found throughout Asia and people believe that they probably came from pre-Buddhist Tibet."
Handler will give an interactive performance featuring harmonic overtoning and Tibetan singing bowls today at the Higher Self Book Store, 328 E. Front St. For more information on Sound Therapeutics, call Handler at 275-6631.