I’m Minna,
and I’m a certified sound practitioner, teacher, mentor and owner of Harmoniaalto, a wave to harmony.
I worked 17 years at Nokia Corporation as a Senior Sourcing Manager dealing with timezone differences, multitasking, demanding deadlines and ever changing requirements. I became very familiar with sleeping disorder, high blood pressure and difficulty focusing. When my coworkers started to take long sick leaves while suffering from burnout, it was my time to look for options to prevent that from happening to me.
Over the years, I tried various forms of meditation, yoga and other somatic practices. In 2010, I was introduced to the use of sound vibration as a vehicle for wellbeing and balance. This discovery triggered profound and valuable insights on ways to assist myself and others to become more present and to foster relaxation in the body and the mind by implementing sound centering tools.
Built on my direct experience and studies on the effective and affective quality of sound in wellbeing, I created my sound healing offering including private sessions, sound baths and practical trainings on how to facilitate Sound Baths. I am committed to continue evolving my practice and finding simple practices that can be integrated into everyday life.
I’m a huge advocate for using everyday sounds to support wellbeing. That could be listening to the birds or the ocean, sounds of traffic and water fountains. Or playing a kalimba (finger piano) before going to bed to engage the brain in a soothing manner. Sound is all around us, so we might as well use it for our benefit.
I offer private one-on-one sessions in downtown San Rafael, CA. I’m very passionate about meeting people where they are and for that reason love to offer small group sound baths in staff meetings, clinics, private homes and family gatherings.
I enjoy collaborating with other practitioners such as Craniosacral and Yoga therapists, acupuncturists, and artists. Integrating different modalities and practices with sound generates results that are more easily accessible and faster for the client.
Some of my credentials:
- 2022 Somatic Stress Release (100 hours) with Dr Scott Lyons
- 2022 Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy (60 hours) with Peter Levine
- 2020 – 2021 Long Distance Healing Certification with Suzanne Scurlock
- 2019 Jin Shin Jyutsu 5-day course, Cotati, CA
- 2017 Somatic Meditation Intensive with Dharma Ocean (four week silent meditation), Crestone, CO
- 2017 Jin Shin Jyutsu 5-day course, El Cerrito, CA
- 2015 – 2016 Advanced 1, 2 and 3 at Tibetan Bowl School, Encinitas, CA
- 2015 TA (Teacher Assistant) at the Sound, Voice and Music Healing, Certification program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, CA
- 2013 over 200 hours Sound, Voice and Music Healing Certification program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, CA
- 2012 Three-year program for advanced initiations of shamanism and shamanic healing, Foundation of Shamanic Studies (FSS), Virginia
- 2011 270 hours Sound and Music Facilitator Certification program at the Sound and Music Institute, Open Center, New York City, NY (The school sadly closed its doors in 2022 after 38 years in business)
- 2006 2-year Intensive course on integral psychology with Sergey Kupri, Helsinki
Places I have offered sound healing include:
- Dominican University Art Therapy Program, San Rafael
- UCSF faculty, San Francisco
- Buckelew Programs – Mental Health and Addiction Recovery, Novato
- Bayside Marin – Addiction Treatment Center, San Rafael
- Paradigm – Teen Mental Health Center, San Rafael
- Commonweal – Cancer Programs, Bolinas
- Ed Robert’s Campus – Disability Programs, Berkeley
- Microsoft Corporation, Sunnyvale
- Nokia Corporation, Sunnyvale
- Demandbase, San Francisco
My teachers and Mentors include:
- John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph. (founder of Biosonics Enterprises)
- Pat Moffitt Cook, PhD (founder and director of Open Ear Center)
- Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D (founder and president of Gaynor Integrative Oncology)
- Diane Mandle, (founder of Tibetan Bowl School)
- Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT (founder and director of the Vox Mundi School)
- Suzanne Scurlock, CST-D (founder of Healing from the Core)
- Alan Turry, DA, NRMT, MT-BC, LCAT (managing director of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy)
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (founder and director of the Ligmincha Institute)