We recently connected with Shannon Hawley Mariani and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannon Hawley, thanks for joining us today. Over the course of your career, have you seen or experienced your field completely flip-flop or change course on something?

I suppose the U-Turn that makes the most sense to talk about is how I learned from all of my social work positions (after graduating from NYU in 2006 with my MSW) in the field (a school social worker in an alternative school in Vermont, a role in a domestic violence shelter in NYC, on a team in hospice care in Los Angeles, and working in outpatient care) and used all of those experiences not only in my songwriting but also in my work as a sound therapist and breathwork facilitator. I often felt burnt out from specific roles and my dedication to songwriting kept my life-force and creative energy alight. I sometimes say I have done things the hard way – writing and singing was a way to transmute personal pain and to cope with my sensitivity to what I witnessed in the world around me. When family and I moved from Vermont to Los Angeles I realized how important time in nature and my songwriting was for me (and my nervous system). At a women musicians conference I was drawn to the women who were facilitating breathwork and received a flyer about a “soundbath” that was around the corner from our new home in busy hollywood. I attended the sound bath and felt a calm come over me I had never experienced before, a safety in my body, finally my sensitivity to sound, music, and energy allowed the sounds and intentions to give me space to experience peace. I worked in hospice, wrote songs, and became passionate about learning (I completed a soundology training), experiencing, and ultimately curating sound baths and sound experiences for others. Working with sound integrated a lot of the parts and pieces of myself and my commitment to serving others. Sound led to working with the breath which is accessible to all. I went from surviving to thriving and co-creating. I feel dedicated to providing space and opportunities for individuals and groups to practice deep listening in order to fully express their own authenticity and creativity in the world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I believe in community care and providing safe and brave space for people to work with non-ordinary states of consciousness in order to experience their wholeness and life-force energy. I believe the practices of deep listening, using sound as a healing and meditative tool, developing a healthy relationship with your own beautiful and authentic voice, and practicing breathwork to release, alchemize, and shed (from and through the body) emotions, thought patterns and conditioning that is no longer serving you is revolutionary work. I want to live in a world where people feel alive and empowered to co-create with the world, to re-member who they are and I think now more than ever there are not many opportunities for this in our current culture. I first experienced a non-ordinary state of consciousness as a child in my backyard. There was a moment I was making a spoon with the clay I found in small patch of trees and I suddenly felt connected to everything and happy to be playing and creating. I also experienced an altered state of consciousness after my father died when I was 11 years old.. Grief is absolutely a different state of consciousness, a timelessness, a longing, an understanding that there is so much unseen happening, and that we are connected to each other and the earth in many types of ways. That deep time of grief was also when I learned how humans can lend a hand in holding space, having patience, and helping heal heartbreak and heartache. It became the inspiration for the songs I sing on the album “STARTHROWERS”.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My business, career, and life is all about the pivots! Becoming a mother, continuing creative practices, and being someone who loves adventure and has moved a number of times in my adult life has helped me to help others through times of transition and to celebrate the beginnner’s mind and spirit. Breathwork is all about stepping into the unknown in order to witness, understand, experience and love your whole self. I’ve also picked up other practices along the way to build nervous system resilience and activate self-healing besides talk therapy, sound therapy, breathwork, and reiki. By practicing and now teaching kundalini yoga which incorporates using the voice and sound by chanting mantras, movement in order to build strength and endurance in the mind, body and soul, conscious connected breathing techniques to shift and move energy , and practicing stillness in meditation. I still use all of the theories of Internal Family Systems, trauma-consciousness, and strengths-based talk therapy with clients and groups but I LOVE all of the practices that involve the body. When I was training in sound therapy I remember speaking with my teacher about what I envisioned – which didn’t feel clear to me at the time. I told her I would like to work with women in a supportive space and years later I am lucky enough to be a part of a dynamic community at EmBodied Physical Therapy, founded my Dr. Emily (a physical therapist and so much more). providing a mulititude of much needed services to the community.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I suppose the field I’m thinking of here is the one the poet Rumi refers to , “the one beyond right and wrong”. The field of retaining and reclaiming humanity, creativity, and authenticity in an ever-busy, fast, and modern world. I suppose the field I’m thinking of has to do with integrating my work of songwriting and healing, holding safe and brave space for others while also empowering them to use their authentic voice for co-creating a more just, beautiful, and peaceful world. I suppose my first album “a different kind of progress” was a way to write into existence, and then sing it:, the deep love and appreciation I’ve had for the poets, philosopher’s and artists who acted as witnesses of the natural world. lovers of it, and who enlivened and inspired my life with their art. I suppose my second album is a thank you letter to my ancestors and all care-givers who loved the world and cared for each other even in the bleakest of times, a grief song that is also a praise song. I suppose the work I do in the world now is a similar love letter of believing that when we slow down and take the time to listen deeply, to witness, to experience presence, to cultivate a love for ourself, the earth, the cosmos and our place in it – we make it a better place to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.songandsoundhealing.com
• Instagram: @songandsoundhealing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannonhawleymusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-hawley-mariani-15549b143/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shawleymusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/shannon-hawley-1
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57rOR3oFUeB0DJezumqFN8?si=ydF_tdsYTH2CcLEka0rMow

  https://shannonhawley.substack.com

Image Credits

Photos by Michael Louis of Driftwood & Dune Co.
Photos by Bailey Ann Card of Bailey Anne Photo