Sound Healing A recent Tuesday at 12:21 p.m.: Tears rolled from Elisabeth Lhoest's eyes when Sharon Pucci cupped her hands together and trumpeted loud vocal tones into her back. Lhoest, one of Pucci's voice students, had pain in her back and feet from the stresses of work and child rearing. She came to Pucci's home music studio for sound healing. Others around the world use similar techniques with different instruments, such as tuning forks or the didgeridoo. Pucci uses her voice like a "focused laser" because its the best tool she has for the job. In her head, she hears sounds from unexplained origins, she described, much like a composer hears a melody for a yet-to-be written song. She then replicates that tone, projecting it into an ailing body part. "It's really hard to explain this because there is no language for it. In a way, it's magic. All I know is that it works," Pucci said. "Sometimes people cry because it allows them to release something they were holding on to." There are schools for sound healing, but Pucci never went to one. Aside from reading books and taking a few workshops on the subject, she has been on a self-taught journey for 30 years. She makes a living as a voice instructor and doesn't advertise herself as a sound healer. In fact, she only practices sound healing on her students and others who are close to her. "It is so special to me that I don't want it to become to become commercialized," said Pucci, holding back tears sparked by that thought. "It's like this magic I do that I'm very careful about.   To see a multimedia production of this piece, go to sfgate.com/cityexposed.If you have ideas for the City Exposed, e-mail Mike Kepka at mkepka@sfchronicle.com. ” - Mike Kepka

San Francisco Chronicle

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