Joann Schermerhorn, certified sound practitioner

Joann Schermerhorn is an ISTA Certified Therapeutic Sound Practitioner and the founder of Carried Sound in Overland Park, Kansas. Before sound, she spent twenty years in Ayurveda, yoga, esthetics and spa work. Now she leads live sound baths for groups across the Kansas City metro.

Book a group sound bath See her training

(Voted class clown. Certified in calm. She contains multitudes.)

Joann Schermerhorn, founder of Carried Sound, smiling in Overland Park.

Goofy on the way in, quiet once the bowls begin

Joann has two speeds, and every session uses both.

Before the bowls

Stories, a few jokes and plenty of laughing while everyone gets settled. Joann was voted class clown, and she still believes the fastest way to help a room relax is to make it feel welcome.

Once the sound begins

The jokes go away and the spa voice comes out: calm, reverent and unhurried. From here on, the only thing asked of you is to rest.

On the way out

Maybe one small joke as everyone sits up, just to help the room come back gently. Never at anyone's expense, and always in service of feeling at ease.

How Joann works with a room

Comfort first, then quiet, then sound.

  • Read the room before playingBefore the first note, Joann watches how people settle: who fidgets, who looks unsure, how the space carries sound. Volume, pace and where the bowls sit all follow from that.
  • Start softer than you'd expectSessions open quietly with voice and breath, then build. Most people settle faster when nothing startles them.
  • No belief requiredThere's nothing to do right or wrong. You lie down and listen, and the language stays plain.
  • Small things done on purposeBlankets within reach before anyone asks, a clear welcome, and time at the end to sit up slowly.
Joann Schermerhorn smiling behind her crystal and bronze singing bowls.
Spa-trained

Twenty years of making people comfortable in a room.

The instruments

Quartz crystal bowls, hand-hammered bronze bowls, a gong and chimes, layered by hand in every session.

  • Crystal bowls. Clear, sustained tones, tuned to 432Hz, which many listeners find softer (why the bowls are tuned to 432Hz).
  • Bronze bowls. Warmer and more textured, with overtones that shimmer against the crystal.
  • Gong. Played low and slow to fill the room without getting loud.
  • Chimes. Used to open and close each section, so you always know where you are.

Joann usually begins with a single crystal bowl, then weaves in bronze underneath so the sound feels fuller rather than louder. Every instrument is played live, so no two sessions sound the same.

Joann Schermerhorn seated on the floor among bronze bowls, crystal bowls, chimes and a gong.

Training and credentials

Sound training certified by the International Sound Therapy Association, built on two decades of licensed and certified wellness work.

Every credential lists the school or board that issued it. Verify her ISTA practitioner listing and Yoga Alliance profile. Joann keeps her ISTA certification current with continuing education.

(Yes, that's a lot of certificates. She really likes learning things.)

  1. Sound Healing Arts Facilitator and Educator, 200 hoursThe Sound Medicine Academy (after the 100-hour Facilitator level, May 2025)
  2. Certified Therapeutic Sound PractitionerInternational Sound Therapy Association (ISTA)
  3. Natural Skincare FormulatorSchool of Natural Skincare; Joan Morais Cosmetics School
  4. Ayurveda Health CounselorKerala Ayurveda Academy
  5. Panchakarma TechnicianMaharani Ayurveda Academy
  6. Vodder Manual Lymphatic DrainageASTECC
  7. Holistic EstheticianThe Touch of Yin
  8. RYT-200, Registered Yoga TeacherYoga Alliance, Zen Den Yoga School
  9. Esthetician and Esthetics InstructorKansas State Board of Cosmetology
  10. HerbalistPrairie Wise Herbal School
  11. Permaculture Design CertificateRegenerative Design Institute

From permaculture to sound

Gardens, spas, Ayurveda and sound. The thread through all of it is care for how people feel in a space.

Joann grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, and spent her early twenties working in national parks. In 2004 she began managing spas in Atlanta, where she learned how much the details of a room shape how people rest.

In 2006 she trained in permaculture design in Bolinas, California, then came back to manage spas in Kansas City and traveled through Europe and the United States studying land-based living. She studied herbalism, earned her esthetics license in 2011, and added yoga, holistic esthetics and Vodder lymphatic drainage.

In 2020 she moved to Portland to work in an Ayurveda spa, then trained as an Ayurveda Health Counselor and Panchakarma Technician. Ayurveda shaped how she thinks about rest: people arrive carrying different kinds of energy, some wired and racing, some heavy and tired. The spa years taught her the practical side, that a room that's too bright, too cold or too rushed undoes a lot of good work.

She came home to Kansas City in 2023, and sound became the practice that brought it all together. She founded Carried Sound to bring live sound baths to groups across the metro, and she leads the Wednesday sound bath in Overland Park every week.

Let yourself be carried

Book a sound bath for your group, or meet Joann at a Wednesday session first.

(She'll tell you a story first. Then she'll stop talking, promise.)

Book a sound bath