Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing over several decades as a way of working with trauma through the nervous system rather than exclusively through thought or narrative. Central to his approach is the understanding that the nervous system organises around unresolved stress and defensive responses and that, given the right conditions, it has a natural capacity to move through and complete those responses.

The Voo sound is a tool Levine uses to help create those conditions. It engages bodily processes such as breath, vibration, and attention, without relying on cognitive understanding.

What is the Voo Sound?

The Voo sound is a sustained, resonant vocalisation made on the exhale. It is often guided toward a lower tone, allowing the vibration to be felt through the chest and abdomen. The emphasis is less on producing a correct sound and more on noticing how the body responds to it.

But the Voo is not a fixed sound. It is a starting point. The pitch, tone, volume, duration, and quality of the sound can all be explored and varied. It might start low and stay low. It might shift. It might feel different on one day than another. Part of what makes it a practice rather than a technique is that it invites you to play with it and notice what different qualities of the sound produce in the body.

Someone might begin with a low, steady Vooooo and find that the sound naturally wants to rise in pitch, or soften, or shorten. Following those impulses is part of the practice. The body’s response to the sound is itself information.

How To Voo

1. Find a comfortable position, seated, standing, or lying down. Allow your feet to make contact with the floor if you can.

2. Take a natural breath in. Not a deep, performed breath, just whatever comes.

3. On the exhale, let a low Vooooo sound emerge. Let it be resonant rather than loud. Notice where in your body you feel the vibration.

4. When the exhale ends, let the breath return naturally. Don’t rush. Pause. Notice.

5. On the next exhale, experiment. Does the sound want to be lower? Higher? Shorter? Longer? Follow what arises rather than repeating the same sound mechanically.

6. After 2 or 3 rounds, stop. Sit quietly and notice what is present without trying to interpret or judge it.

The pause after the sound is as important as the sound itself. This is where the nervous system has the opportunity to respond.

Seeing the Voo in Practice

In this short clip, Peter Levine demonstrates the Voo sound and describes using it with a nurse who was overwhelmed by what she was witnessing during the pandemic. He moves slowly, staying with the sound and the pauses between, and keeps returning attention to what is happening in the body.

What the Voo Might Do

The Voo sound is sometimes described in simplified terms as a vagus nerve exercise that calms the nervous system. There is a physiological rationale behind that framing. Sustained vocalisation can influence autonomic regulation through breath and vocal vibration. At the same time, to reduce the Voo to a calming tool misses what Levine is actually teaching.

The effect of the Voo sound on any individual’s nervous system is not known in advance. It cannot be. Each person arrives with a different nervous system history, a different state in any given moment, and a different relationship to their body. The Voo sound does not impose a particular state. It creates an opportunity for the nervous system to respond in its own way.

That might look like settling. It might look like activation. It might bring unexpected emotion to the surface, or a sense of aliveness, or trembling, or tears. It might produce very little the first time and something noticeable the tenth. None of these responses are correct or incorrect. They are part of how the nervous system organises and expresses experience.

We cannot know what the Voo sound will do in any particular nervous system until we do it. That uncertainty is part of the practice.

Titration and Pendulation: Going Slowly with Intention

Two concepts from Somatic Experiencing are worth understanding here, especially in relation to trauma.

Titration means working in small amounts, like adding a drop at a time rather than the whole bottle. When using the Voo sound, this means not pushing through intensity, not doing more rounds just because more seems productive, and stopping when you notice something significant rather than continuing past it. Less, done carefully, is often more.

Pendulation describes the natural rhythm between activation and settling that a regulated nervous system moves through. You might notice the Voo brings something up, some tension, some emotion, some activation, and that afterward there is a natural return toward rest. This back and forth is healthy. The aim is to support the system’s capacity to move between different states.

When You Might Use the Voo

People use the Voo sound in SE sessions with a trained practitioner, as a personal practice, in moments of overwhelm, as part of a morning routine, or simply when they feel disconnected from their body and want a way back in.

It tends to be particularly useful when cognitive approaches feel out of reach, when the mind is flooded, frozen, or running too fast for reflection. The sound does not rely on the thinking mind. It engages the body through breath, vibration, and attention. At the same time, the context in which it is used matters. The nervous system does not regulate in isolation. It is shaped in relationship, and for many people, working alongside a practitioner or within a supportive environment can make a significant difference in how the experience unfolds.

At times when there is a lot happening, personally or in the wider world, practices like this can offer a simple way of staying in contact with the body when thinking alone does not settle things.

A Note on Safety

For most people, the Voo sound is gentle and accessible. Practices like this are often shared as things that can be done alone, but for some people, especially where there is a history of overwhelm or shutdown, working without guidance can make it harder to track what is happening or when to pause. Support does not need to be constant, but having access to it can change how the nervous system meets the experience.

For those working with significant trauma, it is worth moving slowly and, where possible, exploring it first with a trained SE practitioner who can support whatever arises.

If at any point the practice feels like too much, stop, open your eyes, look around the room, and let your attention rest on ordinary things. Orienting to the present environment is always available as a resource.