About Shulamit Elson

I spent years inside the world that rewards achievement, speed, and success. I earned a master’s degree from New York University and built a successful corporate career, including at a Wall Street investment bank. Then, at forty, something happened that changed the direction of my life, and I left to follow it. What I teach comes from having lived on both sides of that choice.

Where I come from

From an early age I felt a deep yearning for meaning. That search intensified in my twenties, after a life-threatening kidney illness. I carried those questions with me into a demanding professional life. My background growing up in a modern Orthodox Jewish home and my early schooling gave a framework to my search.

The turning point

At forty, while working at a Wall Street investment bank, I began to receive specific vocal sounds during meditation. They were unlike anything I had encountered, yet they carried a resonance I could not ignore. Eventually I left my corporate life to follow them.

Eventually, I encountered the writings of the Zohar and 13th-century mystic R. Joseph Gikatilla, who described a system of vowel sounds aligned to ascending states of consciousness. It matched the sounds that had come to me in my own practice.

What I built from it

Out of that experience I created MediSounds®, a guided, voice-based method for settling the mind and bringing clarity. It is active: you use your own voice, rather than listening to bowls or gongs. It requires no belief and no musical ability, only sincere attention.

SoulSongs® is the deeper work. It is a one-year, one-on-one porgram that combines sacred sound, self-observation, and spiritual inquiry. Its aim is practical: to build clarity and emotional steadiness, and to let what you discover inwardly shape how you make decisions, treat others, and discharge your responsibilities. Learn more about the SoulSongs School.

How grounded the work is

This is a discipline, not a belief system. It asks for daily practice, honest observation of how you actually think and act, and a willingness to test what you find against your own experience.. You do not need to accept any of it on faith. It is non-denominational and requires no doctrine.

Thirty years of teaching

For more than thirty years I have shared this work internationally: in England, Spain, India, Singapore, and the Holy Land; in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol; at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; at Omega and Esalen; and with communities facing deep hardship, including parents of children with cancer and AIDS patients in Mexico City.

“Shulamit is one of the foremost practitioners of sound-voice therapy in the world today… her compassion is as deep as her skill.” — Mitchell Gaynor, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

What has sustained me

Faith and love sustain me. So do the sounds and the self-observation practices, the tools of my growth. Meditative in nature, these practices have carried me from confusion to simplicity and from aimlessness to purpose. They also held me through profound loss, including the death of my daughter, an experience that shapes the depth and gentleness of my teaching.

Who this work is for

This work is for people who feel the weight of a changing world: those whose decisions help shape it, and those living with its effects. Some are troubled by their own part in it. Others are simply trying to stay steady and figure a way through. Whatever your role, and whatever you believe, you are welcome if you are willing to commit to the work.

An invitation

If this speaks to you, please get in touch. We can begin with a conversation about what draws you to this work and whether it feels right for you.

To inquire: shulamitelson@gmail.com

My essays, which explore these questions in more depth, are at greatoctave.substack.com. You can also find my work on YouTube, on the Books & CDs page, and read what others have said on the Praise page.

This work is not a substitute for medical or psychological care. Please seek appropriate professional support when needed.