How to use the binaural journey player for hypnotherapy
A binaural journey is a beat frequency that starts near where a client is when they arrive, descends gradually across the session, and then holds at the frequency the practitioner works at. It runs above your own playlist and continues through every track change.
The journey player is part of Mindspace, a sound wellbeing platform created by composer Rob Hulford at mindspace.music. It is built for practitioners running sessions of 45 minutes to 2.5 hours: hypnotherapists, massage therapists and reflexologists.
- Five journeys plus your own, each showing where it starts and where it settles
- Your own playlist underneath, built from the orb players
- Works with no connection, and across your devices
In summary: build a playlist, choose a journey, press play. The beat descends on its own and holds. Nothing needs touching during a session.
Binaural beats are widely searched and commonly associated in popular wellness culture with calm, focus and deep rest. Headphones are required: a binaural beat only exists when each ear hears its own tone — and Spatial Audio must be turned off, or there is no beat at all. The next section covers that.
Before anything else: turn off Spatial Audio
A binaural beat only exists when the left ear hears one tone and the right ear hears another. Anything that widens, blends or moves the stereo image mixes those two tones together, and the beat stops existing.
These will all do it:
- Spatial Audio on AirPods and most modern headphones
- Head tracking, which moves the image as the client moves
- Wide stereo, stereo widening or 3D audio on the headphones themselves
- Sound enhancement or surround modes in the operating system
On an iPhone or iPad
Play something, open Control Centre, press and hold the volume slider, and set Spatial Audio to Off. Not Fixed, not Head Tracked — Off.
On a Mac
Control Centre, click Sound, click your headphones, and switch Spatial Audio off.
On Android
Look for Spatial audio, Dolby Atmos, surround or any equaliser preset in the sound settings, and turn them off.
This is worth checking on the client's own headphones too if they bring their own. It is the single most common reason someone hears no effect at all.
What the journey does
Clients rarely arrive settled. Most are somewhere around 10 to 14 Hz when they sit down — alert, busy, still half in their day.
A journey starts the beat near where they are and brings it down over the session, arriving at the frequency your work calls for and holding there until the end.
- It descends gradually, not in steps you would notice
- It settles, then holds for the rest of the session
- It carries on through every track change — one continuous journey, whatever the music does underneath it
Binaural beats are widely searched and commonly associated in popular wellness culture with calm, focus and deep rest.
Headphones are not optional. A binaural beat only exists when each ear hears its own tone. Through a speaker there is no beat at all — just a quiet hum. Over-ear headphones are best; earbuds work.
Build the session playlist first
The journey runs above your music, and the music is a playlist you build yourself. Do this before your first client, not during.
- Open any orb player and make the sound you want — adjust the instruments, add nature sounds, set the levels.
- Save it with the heart. Give it a name you will recognise at a glance.
- Repeat until you have enough to fill a session. Each track runs about five minutes, so a 75-minute session needs around fifteen.
- Put them in a playlist from the heart menu, in the order you want them.
The playlist must be at least as long as the session. This is the one thing worth checking twice.
Tracks run about five minutes each. Ten tracks is fifty minutes, not an hour. If the music runs out before the session does, it stops — and the journey stops with it, ten minutes early, with a client still on the couch.
Two ways to be sure:
- Build enough tracks. A 60-minute session needs twelve or more; 75 minutes needs fifteen. Add one or two beyond what you think you need — running over costs nothing, running short ends the session.
- Or turn repeat on, so the playlist starts again rather than stopping. A client may notice a piece returning within the hour, but that is better than silence.
The journey keeps descending for the full session length you set, whatever the music does. Setting a 75-minute session with 50 minutes of music leaves the last 25 in silence.
Choosing a journey
Five to choose from, plus your own. Each button shows where it starts and where it settles, so you can pick without opening anything.
- Regular — 12 to 7.83 Hz. The default, and right for most sessions.
- Light session — 10 to 7.83 Hz. A shallower descent for clients who arrive fairly settled, or for shorter work.
- Held at 7.83 — no descent. Sits at one frequency throughout, for when you want nothing changing.
- Deeper — 8 to 6.5 Hz. Starts lower and goes further, for clients who settle quickly.
- Emergence — 12 down to 7, then back up to 12 over the final minute. For sessions where you bring the client back at the end.
- Custom — your own start, finish and timing.
Emergence is the one worth knowing about. Hypnotherapy is the only discipline that formally brings a client back. Every other journey leaves them settled, which works against that final step.
Shape, and how long the descent takes
Three shapes, on the toggle above the graph.
- Curve — the default. Leaves the start gently, moves through the middle, eases into the hold. Nothing a client would notice.
- Glide — a straight descent. Slightly more apparent where it flattens out.
- Step — holds at each level, then moves. Use it if you want distinct stages rather than a continuous change.
Under Custom there is Settles at — when the descent finishes and the hold begins. On a 75-minute session, settling at around 40 minutes leaves half the session at the working frequency.
The graph shows all of it. Where you are now, where it settles, and how far there is to go. Tapping a journey runs a light down its path so you can see the shape before choosing.
Carrier and level
Two sliders that change how the beat sounds rather than where it goes. Both can be moved mid-session.
Carrier
The pitch the beat rides on. It shows the nearest musical note beside the frequency — 196 Hz is G3, 220 Hz is A3.
Follow key tunes it automatically to whatever is playing, so the beat sits inside the music rather than beside it. It changes during the track handover, where you will not hear it move.
Transpose allows the octave above A3. Off, the carrier tops out at 220 Hz, which sits under ambient music. On, it can reach 440 Hz — higher and more present.
Beat level
How loud the beat is against the music. 80% is a good starting point. It should be felt more than heard — if a client mentions it, it is too loud.
It steps back at each track change on its own. The music is thinnest at the join and a steady tone stands out, so the beat drops for a few seconds and comes back up. Nothing to set.
Running a session
- Choose the playlist from the picker, and check it is long enough for the session. Ten tracks is fifty minutes.
- Choose the journey and set the session length.
- Headphones on the client.
- Press play. Music and beat start together.
From there, nothing needs touching. The frequency reading sits on the orb, the clock counts up, and the graph shows where you are.
If you need to pause
Pause holds the journey where it is. Press play and it continues from that frequency — it does not go back to the beginning. A break mid-session costs you nothing.
The journey locks once playing. The journey buttons dim during a session — a journey is a shape across a whole session and cannot honestly be changed halfway through. Stop the session to choose a different one.
Dimming the screen
The bulb at the foot of the player opens a brightness slider. Drag it down and the whole screen dims — never to black, so you can always find pause.
Working without a connection
Treatment rooms are often the worst place in a building for signal. There is a separate page that plays your saved music with no connection at all.
mindspace.music/apps/mindspace/offline-journey.html
Before the day starts
- Save your music while you have a connection. Each row has a download arrow, or use Save all for offline listening to do a whole playlist at once.
- Open the offline page once, still connected. You need not play anything — opening it is what lets the device remember it.
- Add it to your home screen if you like. On an iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen. Optional, but it makes things noticeably more reliable.
The page tells you which situation you are in. Connected, you can still download. With no connection, the download arrows disappear — tapping one could only fail — and anything with a green tick plays as normal.
On iPhone, saved music can be cleared if you have not opened Mindspace for about a week. A quick visit with signal, any time before a session, keeps it in place. Worth checking the night before rather than assuming.
More than one device
Your playlists, favourites and mixes follow you. Build a session on a laptop and it is on the treatment-room tablet a few seconds later. Sign in and give it a moment.
Downloaded music does not. Those files live on the device you saved them on. Whichever device you run sessions from is the one to download on.
Blending is a desktop capability. On a laptop you can overlap one track into the next. On a phone it is unavailable — holding two tracks in memory at once is more than a phone will take. The ordinary handover is about two seconds and unobtrusive.
If something is not right
No beat at all
Almost always headphones. A binaural beat needs each ear to hear its own tone, so through a speaker there is nothing to hear. Check the beat level is not at zero.
Everything looks empty after clearing your browser data
Nothing is lost, but the order matters. Sign in first — signed out, the site cannot tell who you are and your collection looks empty. Your playlists come back on their own. Your downloaded music does not — tap the download arrows again.
The music stopped but the beat carried on, or the other way round
Reload the page. They start together and stop together; if they disagree, a refresh settles it.
An old playlist reappeared
This settles by itself. After clearing your data your device is treated as new, so its contents are added to your collection rather than replacing it — which protects you when signing in on a new phone. Open the page again a moment later.
The rest of the player
This page covers the journey. Everything else — building mixes, the sleep timer, nature sounds, coloured noise, saving and organising — is in the main guide.
Why this works the way it does
The questions practitioners actually ask, rather than a list of features.
Why do I need a journey player at all? Can I not just play music?
You can, and many practitioners do. The difference is that a journey changes the beat frequency across the session rather than holding one the whole way through. A client who arrives alert is met near where they are, and brought down gradually to the frequency you work at. Playing a fixed frequency to someone who is wired asks them to jump rather than travel.
Why build a session playlist first, rather than picking tracks as I go?
Because you will be working, not operating a music player. A playlist runs for the whole session without you touching anything, in an order you chose while you had time to think about it. Each track runs about five minutes, so a 75-minute session needs around fifteen. It must also be at least as long as the session: with repeat off the music stops when the last track ends, and the journey stops with it.
Why does the playlist need to be as long as the session? Will it not just repeat?
Only if repeat is turned on. With repeat off the music stops when the last track ends, and the journey stops with it — so a 75-minute session with 50 minutes of music ends 25 minutes early, with a client still on the couch. Tracks run about five minutes, so ten tracks is fifty minutes, not an hour. Either build enough tracks with one or two to spare, or turn repeat on.
Why does the choice of journey matter? Should I not just use the default?
Regular suits most sessions and is a reasonable default. The others exist for cases where it is wrong: a client who arrives fairly settled does not need a descent from 12 Hz, and a session where you formally bring someone back at the end needs a journey that comes back up. Each button shows its range, so the choice takes a second.
Why should I care about the shape of the descent, or when it settles?
The shape decides whether the change is noticeable. A curve leaves the start gently and eases into the hold, which is what you want during hypnotherapy — nothing that draws attention to itself. When it settles decides how much of the session is spent at the working frequency rather than travelling towards it.
Why does the carrier matter? Is one pitch not much like another?
The carrier is the pitch the beat rides on, and it sits underneath your music for the whole session. A carrier that clashes with the key of what is playing is quietly irritating over an hour. Follow key tunes it automatically, so the beat sits inside the music rather than beside it.
Why does the beat level need setting? Should it not just be audible?
A binaural beat works better felt than heard. If a client comments on it, it is too loud and has become something to listen to rather than something to settle into. Around 80 percent is a sensible starting point, and it steps back at each track change on its own.
Why does any of this need setting up before a session rather than during?
Because a client is in the room. Everything that defines the journey is chosen before you press play, and the journey buttons lock once it is running — a journey is a shape across a whole session and cannot honestly be changed halfway through. Once playing, nothing needs touching.
Why worry about working without a connection?
Treatment rooms are often the worst place in a building for signal, and a session that stops halfway through is worse than one that never started. Saving the music and opening the offline page once, while connected, removes the risk entirely.
Why does it matter which device I use? Does everything not just follow me?
Your playlists, favourites and mixes do follow you — build a session on a laptop and it is on the treatment-room tablet moments later. Downloaded music does not: those files live on the device you saved them on. Whichever device you run sessions from is the one to download on.
Why must Spatial Audio be turned off?
A binaural beat only exists when the left ear hears one tone and the right ear hears another. Spatial Audio, head tracking, wide stereo and surround modes all mix those two tones together, and the beat stops existing. It is the single most common reason someone hears no effect at all.
Why do clients need headphones? Will a speaker not do?
No. Through a speaker both ears hear both tones, so there is no beat — just a quiet hum. Over-ear headphones are best; earbuds work.
What if something is not right during a session?
Reload the page: the music and the beat start together and stop together, and a refresh settles any disagreement. If you need help, contact Mindspace at mindspace.music and describe what you were doing when it happened.