Rachel Dugas
Sound Healer * Vocalist * Multi-Instrumentalist * Dancer * Writer * Teacher
Meet Rachel
Founder of Raychill Vibe, Rachel Dugas is a sound meditation practitioner, vocalist & multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and plant medicine educator. Her mission is to provide relief and musical inspiration through the practice and education of the yoga of sound, voice, and music.
She offers sound healing workshops, Yoga of the Voice classes, private sound baths and musical performances, guided psychedelic journeys, and co-leads chanting & drumming circles with her group Kirtan Beats. Rachel’s workshops empower individuals to “find their vibe,” transform their consciousness, and heal from stress, grief, addiction and depression through the vibrational power of sound, occasionally with a little help from plants, herbs, and mushrooms.
Rachel received a certificate in “Sound, Voice & Music Healing” at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2017. She is a teacher on Insight Timer and has appeared at yoga & meditation studios throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and London. She provided sound healing for residents and therapists at addiction treatment center Beit T’Shuvah in Los Angeles. In the past five years she has led private plant medicine journeys for hundreds of people, and partnered with cannabis companies Flow Kana, Kikoko, and HelloMD for private events.
Sound, Voice & Music Healing
The year-long “Sound, Voice & Music Healing” program Rachel attended was designed by voice teacher and sound healing pioneer Silvia Nakkach. It featured world-renowned masters in different music and sound healing techniques including Glen Valez, .Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and Christine Stevens, among many others. After completing the program, Rachel continued to study Yoga of the Voice with Silvia Nakkach, traveling with her to India to study ragas and Dhrupad singing with master guruji Uday Bhawalkar, who she still studies under today.
Rachel’s roots are in classical music and dance as she grew up playing piano at the Boston Conservatory of Music and dancing ballet, tap, and jazz at Paulette's Ballet Studio in Massachusetts. Through high school she studied classical piano, drums, voice, and guitar with private teachers. As an undergrad at New York University, Rachel was both a pre-med and fine arts student, taking organic chemistry classes by day and dancing in experimental art salons with Fischerspooner and The Citizens Band by night. She studied and performed hip-hop dance at PMT Dance Studio, modern and West African dance at NYU, and performed regularly with The Stanley Love Performance Group.
Rachel has a BFA from New York University, an MBA from Baruch College, and a certificate in Sound, Voice & Music in the Healing Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Featured in DoubleBlind magazine
“All music can be healing,” says sound healing practitioner Rachel Dugas, who studied her craft through the Sound, Voice, and Music in the Healing Arts Program at California Institute Of Integral Studies. “But in my experience, the live sound experience offers the listener a more direct, visceral experience.”
A classically trained musician, Dugas has found that playing single instruments rich with overtones leave more room for the listener to go inward. “Overtone-heavy instruments and singing can literally vibrate the body into a relaxed state by activating the body’s relaxation response,” she says.
Be Like the Mockingbird
Rachel was introduced to yogi Karl Erb in 2012, when he was already sick with cancer. In the last few months of Karl’s life, she would meet him weekly to jam, playing drums while he sang and played songs on guitar. Karl would come to meet Rachel straight from his chemo sessions, barely able to see, but determined to play. One time he told her that the hours they spent in the rehearsal space were the only times he didn’t feel sick.
Karl began to write more music and introduced Rachel to the practice of kirtan and chanting, teaching her the Ganesha chant in his SF apartment. In his personal healing songs, Karl’s lyrics “called down the dragons” of chemo and invited us to “be like the mocking bird, know every song is your own.” In the days before he passed, as Rachel sang to Karl on his hospital bed, she knew that there was nothing more important in the world than a life devoted to creating and sharing music.
Testimonials
“I have been lucky enough to experience sound healing with Rachel as my guide. As a cancer thriver, I am always looking for ways to relax, de-stress, and gain new perspectives on the life experience. Rachel soothed my soul and embraced me through a calming combination of tuning forks and chimes. She carved out a moment of time where I felt simultaneously at peace in the world and invigorated with life. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to anyone in search of healing.”
-Bridget W. (Google Review)
“Rachel is an artist in many ways, artist, musician, singer and healer. Her soundbaths are magical and everyone session has brought myself and my guests a serenity that lasted the night and into our dreams. I highly recommend Raychill as that special person, she is a treasure and a special human being. “
-Ophelia Chong (Google Review)
“Mind melting experience. Let all your stress and worries go away and let the sound take you on a lazy river ride beyond your day to day thoughts and into a calming space. Anxiety, daily tasks can melt away as you sink into Ray's music and float with it in air. I love working with Ray and recommend her to many people! She is great one on one and at events (I've worked with her on work and personal events such as retreats, birthdays and wrapping out a big project)! Her personality is so present and fun but not overwhelming. I love Raychill Vibe!!!”
Shannon Riley (Google Review)
“You’ll be shaken by more than the vibrations Raychill Vibe brings to your life. I was amazed at how much of an impact our virtual session had. I have experienced many health challenges and few have helped my leg pain like this. I wish we could have sessions all the time! I’ve also experienced a group event setting in-person and the connection is that much stronger. Raychill Vibe is super gifted and you’ll be thrilled with your ethereal experience - I believe it!”
Jamie London Wollberg (Google Review)
“Excellent guidance through a self-soothing activation of voice and breath. These are great tools for anyone, anywhere, and Rachel's training and skill coupled with her warm and calm vibe make for a great and thorough experience.”
Adam Dugas (Google Review)
“Rachel’s sound baths are very powerful. Not only do they put me into an instant relaxed state, they also help me to get ‘in tune’ with myself. I love how the vibrations of her instruments fall over me like waves, but it’s her voice that truly sends soothing jolts through my body. I always walk away in bliss.”
- Elisenda P
"Had an amazing human experience today. You know the kind that just reminds you why you love being alive. After a swim... I saw a beautiful girl by the water play her ukulele and she sang... oh she had the sweetest voice. I listened to every word in her song with chills and experienced a happiness like no other. It was amazing. And we all became silent to hear the beautiful girl sing by the water. "
-Tania S
"The CannaCosmic journey took me way far out, into the great infinite space of love and creation, and integrated more sounds and instruments than I've ever seen at one singular event. Rachel and Jeremy offer a naturally powerful healing experience and I look forward to their future collaborations, and our continued space travel."
-Crystal F