Most articles comparing private sessions to group sound baths are written by people who only sell one of them. The conclusion is decided before the first paragraph.
Julia Klykova runs both. She facilitates open group sound baths in studios across Mexico City throughout the month, and private one-to-one sessions at clients' homes and at the studio in the city centre. So the honest answer is that they are different tools, and which one you should book depends on where you are right now.
Here is the framework.
The Practical Differences
Group sound bath. Lower price point. No commitment beyond showing up. A room full of people doing the same thing. Dates change month to month, so you message for the current schedule. The session is designed for the room rather than for you specifically.
Private session. From $120 USD for private sound healing or a private somatic session, from $150 USD for the Sadhu Board Experience. In person at your home anywhere in Mexico City, with Julia bringing every instrument, or at the studio. Built around one nervous system in real time, with intake and intention setting before, and grounding, integration and aftercare reflection afterwards.
Start With a Group Sound Bath If
You have never done this before and want to find out what it is. A group session is the easiest way to experience this work before booking privately. You lie down, the sound happens, and you leave knowing whether it lands for you.
Price is the deciding factor right now. A group sound bath costs meaningfully less than a private session. Trying the work at a lower price point before committing to a private container is a reasonable sequence, not a compromise.
Being in a room with other people helps you settle. For some people the presence of others makes it easier to let go. Nobody is watching you, and there is no expectation to speak.
You want a regular practice rather than a specific piece of work. If what you want is a monthly reset, the group format supports that well.
Book a Private Session If
You have something specific you are working with. A group session cannot be built around one person's intention. A private session starts with intake and intention setting, and the whole thing is shaped from there.
You are stuck in a pattern you can see but cannot shift. This is what the private somatic session exists for. Julia actively guides you into the body and through what is stuck, rather than letting the instruments do the moving. It is the deepest individual container offered.
You want the pace under your control. In a private session, if something surfaces, the session responds. Julia reads what is actually happening in your body and builds from there in real time. There is no fixed playlist and no standard sequence. In a group, the sequence has to serve the room.
You want bowl-on-body vibration work. Optional in a private sound healing session, and not possible in a full room.
You want it at home. Julia carries the bowls, chimes and full setup to your home, so you release in a place your body already trusts and do not have to drive across Mexico City afterwards still half inside the experience.
You want to work with fear directly. The Sadhu Board Experience is fully guided breath by breath and sensation by sensation, then integrated with sound. That level of facilitation requires one-to-one attention.
Language matters. Sessions are available in English, Spanish and Russian.
The Assumption Worth Testing
The most common reason people skip the private session is that they have already been to group sound baths and assume a private one is the same thing with fewer people in the room.
One client came in with exactly that assumption:
"I've attended many group sound baths and didn't think a private session would be that different. It exceeded every expectation. Being surrounded by sound is a completely other experience. The whole day after, I felt recharged in a way that almost never happens." Private sound healing session
The difference is not the headcount. It is that the instruments are moving around your body specifically, and that the session is being built in response to what your nervous system is doing.
A Reasonable Sequence
For most people new to this work, the path looks like this:
- Attend an open group sound bath. Lower price, no commitment. Find out whether the work lands for you at all.
- If it lands, book a private session. Bring the specific thing you want to work with. This is where the real shift tends to happen.
- Decide from there. Some people come once for a reset and that is exactly right. Others work with Julia over months. Discounts are available on three sessions or more.
There is no rule that says you must start with a group. If you already know what you want to work with, go straight to the private session.
What Applies to Both
- All work is in person within Mexico City. There are no online sessions.
- Julia is a certified transformational facilitator, sound therapist and Sadhu board practitioner with over 15 years of practice in yoga, breathwork, somatic and embodiment work, and has guided 100 or more clients.
- Facilitation is trauma-informed in either format. No forced catharsis, no pushing anyone past a boundary.
- This is not therapy. It is somatic and sound-based facilitation that works alongside therapy rather than replacing it, and many clients do both.
- If you are dealing with something difficult right now, say so before booking either format, so you can confirm together that this is the right support at this moment.
Ask Which One Fits
If you are not sure which to book, describe where you are in a sentence and Julia will tell you honestly, including if the answer is the group session.
Message Julia on WhatsApp at +52 55 3971 9870 or email july.picture@gmail.com. Ask for the current group sound bath schedule, or to shape a private session around what you are carrying.