By BHA member, Shelley London.
Recently in one of our classes we were talking about tinnitus and hearing loss, and Shelley said she had read a book and had some success with a music programme called Sound Therapy. She agreed to write an article for us…
Sound Therapy was pioneered in the 1950’s by Dr Alfred A Tomatis (an ENT specialist and inventor — see wikipedia.org for more info). He used sound to enhance auditory pathways and improve brain function. This new field of treatment brought promising hope for those with chronic ear problems, tinnitus, fatigue, insomnia and learning difficulties. It may also help children with autism or ADHD.
Recent discoveries about brain plasticity have thrown new light on the mechanism of Sound Therapy and how it may work to restore neural function in so many areas.
Sound Therapy is a programme of specially filtered music of differing frequencies, in which the low frequencies are gradually filtered out and higher and higher frequencies are gradually introduced to stimulate the functioning of the ear muscles.
It is purported to work by:
1. Auditory remapping, by way of brain plasticity
2. Exercising the middle ear, hammer and stirrup muscles
3. Stimulating the cilia
4. Psychological opening
The special programme needs to be introduced gradually and the user needs to listen to the music through headphones for about 3 hours a day.
The current programme of music comes built in to a set of headphones which can be ordered online. The user can progress from the introductory programme to a more advanced one.
The music is classical and pleasant to listen to.
While not everyone benefits from Sound Therapy, there are many testimonials from those for whom it has worked wonders.
Those with “cocktail” party deafness or mild hearing loss often benefit. It is also very helpful for those with tinnitus (I, personally, no longer have tinnitus) and some neurological conditions such as epilepsy, among others.
Oliver Sachs once said:
Music has the ability to move those who can’t walk to dance, those who can’t speak to sing and those who can’t remember to remember.
This quote certainly applies to Sound Therapy.
For further information you can go to: mysoundtherapy.com
Or the book :
Sound Therapy – Music to Recharge your Brain by
Patricia Joudry and Rafaele Joudry