Tinnitus
Tinnitus Counselling / Coaching
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Tinnitus Management
Custom - made White Noise Generators (maskers)
Digital White / Pink Noise Generators (maskers)
Pink noise CD's (Hyperacusis Management)
Customised Sleep and Meditation CD's
Support / Relaxation CD's
NEW Referrals for Tinnitus and Hyperacusis management programs are only accepted from ENT consultants.
If you have had a previous ENT consultation and already wear maskers
(or may have rejected maskers in the past) I may be able to help you with more comfortable options and other helpful products.
Services Available
- Custom made, open fitting, analogue and digital white noise generators.
- Personalised Sound Therapy Sleep CD’s.
- Tinnitus counselling / coaching.
- Custom made hearing Protection.
Tinnitus
Tinnitus is the name given to the condition of noises heard ‘in the ears’
and / or ‘in the head’ with no external source.
Tinnitus symptoms involve hearing sounds within the head or ears. These sounds can vary from very low frequency rumbling noises to very high pitched whistling sounds, hissing, banging, roaring, screeching, pure tones, musical tunes or even sounds that can seem difficult to describe. Sounds can be persistent or come and go and can change in type of sound, number of sounds and loudness.
It is thought that tinnitus is a result of changes in the auditory system that leads to altered activity of the neurons in the auditory system. This change in neural activity is interpreted by the auditory cortex as sound.
Tinnitus can be experienced in association with hearing loss, normal hearing (no measurable hearing loss), exposure to loud sounds, some medications,
emotional stress, depression, ear or head injuries.
People with tinnitus may also experience an increase in sensitivity to every day sounds, this is called hyperacusis.
Tinnitus may also be experienced in association with some other
treatable medical conditions. It is therefore, essential to have a
consultation with an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Consultant to identify
any treatable conditions BEFORE starting any tinnitus management program.
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Our brains are continuously bombarded with thousands of bits of sensory information from all of our senses all day and night. If we paid conscious attention to all of these bits of information we would be completely overwhelmed.
Our hearing system accommodates for this and contains many complex filtering systems, allowing us to tune into certain sounds and filter out other sounds.
We also give 'meaning' to the sounds that we hear. Our name being called, the sound of a baby crying, a creaking floorboard in the middle of the night would be given a high priority in terms of our filtering system.
Whereas, the continual humming of a computer fan would be filtered out 'automatically and unconsciously and in most cases, more easily ignored.
There are many neural connections between the auditory system
(hearing system) part of the brain and parts of the brain that are involved with emotional reactions. Research suggests that tinnitus involves not only the
auditory system but parts of the brain involved in emotional reaction.
Tinnitus can cause a great deal of stress and distress and people often find when they are under stress that their tinnitus is more bothersome.
For this reason, stress management and relaxation are an important part of an effective tinnitus management program.
Tinnitus Counselling / Coaching Services
I offer a holistic counselling approach for the management of tinnitus.
I use a combination of the following approaches;
(NBM) 'Neurophysiologically Based Management' explanation of Tinnitus
This is a model that was derived from and has evolved as a shortened version of the very well known model of tinnitus management created by Powell Jastrebroff -
The Neurophysiological Model of Tinnitus' and method of therapy called -
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)
Cognitive behavioural Therapy for Tinnitus Management
Counselling / Coaching Approach
Hypnotherapy (in between session support relaxation CD's)
Sound therapies (maskers / Sleep and Meditation customised CD's)
I use a cognitive behavioural therapy approach for tinnitus management combined with coaching and in between session support,
Hypnotherapy CD's.
Sessions cover a range of subjects to include, Tinnitus Explanation, Relaxation Exercises, Mindfulness skills, Acceptance, Sleep management and
‘thinking style’ awareness through a Cognitive Behavioural approach.
Using a cognitive behavioural / coaching approach to managing tinnitus involves managing the negative feelings and thoughts around tinnitus -
your reaction to your tinnitus.
A coaching approach can assist you in committing yourself towards creating and living a life that is satisfying and fulfilling along side your tinnitus.
How can hearing aids help me with my tinnitus?
Hearing aids may help you with your tinnitus but in some cases may not provide relief.
Hearing aids would only be recommended if you also have a hearing loss.
A hearing loss will cause you to be deprived of outside sounds and this may make your tinnitus more noticeable. Hearing aids, by providing more sound stimulation to the auditory system, reduce the contrast between the tinnitus and quiet environment (due to the hearing loss) which can, in some cases help to make the tinnitus less noticeable.
By wearing properly fitted, good quality hearing aids you will have a greater
chance of hearing speech and everyday environmental sounds easier. These amplified sounds can cause an increase in the neural activity and may interfere
with the detection of tinnitus so that the tinnitus may not be as prominent any
more.
In the shorter term, amplification of environmental sounds and speech can provide a ‘partial masking effect’ of the tinnitus giving some relief.
In the longer term, for some people, hearing aid use may help reduce their overall tinnitus 
awareness.
For others, there may not be any reduction in the perception of loudness of their tinnitus but their negative emotional reaction may still be decreased.
This is still a good outcome.
One of the commonly accepted theories regarding the cause of tinnitus is that a lack of input of quiet sounds to the auditory system due to hearing loss can cause the central auditory system to increase it's gain to accomodate for this loss. Hearing aids replace those quieter levels of sounds so the system does not need to increase it's gain and tinnitus can become quieter.
Sometimes, tinnitus is blamed for the ‘perception’ of not hearing speech clearly, adding to the negative feelings towards tinnitus. This is often a ‘misperception’ as the real cause of the difficulty in hearing may be caused by an actual hearing loss rather than the tinnitus itself.
The presence of tinnitus can negatively affect your ability to concentrate giving the impression that it is affecting your ability to hear speech. Hearing aids can
increase speech perception relieving frustration and isolation.
Hearing aids may help to reduce fatigue and stress associated with hearing loss and communication difficulties. When you are hearing with greater ease you can more confidently get on with your life and so less attention will be being paid to your hearing loss and tinnitus difficulties.
SOUND THERAPY FOR TINNITUS
Tinnitus is often reported to be more intrusive in a quiet environment,
for example, when reading in the quiet or trying to fall asleep in a quiet room at night.
Sound therapy, reduces the difference between your tinnitus and the quiet environment, helping to make your tinnitus less intrusive.
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How can a ‘white noise generator’ (masker) help me with my
tinnitus?
White noise generators look like hearing aids but instead of amplifying sounds they emit a broad band ‘white noise’.
The rationale behind this therapy for tinnitus is that in providing more sound stimulation to the auditory system, this can, in some cases, help reduce the perception of tinnitus.
As stated previously, one of the commonly accepted theories regarding the cause of tinnitus is that a lack of input of quiet sounds to the auditory system due to hearing loss can cause the central auditory system to increase it's gain to accomodate for this loss. White noise (wide - band noise) replaces some of the sounds not being heard and the brain turns it's sensitivity back down which can lead to a reduction in tinnitus awareness.
Sometimes noise generators can offer some immediate relief allowing you some control of the tinnitus symptoms.
If the sound therapy helps to make the tinnitus less noticeable it may help you
pay less attention to it and help you to be less bothered by it.
The aim is NOT to ‘mask’ the tinnitus completely but to ‘interfere with the
detection of the tinnitus neural activity.
Why Digital Technology?
White noise, by its very definition, means equal amounts of all frequencies in the entire frequency spectrum, and while a person with tinnitus and a mild hearing loss may not necessarily need or want a hearing aid, they do hear and interpret white noise differently to people with perfect hearing.
As white noise is intended to stimulate all receptors within the ear, this hearing discrepancy may have a significant bearing on how quickly and effectively the person responds to the sound therapy.
Digital white noise generators are fully programmable and allow output to be
tailored so that the white noise is heard as intended, therefore, making the device more effective.
Customised Sound Therapy CD's
Every audio frequency can be neutralised by its counter frequency.
This can also apply to some tinnitus experiences.
A Swiss company called DisMark, carried out research into music and sounds which help to mask tinnitus.
The research involved, music specialists, behavioural researchers, (ENT)
Ear, Nose and Throat consultants and hearing aid acousticians.
They evaluated all of the frequencies that mask tinnitus noises and produced specialised, customised CD's to help aid sleep and relaxation.
The music compositions on these CD's are individually customised to
your specific tinnitus frequencies.
In some cases, personal testing can help to identify your specific tinnitus sounds.
Each person receives a personalised audio CD - precisely formulated with the
goal in mind of helping to neutralise your tinnitus noises.
Clinical trials show that after 30 minutes of use there can be a positive effect on the perception of tinnitus noises.
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