Sound Therapy Capstone: 8

Tomatis Sound Training:

One of the key figures in the development of sound therapy and psychoacoustics was Dr. Alfred Tomatis (1920-2001).  He began his practice as an ear, nose, and throat doctor and saw a lot of patients who were opera singers. After attempts to treat them traditionally, he discovered that a key reason for why they were having a difficult time with their voice was due to problems with their hearing.  He developed his own signature method for treating all kinds of issues, from schizophrenia to autism.  While learning how to treat all of these issues, he developed his own set of laws, known as the Three Laws of Tomatis:

1. The voice only contains that which the ear can hear.

2. When lost or compromised frequencies are heard correctly, they are instantly and unconsciously restored to the voice.

3. Sufficient auditory stimulation leads to lasting improvement in listening and speaking abilities.

Sourced from: http://www.lifeskills.us/auditory/tomatis/three-laws-of-dr-tomatis

Tomatis developed a device called the Electronic Ear, which contained the ability to retrain the crucial muscles in the middle ear. The Electronic Ear used a technique known as "gating" which switched between amplifying low and high frequencies to the patient.  Switching between the two drastically different frequency ranges allowed the ear to stretch, and relax different muscles throughout a session.

Short biography on Tomatis: http://listenwell.com/English/Articles/Biography.htm

Last, to demonstrate how Alfred Tomatis' work is being used in the modern age, here is a video of a Tomatis method based clinic in Pennsylvania describing their practice:






Outsider response to Session 4 audio:

I had started to notice similar reactions to the audio between me and the patient.  While we had different types of emotional responses, what we experienced in common was the type of intensity. I will explain this in more detail.

After listening to this piece of audio, he told me (and I certainly noticed) that he was breathing heavily and that his heart rate increased.  In addition to that, he described his feet as feeling tight, accompanied by a distinct tingling sensation.  He imagined that he was constantly falling down a staircase, pulled back up to the top, and falling again.  Similarly, he described it as spiraling up and down, out of control.
I asked him if there was one particular feeling that rung out throughout the listening experience and he told me "worry". By this point I was beginning to wonder why the past few audio tracks had brought out emotions in him that would conventionally be thought of as negative.  Perhaps the binaural beats where actually helping to heal something inside of him and what I was witnessing was the real grit coming out?

What I meant by experiencing the same type of intensity is demonstrated in his response as constantly feeling as if his body was going up and down.  I described this "up and down" feeling as one of becoming balanced, though I did not feel out of control, as he did.  I suppose this is what I meant by the type of intensity.