How can a hearing therapist help me?

If your quality of life is affected by tinnitus and you have had tests to rule out possible medical causes, the next step may be referral to a hearing therapist. A hearing therapist is trained in the effects of tinnitus and how best to manage them.

A hearing therapist can offer support and advice to people in a range of areas like tinnitus and hearing loss. For people with hearing loss, they can help improve communication skills and provide information about equipment to assist with things like television and using the telephone. They also use counselling skills to help people explore how their hearing loss has affected them.

For people with tinnitus the first thing they will usually do is ask a series of questions to get a good idea what an individual's experience of tinnitus has been. The therapist wants to know things like what it sounds like, what happened at its onset, whether anything helps or makes it worse, what sort of thoughts and feelings the tinnitus evokes and whether it affects concentration and sleep.

Having a good understanding of these things will enable the therapist to consider the ways in which the tinnitus can best be managed and devise a plan with you based on your individual needs.

The therapist is also likely to explain to you how we hear, what is known currently about tinnitus and its generation and the role of the brain in the perception of sound.

Examples may be given to show how the brain can learn to tune out sounds, a process known as habituation. How we perceive and react to sounds and the meaning they have for us influences how our brain evaluates and processes them.

An example given by one of our advisors is: "If a baby is snivelling at night, while this is a quiet or weak sound, a parent who is sleeping nearby is likely to wake because the meaning of the sound is significant (there may be all sorts of feelings associated with the sound like fear, concern, love and worry). Later, once the parent is asleep and the baby is settled, there could be a thunderstorm which is much louder in decibels but the parent may sleep through it. The brain responds to the thunderstorm as a neutral event, not requiring a response and therefore tunes it out."

This and other examples help to illustrate that although it may take time, the brain can learn to evaluate the tinnitus as neutral with the result that the person may hear it less.

Prior to commencing treatment, a hearing therapist will discuss with you the treatment approaches they think will benefit you, and you will be able to discuss options such as hearing aids (if you have a hearing loss), sound therapy, and relaxation therapy.

In the course of your treatment hearing therapists may draw on aspects of different therapeutic approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness. CBT is a way of understanding how our beliefs and behaviour can influence how we feel. Mindfulness is an increasingly popular way of coping with stress, pain and other difficult or unpleasant experiences. Our advisor says: "When applied to tinnitus, mindfulness can be seen as a way of practising ‘being’ with the tinnitus rather than trying to ‘do’ something about it. Although ‘fighting’ tinnitus and trying to get rid of it is a natural and understandable response, it tends not to help very much. Mindfulness is used to help the patient learn to respond to the tinnitus in a different way that is often kinder and more helpful than trying to fix it. This can help the habituation process."

Above all, seeing a hearing therapist should give you some time to explore your experience of tinnitus and be listened to by someone who understands. You will have the opportunity to work with the hearing therapist to find ways to help with your individual situation.

If you think you could benefit from referral to a hearing therapist and you are already under the care of a hospital, speak to your audiologist / ENT specialist. If you are not, speak to your GP for information about the services in your area.