Are You Suffering From Any of These Symptoms as a Result of Tinnitus? Call Today for a Consultation.
■ Mild to severe anxiety
■ Depression
■ Insomnia
■ Negative thinking
■ Triggered fight or flight
■ Crying spells
■ Hopelessness
■ Ringing in the ears
■ Suicidal thoughts
Are you growing more isolated? Do you feel like life will never be the same? Are you refraining from activities that you enjoy? Are you fearful of losing your job? Do you find that your thoughts tend to be negative?
If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions or symptoms, then we can help. You may be a candidate for Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy, or TCRT.
With over 20 years of clinical experience, Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R developed Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy and founded the Tinnitus Cognitive Center™ in response to the growing number of Tinnitus sufferers coming to his private practice.
He discovered that by helping people to retrain and reinterpret the thoughts around their Tinnitus, anxiety and depression symptoms began to improve. But even more important so did the Tinnitus.
Is there a tinnitus cure in 2022? More than 50 million Americans suffer from tinnitus, making it one of the most common health conditions, according to the American Tinnitus Association. More commonly referred to as ‘ringing in the ears, tinnitus is a common hearing condition that is most often a symptom of another underlying health condition.
However, tinnitus on its own can be an extremely troubling and debilitating burden. People suffering from chronic tinnitus are often unable to enjoy life, concentrate, hold conversations, and socialize. Chronic tinnitus can also trigger mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
This makes it important to find a cure for the condition.
What is Tinnitus?
Simply put, tinnitus is an ear-related condition that makes a person hear internal sounds. This means that the affected person perceives sounds that do not actually exist in the external world. If you think you’re hearing noises that you’re sure don’t come from an external source, you might be suffering from tinnitus. Don’t worry, you’re not going crazy, and seeking a professional will definitely help.
While most people report a sensation of ringing in the ears, others also hear buzzing, whistling, chirping, humming sounds, etc. The sounds vary from person to person in terms of loudness, frequency, type, and where the affected person feels it the most. For example, one tinnitus sufferer may experience a distant ringing sound while another hears it inside their head.
On the other hand, not everyone experiences tinnitus at all times. In fact, tinnitus can be both constant and intermittent. Most people experience the sounds at night when the background noise is relatively low. Not to mention, the sounds can also either be steady or pulsating.
Is There a Cure for Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is associated with numerous medical conditions as well as certain medications. In fact, experts like to define tinnitus as a symptom rather than a disease in itself. Regardless, treating tinnitus is necessary to avoid its adverse effects. But is there even a cure for tinnitus?
Frankly, tinnitus does not have any cure yet. In other words, there are numerous treatment modalities, but no approach can completely eliminate the condition. However, you can still use these treatment plans to minimize the intensity of sound and severity of your symptoms.
There are many treatment options that, if sensibly selected, can help improve tinnitus and help you cope.
Sound Therapy
Sound therapy relies on four mechanisms that are:
Masking: As the name suggests, masking uses sound maskers to cover up or ‘mask’ tinnitus sounds.
Distraction: Distraction-based sound therapy uses external sounds that can divert a person’s attention from the annoying sounds of tinnitus.
Habituation: Habituation also uses external sound to train the mind. Through this practice, the patient learns to disregard tinnitus sounds as unimportant.
Neuromodulation: This type of sound therapy rewires the brain in order to help it cope with the symptoms of tinnitus in a better manner.
Tinnitus retraining therapy or TRT is a proven, effective treatment method that eases the lives of tinnitus sufferers. It is basically a form of behavioral counseling that seeks to ‘retrain’ your brain at both conscious and subconscious levels.
TRT focuses on changing the way your auditory system, brain, and central nervous system perceive, process, and interpret tinnitus sounds. First, it addresses the cause behind your tinnitus and then moves on to recalibrate your internal system to prevent the future formation of these sounds.
TRT makes use of both sound therapy and counseling to effectively tackle your issue.
Tinnitus Cure 2022: Conclusion
If you think you might be suffering from tinnitus, tinnitus retraining therapy can potentially cure your condition. At the Tinnitus Cognitive Center™, sound disorder specialist Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R will work with you to identify the source of your tinnitus and help you find the best ways to manage or even eliminate the symptoms.
Call today to schedule a convenient online consultation.
Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R 19 West 34th Street Penthouse Floor New York, NY 10001
What is retraining therapy for tinnitus? Tinnitus is a very common hearing condition that affects nearly 50 million older adults in the US alone. Tinnitus is more similar to a disease that is associated with various hearing-related health issues as well as other medical conditions.
It is characterized by a ringing sound in the ears that happens to have no external source. This suggests that tinnitus is an internal sound that does not exist in the outside world. While the ‘ringing’ sensation is the most common tinnitus sound, many people also hear whistling, buzzing, chirping, etc. Some patients affected by tinnitus also report hearing humming and musical sounds.
Various treatment options help patients cope and live with tinnitus, including sound therapies and cognitive retraining therapy. Let’s see how tinnitus retraining therapy by Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R works.
What is Retraining Therapy for Tinnitus?
Tinnitus can have numerous adverse effects on the overall life quality of the affected person. People who experience intense tinnitus sounds find it hard to focus, affecting productivity. On the other hand, it can also cause sleeping troubles.
Not to mention, tinnitus also affects your mood and ability to communicate. Therefore, it is important to seek treatment for your annoying and debilitating tinnitus.
Tinnitus retraining therapy or TRT is a treatment that seeks to ‘retrain’ your brain to help it cope with your ringing ears. The therapy is practiced at both a conscious and subconscious level as it changes the way your mind, central nervous system, and auditory system perceive, process, and interprets sounds.
TRT is a comprehensive treatment method that addresses the cause behind tinnitus sounds. Then, it recalibrates your internal system to prevent these sounds from ringing in the future. This type of treatment helps numerous people suffering from tinnitus.
If you think you might be experiencing tinnitus, you can use our treatment services at Tinnitus Cognitive Center. A session of TRT requires you to co-operate with a medical professional as only a specialist like Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW, can train your mind.
Such treatment uses counseling and sound therapy methods that spread over 1 to 2 years to tackle all three systems involved effectively. These include the auditory system, limbic system, and autonomic nervous system. Since tinnitus is a complicated symptom and condition, hearing centers offer special personalized treatments as per the specific requirements.
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) can help minimize the symptoms of different types of tinnitus. These include regular tinnitus, pulsatile tinnitus, tinnitus that causes dizziness, and even bilateral and unilateral tinnitus.
TRT is a brilliant combination of three significant steps at the Tinnitus Cognitive Center. These are:
Data collection: It is hard to identify the causes and prepare the perfect personalized treatment plan without enough patient data. First, we collect information regarding the patient’s medical history and daily lifestyle.
Using sound therapy devices:Sound therapy mechanisms include masking, distraction, habituation, and neuromodulation, using various sound therapy devices. These help the patient’s brain ignore the intensity of tinnitus. The devices distract the patients’ attention from tinnitus sounds using external sounds.
Psychological therapy: Psychological therapy is the main part of tinnitus retraining therapy that retrains the brain. This combines stress management tactics with relaxation exercises that help eliminate any anxiety and stress. As a result, patients stop perceiving tinnitus as a threat.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy for Tinnitus: Conclusion
Tinnitus retraining therapy, as the name suggests, helps retrain the mind to minimize the intensity of tinnitus sounds. Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R at the Tinnitus Cognitive Center™, has 20 years of experience. He provides extensive, compassionate TRT to his patients.
Give us a call at 646-213-2321 to schedule an online session & consultation.
Tinnitus retraining therapy, or TRT, is rapidly becoming the most effective way to treat the sound disorder known as tinnitus. Currently, experts and scientists are busy searching for an effective permanent cure for tinnitus and associated sound disorders. While there are no instant cures for tinnitus, there are other remedial solutions that relate to medical treatments, counseling, and different forms of therapies. One of them includes tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), which involves helping affected patients endure tinnitus noises and other symptoms.
Before we learn more about this treatment option, let’s understand tinnitus and its complications in a comprehensible manner.
Comprehending Tinnitus and it’s Complications
Tinnitus primarily refers to a sound disorder in which you experience constant ringing, or any other type of disturbing sounds, in your ears. This constant noise can occur in one year but most commonly affects both. Patients mention that they initially try to determine any external sources of these disturbing sounds and noises at which they absolutely fail.
This is true, considering that the problem occurs internally. Tinnitus noises occur due to musculoskeletal and cardiovascular movements, which ultimately affect the ears, blood vessels, etc. Symptoms besides constant buzzing and ringing in the ears include:
Clicking
Whistling
Whooshing
Hissing
Humming
Roaring
Since there aren’t any external sources of sound near your head, experts regard these noises as “phantom sounds.” It can be disturbing and frustrating to experience constant noises in your ears without any prominent sound source. These can interfere with real interactions that involve making a speech, performing actions, and concentrating based on sound. Furthermore, people with persistent tinnitus suffer from anxiety, stress, and depression. While this condition can occur in anyone despite their age, gender, and underlying medical conditions, it is more prevalent in people of older age.
What are the Main Causes of Tinnitus?
Exposure to loud sounds consistently or in a sudden accident such as a blast, shatter, etc., can cause tinnitus
Auditory nerve tumors can result in tinnitus. This is when it affects the bones in the ear, mainly the middle ear area, which can adversely affect sound conduction.
Jobs that involve working with loud equipment or under loud environments can result in the manifestation of tinnitus. For example, those working as musicians, construction workers, and in other loud sound jobs are more susceptible to tinnitus.
Medications of certain types and makes can have a negative impact on the health of your middle and inner ears.
Some health conditions also cause and lead to tinnitus in one or both of the ears. Here are some:
Tinnitus retraining therapy is a common and highly regarded treatment option for tinnitus and its rare types. In simple words, tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is a habituation therapy that helps people cope with constantly disturbing noises such as ringing, buzzing, whooshing, etc. These sounds persist even when there is no external source for them. TRT involves directive counseling, which aims to help the patients regard tinnitus noises as neutral sounds/signals. Consequently, tinnitus-affected people are able to ignore the sounds.
Another important component of TRT is sound therapy, which involves masking and reducing the impact or awareness of tinnitus noises. Sound therapy introduces patients to various ear-related devices, such as hearing aids, white noise-reducing machines, brown noise-blocking machines, and other noise blockers. By reducing the noise level, you become less aware of the tinnitus issue. In reality, combining these two components (directive counseling and sound therapy) can result in an effective solution against tinnitus.
Other Treatment Options for Tinnitus
Here are some other common treatments and remedial options that help lessen the impact and adversities of tinnitus in people.
Cochlear Implants
These aim to restore hearing function. These devices bypass the most damaged ear parts, allowing better hearing. It comprises an implanted microphone that goes over your ear. It has a set electrode in the inner ear, which helps conduct sounds and enables better hearing function.
These devices work primarily over electrical stimulation, which lets the brain interpret noises and sounds adequately. In short, cochlear implants are effective in producing electrical signals through the auditory nerves that your brain uses to process noises and sounds.
Lifestyle Improvement
You can try reducing stress levels to limit the occurrence of tinnitus noises or at least preventing them from worsening it. Stress doesn’t directly cause tinnitus but rather affects the way tinnitus noises occur. Therefore, too much stress can give rise to noises and worsen tinnitus.
Prescriptions/Medication
Certain types of medication are also effective in ruling out symptoms of tinnitus. Medication can help alleviate the effect and pain of tinnitus symptoms at the most.
Tinnitus cognitive retaining therapy is a very common habituation therapy. Your healthcare provider will suggest it to you if you suffer from disorders in which you hear various sounds like buzzing, ringing, or hissing. These sounds might not even be present, yet you still hear them.
The major components of the TCRT come from the neurophysiological model of the tinnitus. While the therapy, the healthcare provider will provide you with parts of cognitive behavioral therapy which will help you to reclassify the sounds that you hear. The other part or TRT is the music therapy in which the healthcare provider will try to add a musical background to your daily life that you cannot hear the sounds in your head. Both these parts of the therapy will help you in weakening the neuronal activities which are related to your brain.
The Goal Of TCRT Therapy
The major goal of the tinnitus retaining therapy is to manage your response towards the stimulus. There is no evidence, which shows that the therapy has completely cured the situation. Many healthcare providers will also suggest tinnitus masking if you suffer from such chronic disorder. Tinnitus masking is, using music or any sound to mask the tinnitus. The healthcare provider might suggest you wear a hearing aid.
Applicability
Many people suffer from tinnitus but they don’t treat it. These people usually are not even bothered by these sounds and get immune to them.
If the tinnitus annoys you or affect your life and making you anxious or causing you to lose sleep and concentration. In that case, you need to treat your tinnitus.
When it comes to tinnitus suffering in adults, the cases vary from another. TRT has moderate effect on some and highly effective for another. Duration and loudness are the psychological factors that may distress the tinnitus.
When you talk about the TRT itself, then it might help you in managing it, but it depends on how severe your tinnitus is. TCRT is an ideal treatment for people who suffer from hyperacusis, depression, significant hearing loss, misophonia, phonophobia, and others.
The TCRT will help you in lowering the volume of the tinnitus, its pitch, duration, and intensity of the tinnitus. The treatment will help you in altering your reaction towards the sound. It will encourage positive behavior and a positive threshold.
Methodologies of TCRT
Classification of the Case
In the first style of classification, the healthcare provider will decide your category. Later he will check if you are hearing impaired or not, later he will diagnose if you suffer from hyperacusis or any other disorder and how long you have been dealing with the disorder.
Counseling
When the healthcare provider classifies your case, then he will suggest the counseling methods. He will either suggest you directive counseling. This style of counseling will help you in changing your response. He will teach you the basic knowledge about auditory system and its mechanics. He will also tell you why you react in such a way. As time passes, your reaction to the stimulus will become milder.
Related Research
Research says that sound therapy will work better for you when you play the sound according to your liking. You should pay more attention toward the frequency, and amplitude of the sound that you play. It must be pleasing.
If you have severe tinnitus, then you might need surgical assistance. The healthcare provider will suggest you get a magnetic or electrical stimulation in the brain areas which are responsible for the auditory process. It might be most effective to suppress the tinnitus.
The music therapy might also help you effectively. In the therapy, the sound will be altered by once octave at the tinnitus frequency.
Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy (TCRT): Final words
Tinnitus cognitive retraining therapy is very effective for various sound related disorders. It helps the patients to overcome tinnitus and manage it more effectively.
Call today for a consultation:
Tinnitus Cognitive Center Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R 646-213-2321
Tinnitus is a condition that results in a roaring or a ringing sound in the ear. The sound is generated inside the brain, and some doctors think this occurs when a person experiences hearing loss or other damage to the auditory nerve that carries signals from the outside world into the brain. In the absence of these external signals, the brain creates its own noise, which is experienced as sound by the person who is affected.
The effects of tinnitus vary from person to person. It appears that people who focus on the sound produced as a result of tinnitus are significantly more debilitated by their condition. One technique that has shown exceptional promise to alleviate suffering from tinnitus is sound therapy. Stephen Katz is a top NYC tinnitus treatment psychotherapist, and he
Masking Techniques
Hearing aids are one technique to reduce tinnitus, and they are thought to work by increasing the external signal. When a person with tinnitus is able to “attend,” or pay attention to another signal, the internal noise generated by the brain diminishes. Use of a hearing aid is one type of sound therapy treatment, and the introduction of additional external sound stimulation masks the internal “tinnitus.”
White noise machine provide another useful therapy for masking tinnitus. By training the person with tinnitus to “attend” to the white noise, their focus on the annoying tinnitus is diminished. Stephen Katz, a top Manhattan tinnitus treatment psychotherapist, explains that although these masking techniques are still considered experimental, many patients have reported significant benefits.
What is a Masking Device?
A masking device may be about the same size as a hearing aid. The white noise produced by a masking device is more pleasant than the tinnitus to the person who is experiencing the problem. Some masking devices may include a combination of a hearing aid and white noise. The addition of a hearing aid will enable the person who is being treated to attend to external stimuli from both the environment AND from the white noise. Attention is an important component to consider when treating tinnitus. Stephen Katz, a leading Manhattan tinnitus treatment psychotherapist, uses a variety of training techniques to help patients manage the effects of tinnitus. These effects can be annoying, and they can result in disruptions of all areas of the patient’s life. A white noise machine will produce artificial sound or introduce natural sound into the patient’s ear, and although some patients find it effective, a small number of patients are as disturbed by their masking device as they are by the initial tinnitus that prompted treatment.
What Works Best?
If you have tinnitus, you may have been told that there is no cure for your condition. However, you can certainly adapt to tinnitus, which will greatly improve your ability to live with this problem. Stephen Katz, a tinnitus treatment psychotherapist in NYC, recommends exploration of all clinical modalities for treatment, and he has successfully treated many patients who have experienced a significant reduction in the distress they have as a result of their tinnitus.
If you are suffering from tinnitus, call 646-213-2321 today for your appoint with Stephen Katz, a leading Manhattan tinnitus treatment psychotherapist.
Tinnitus, it sounds horrible but it is a simple and common disorder that involves a persistent ringing or buzzing noise in one or both ears. The problem can cause a great deal of issues for people who suffer from it; especially severe cases. The noise can be irritating, annoying, distracting; it can have a serious effect on your life. It is important to receive treatment.
It is a known and sad fact, that many people do not even receive treatment. In part, it is because, while Tinnitus is a common condition, the amount that is known about it and its causes, as well as Tinnitus treatment options, are limited. One of the treatments that is considered as part of a regime is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
This type of therapy deals with handling the stress that is caused by this condition. Another therapy that has been gaining in popularity is Cognitive Retraining Therapy.
Cognitive Retraining Therapy
While this is not a new therapy, it has only recently been accepted as a viable ringing ears treatment option. Although it has been around for a while, it has become part of the accepted options for treatment for example, worker’s compensation only recently. It works based on a neurophysiological model of the disorder. It is believed that treatment should focus on the limbic system and the automatic nervous system.
What is Cognitive Retraining Therapy?
Cognitive Retraining Therapy works on retraining the brain’s auditory responses, so that it views sounds differently. Tinnitus causes a ringing in the ear that the brain thinks is more important than other sounds or cannot recognize as a background sound. The result is that it appears louder or more prominent than other sounds.
This type of training causes your brain to view the sounds that come from the Tinnitus to be unimportant, thereby reducing the severity of the sound. This has numerous benefits including reducing the irritation, annoyance, distraction, loss of concentration, and sleep deprivation that can result from this disorder.
To schedule your appointment with one of NYC’s finest specialists in Cognitive Retraining Therapy contact us today!
Tinnitus affects as many as 10% of the U.S. population and there is little agreement as to its causes or treatments. As with most idiopathic nerve problems, the cause of one person’s tinnitus may differ completely from another’s. For this reason therapy plans are usually dictated by the underlying medical condition leading to tinnitus – whether from injury, an inner ear disorder or any of dozens of other pathologies.
What can be done about tinnitus?
When an underlying medical cause cannot be found the approach of improving general ear health is usually taken, although “healthy” can become an area of debate as different researchers come to different conclusions. Some of the suspected causes of tinnitus include blood flow disorders, inflammation, mechanical disruptions (such as in the neck, jaw or ear), chemical contact and prolonged exposure to noise. Treatments directed at each of these causes can be found in traditional and holistic medicine – the benefits of which are subjective to the sufferer.
Do holistic therapies for tinnitus work?
There has been research into many supplements and non-traditional therapies for tinnitus, each showing varying levels of effectiveness. Some are anecdotal and others quite well supported. As an example (and to our great fortune) aspirin (salicylic acid) was discovered in the home remedy brews made from willow bark. Also fortunately, the benefits of blood-letting were found to be less effective.
Where do I start with my treatment of tinnitus?
As with all chronic illness, improving a person’s overall health is always recommended. Weight loss, a more nutritious and balanced diet, and exercise will reduce inflammation, increase blood flow and improve overall functioning of the whole body. This is always positive for anyone suffering from an idiopathic disorder.
