Health & Fitness

Tomatis Therapy
Tomatis therapy is actually sound therapy. Dr. Alfred Tomatis developed the use of sound to stimulate right brain activity in patients who had difficulty comprehending language and replicating sound. Some of his first studies were performed on singers who found themselves with pitch difficulties in their advanced careers. Dr. Tomatis interest in the area was only natural as his father was an opera singer and he was an ear, nose, and throat physician.

Tomatis therapy uses sound frequencies to target the inner ear muscles. The frequencies target the muscles of the ear that transmit to the right brain which is specific to language perception and sound comprehension. Little did Dr. Tomatis know that when he began his study that he would further revolutionize treatment for the learning and developmentally disabled.

Availability of Tomatis Method
When Alfred Tomatis first began is therapy method he used rudimentary devices for strengthening the inner ear muscles. Initially, Dr. Tomatis used the foot pedal of an old sewing machine to regulate the sound frequencies released to a patients ears. He found that the starting and stopping motion of the sound produced a tensing and relaxing of the ear muscle leading to its strengthening. Just as we work the other muscles in our body for strength through training, Dr. Tomatis was providing the same training for the internal ear.

Dr. Tomatis still has many supporters and converts to his method of sound therapy as treatment for brain impairment. At one time the only way to receive the benefits of Dr. Tomatis revolutionary treatments was to travel to France to one of his centers. Today, with the help of new technology in recording media, a compact disc mastered to recreate the treatments therapy is in wide use throughout the world.