Jennifer Gans is a psychologist who helps patients with tinnitus. Jennifer focuses on mindfulness for tinnitus. In this episode, we talk about the cure for tinnitus, and whether waiting for a cure is helping or not.

Jennifer Gans, PsyDIt's good to be here and talking about my favorite topic lately. So especially during the time COVID when it's almost as if the volume of tinnitus has been turned up like the volume on a stereo. But you know, as you mentioned, I work both in my private practice and also through the mindfultinnitusrelief.com course with people that are struggling with bothersome tinnitus.

Ben Thompson, AuDYeah, we're grateful that you chose to specialize in tinnitus. Being an audiologist myself, it's an incredible asset to have someone like yourself, a psychologist dedicated to tinnitus. It's an incredible asset for us. So thank you. Let's talk about the cure for tinnitus. Some are waiting for it. There's a lot of research and funding going into it from different groups, whether that's the veterans, different biotech researchers. Is it worth waiting for a cure? You wanted to talk about this? I would think this is great for our audience to get into. So take the floor on this, what do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsXO3Ro2pU

Jennifer Gans, PsyDYeah, this is a very, very important topic. Because when something goes wrong, or something doesn't feel right, in our bodies, we tend to go to a medical professional. And we want answers, you know, you walk into the doctor's office, and you want a pill, a surgery, some sort of procedure to make whatever is bothersome, go away. And tinnitus is as you know, time and time again, I talk with patients that have come from their doctor, who just kind of shrugged their shoulders, looked at them and said, "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do for you go home and live with it."

And so that's the kiss of death for somebody with tinnitus. But so, yeah, I also am a very big believer that, you know, to help with anything that's going on with us, it's usually more than one thing that we need to do in order to help ourselves. So the approach that I have taken through mindfulness, using meditation to shift the brain, and then to help with habituation to tinnitus is a lot, we've done research for decades now and really haven't come up with, again, that pill that procedure or what is satisfactory as a cure. But my argument is with, especially with tinnitus, that actually nothing's broken. And so it's a very unique thing that we go to our doctors with, and doctors, our doctors are trained to fix things. And so when somebody comes into their office, and they can't fix what's going on, or they can't cure what's going on, the doctor becomes anxious and and then the person with the tinnitus is kind of left feeling unsupported or uncared for. So my opinion is, is that the person with bothersome tinnitus, there's nothing broken, there's nothing to fix exactly.

It definitely involves a shift in perception and a shift in thinking and a shift in maybe certain parts of the personality that I think contribute to bothersome tinnitus. But so as it stands right now, we don't have any quote unquote cure, but there's many different things that we can be doing to help ourselves. Sound sensitivity, amplification, certainly a mindfulness approach. And so my argument is, if we can shift tinnitus from the bothersome category into the non bothersome category, well then, isn't that a cure? So 50 million Americans, that's the number that gets thrown out. And that's just in the United States here. 50 million Americans experienced tinnitus, but about 16 to 17 million actually go to their doctor and they say, "What is this?"

And so then we have another 2 to 3 million that are so bothered by it that they...

Isabel joins the Pure Tinnitus Podcast to share her multi-year international tinnitus story. She went from being completely handicapped with tinnitus and hyperacusis to living her life almost completely back to normal. She shares all of the tips and tricks that rescued her from her tinnitus.

Watch the video to hear Isabel's full story...

https://youtu.be/tCMwBbB7HV4

Isabel shares her tinnitus story with Pure Tinnitus.

You can also find her at RapunzelTinnitus.com

Thank you for watching this episode of the Pure Tinnitus & Hearing Podcast.

Glenn Schweitzer of Rewiring Tinnitus joins Dr. Ben Thompson for a discussion about neuroplasticity for tinnitus. We will discuss the expectations of neuroplasticity, as well as the reality of how to get better. Glenn habituated to tinnitus himself and he shares some insightful reflections with us today.

Ben Thompson, AuDHello and welcome to Episode 12 of the Pure Tinnitus and Hearing Podcast. Today we are with Glenn Schweitzer, founder of Rewiring Tinnitus. Today we are going to talk about habituation, Glenn's personal experience with Meniere's disease, hearing loss, tinnitus, and the tips and tricks that he has for working with clients to help them feel better and recover from their tinnitus.

Glenn SchweitzerMy name is Glenn Schweitzer. And I've been working with tinnitus patients now for about five or six years in a variety of capacities. I guess it all started with helping people primarily with Meniere's disease, which is an inner ear disorder that I live with. A vestibular balance disorder that's fairly nasty. And tinnitus is one of the primary symptoms and I wrote a book to help people with Meniere's disease. And I started a blog and a website. And I had written like just a page or two in that first book about how I had kind of found some relief from the tinnitus. And that was it. And then over time, I got so much email and correspondence about this one or two pages in my book that I realized, there's a much bigger problem here and a lot more people who are really suffering and I kind of went back and I realized that this is something that deserved more of my time and energy.

https://youtu.be/2ySXXq6rgUY

Ben Thompson, AuDThank you so much. And as you were going on your own journey, and then decided you were in a position ready to serve others, what were some of the challenges that you had to overcome yourself before you felt ready to serve others in that way?

Glenn SchweitzerThat's a good question. Well, it all sort of grew so organically in the beginning. When I was trying to think of what to write a book about, I just knew I wanted to do a writing project initially, before I got into any of this work. And I didn't even occur to me that I was living well with Meniere's disease, that this was something that I knew a lot about, it was just like one list item on a bunch of possible things I was considering writing about. The challenges have just sort of been, I guess the biggest challenges.

The biggest challenge, I guess, has been trying to reach people who are suffering so much with a health problem, and a medical system and a treatment environment where they've been let down a lot of times, and without having a medical background, sometimes it was initially hard for me to make that initial connection. But you know, a lot of these tinnitus patients have been let down over and over again, whether it was a doctor, or a specialist who told them, there's nothing they can do or just have to live with it. I've never yet to work with a single person anywhere in the world who didn't have at least you know, one story of a doctor who wasn't helpful. And then you find all these different supplement companies.

And there's all this sort of disingenuous kind of products and marketing online that paint a picture that like where, you know, some sort of false hope only to be, you know, have your hopes crushed again. And so you're a target, it's a demographic of people who are suffering greatly, who often have no hope and have been let down over and over again. And it was initially very hard to find ways to really reach out and make a meaningful connection with those people. But I've gotten better at that over time. And I feel that just being you know, the fact that I've been through it myself that I have been to very deep dark lows a...

Julian Cowan Hill shares a simple rule that he uses with his tinnitus clients to help them get better. Dr. Ben Thompson interviews Julian about this method and his new app Quieten. Come take a listen and learn from one of the most influential tinnitus therapists in the world.

https://youtu.be/qPGqJlTr1Ts

Full interview with Julian Cowan Hill about tinnitus management techniques.

Ben Thompson, AuDWelcome to Episode 11 of the Pure Tinnitus & Hearing Podcast. This is your host Ben Thompson, founder of Pure Tinnitus. Today we are here with Julian Cowan hill from London, England. Julian has become a good friend of mine and a mentor. Julian has the most popular tinnitus therapy YouTube channel, and he's helped people from all over the world with their tinnitus. Julian, explain to us who you are and what you do for the tinnitus community.

Julian Cowan HillI'm somebody who had tinnitus myself. I had it for 20 years quite badly, and cranial sacral therapy, something that I'd never heard of before, as a last desperate attempt, I tried it out, and it had a huge impact on my tinnitus and I fell in love with this way of working and started training. And after about a year and a half into this training course, I experienced silence for the first time.

Julian Cowan HillWhich was like a miracle after 20 years of extreme, really horrendous symptoms.

Julian Cowan HillAnd while I was training, I set up a student practice working with tinnitus clients, and I've been very busy ever since. And I've been running a practice in central London, doing cranial sacral therapy. And I'm also a trained psychotherapist and I do quite a lot of tinnitus counseling. I have clients all over the world who call in and ask for some advice for that, learning techniques and practices and, and reassurance. I give a lot of reassurance that people can get better and help people get on track to recovering.

Ben Thompson, AuDYou know that I first found out about you when I was working in Hawaii at a clinic and a patient of mine who had very bad tinnitus came to me and they said that they they were finding help through this guy named Julian on YouTube. And of course as an audiologist, when someone says they found someone online for tinnitus, my first thought is a scarcity-based thought of, "Who are they? Do they have credentials? Are they are they a trusted source?" Because we don't want someone online to go down the wrong path of that kind of fear-based tinnitus work. But then I looked into the YouTube channel and I saw the massive following and the techniques that were being taught. And now here we are a few years later. So that's my first introduction to the work that you do, from that patient of mine. Really happy that you're here. Thanks for coming back on. I know that you had been featured here on the YouTube channel with the tinnitus virtual summit, and a lot of people enjoyed that summit. What I wanted to talk about you and I had been having a conversation a few minutes before this recording about what would be helpful for us to talk about here. And we we decided that let's talk about something that's relevant to your tinnitus patients, people who are coming to you for tinnitus, a common theme that tends to come over, over and over again in recent times. So acceptance versus getting better. How does this all happen? What is the acceptance process for someone with a case of tinnitus, that's not related to a medical cure or treatment? Acceptance vs. getting better? How does this all make sense for us?

Julian Cowan HillWell, a lot of people are attracted to the whole notion that you can't get better with tinnitus, especially after you've been online. And there's so much negativity out there. And it can be very distressing and really scary and lead people in a very bad ...