Therapist prescribes music to soothe the senses
In the world of occupational therapy, prescriptive music for sound therapy is considered a medically reputable and viable treatment for some neurological disorders. Now with so many mainstream occupational therapy clinics prescribing sound therapy, it is no longer considered an alternative form of treatment. However, it has yet to become widely accepted across other areas of medicine.
Sound therapy was first used by French Otolaryngologist Alfred Tomatis who established sound therapy in the 1950s while experimenting with electronic alterations of high and low decibels and frequencies to treat occupational deafness.
Today, therapists prescribe psycho-acoustically engineered or electronically filtered music designed to fire neurons in the brain and enhance the nervous system.
Occupational therapist and founder of In-Sync Therapy, Suzanne Starseed is an advocate and prescriber of sound therapy.
Occupational therapist, Suzanne Starseed uses sound therapy to treat patients who suffer from the hypersensitive component of SMD, also known as sensory defensiveness disorder.
For the last ten years, her word-of-mouth practice has helped moderate behavior in children who suffer from autism, Asperger syndrome and attention deficit disorder.
“Music is a very high form of vibration and the electronic alterations do things to the nervous system which affects the brain,” she says. “We don’t yet know the mechanism of action.”
Starseed served as head of the Department of Occupational Therapy at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans for 16 years.
“We were good at treating certain areas of sensory processing disorder, but the sensory modulation piece was going mostly unrecognized,” she says. “When it was recognized it wasn’t treated properly.”
Starseed discovered sound therapy when she began working in a clinic that specializes in treating sensory processing disorder. When she first prescribed sound to her patients, she was stunned by the results.
“I knew that I had not suddenly, exponentially become a better therapist,” she says. “Children that I had been treating for two months were suddenly showing major improvement.”
In 1999 she founded her clinical practice, In-Sync Therapy in Richmond, Va., where she provides sound therapy services mostly to children. Last year, Starseed joined the graduate faculty in the School of Allied Health’s Department of Occupational Therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University.
She says patients who suffer from SMD can have a fight, flight or freeze response triggered by touch, sudden movement or loud sounds.
“The part of the brain that assigns value and relevance to incoming stimuli threatens survival to stimuli that are innocuous,” she says. “A loud sound to us might just be a loud sound. To people who suffer from SMD, it represents danger.”
The danger in not considering disruption of the senses as a possible diagnosis can often lead to misdiagnosis. Sometimes children are labeled with conduct disorder when the issue really lies within their nervous system.
Sound therapy is the only known treatment for sensory modulation disorder, (SMD) – a subset of sensory processing disorder. SMD can manifest as hypersensitivity or under responsiveness of the senses. Those who suffer from SMD can experience mild to severe anxiety in adults and can be a component in a host of developmental disabilities typically diagnosed in children.
SMD can also go undiagnosed because mild sufferers often believe their anxious feelings are normal. Mild cases can manifest as edginess that exacerbates when under stress.
Starseed says she has repeatedly witnessed sound therapy do wonders for many people. Improvements are seen in speech and language, auditory processing, motor function, sensory defensiveness, improved eye contact and even increased affection.
“Usually slow and steady treatment will get the desired results, but I’ve seen kids turn around instantly,” she says. “I have seen in one session a child make eye contact, smile, draw a face and she had not done any of those things before.”
There are rare instances where patients become lifelong listeners. But the non-invasive therapy is so easy to administer that it doesn’t negatively affect quality of life as some medications can. Listening to prescribed music sounds like the rational alternative to forever ingesting prescription drugs that are not proven to treat the disorder.
In some cases, insurance companies will cover sound therapy treatment when used alongside other prescribed treatments by an occupational therapist – but getting it covered can be tricky. When prescribed as the only treatment for SMD, sound therapy typically isn’t covered. Many insurance companies still consider sound therapy experimental.
Learn more about the symptoms of sensory processing disorder.
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Hm hm.. that’s quiet interessting but to be honest i have a hard time figuring it… I’m wondering what others have to say….
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There is more and more research that links many learning and developmental difficulties to poor communication and synchronisation between the two brain halves. An effective way of improving the processing functions in the brain is to listen to specially altered sound or music through headphones as pioneered by Dr. Alfred Tomatis (Tomatis method) and Dr. Guy Bérard (Auditory Integration Training – AIT).
Now there is a new Sound Therapy Programme which has been specifically developed with the aim to improve sensory processing, interhemispheric integration and cognitive functioning and it is entirely free to download and use at home. It has helped many children and adults with a wide range of learning and developmental difficulties, ranging from dyslexia, dyspraxia and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder to sensory processing disorders and autism. It is not a cure or medical intervention, but a structured training programme that can help alleviate some of the debilitating effects that these conditions can have on speech and physical ability, daily behaviour, emotional well-being and educational or work performance.
Check out the Free Sound Therapy Home Programme from Sensory Activation Solutions. There is no catch, it’s absolutely free and most importantly often effective. Find it at: http://www.uk.sascentre.com/uk_free.html.
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