Sound Therapy as an effective option for the needs of the palliative care patient

Presented to PHPCI Conference Sydney October 2019

By Rafaele Joudry MS (psych)

I have been working for the last thirty years with a Sound Therapy program that offers portable, home-based rehabilitation mainly to the older age group. My involvement began when the program helped my mother to overcome some particular hearing difficulties. However, its more general benefits in the areas of better sleep, better mental clarity and reduced stress proved even more beneficial. In rolling out the self-help version of this program we found, likewise, that it was often the unexpected side benefits that were the most life-changing. We have found that the program assists hearing, sleep, stress, mood, anxiety, pain, and general wellbeing (Tomatis, 1991).

In one of the cases I’ll be presenting today a woman was caring at home for her father who had dementia. When he started using the program she noticed a dramatic change in his grumpy personality, so that he would come home from day care and ask how her day was and be friendly and cooperative. Another man who used the program when in his 90s was concerned that he would have to give up independent living due to a balance disorder. When, after a few weeks, his balance recovered he rang up to say he was so pleased that he was walking down the street and he was dancing!

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