Simone Carot Collins' Story

My name is Simone Carot Collins, and this is my story of how music first destroyed, and later restored, my hearing.

As a child, repeated ear infections saw me lose 10% of my hearing during my primary school years. When I was 7 years old, the annual ear and eye tests carried out at school picked up my poor hearing and I had to sit at the front of the classroom so I could hear the teacher properly.

I developed a love of music from my father, who was always playing the piano and organ at home. I started piano lessons when I was 6 years old and added electronic organ lessons when I was 8. I loved playing the organ, and particularly enjoyed perfoming at festivals and concerts. Music was a constant part of my life - if I wasn't playing it myself, I was listening to a tape or the radio.

Practising with the organ turned right up loud (despite repeated protests from my mother that I would damage my hearing) and listening to loud rock music on my walkman meant that I had sustained noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus by the time I was 14 years old. (Yes, mum was right!) Hearing tests confirmed a loss of hearing in higher frequencies, with some frequencies not registering at all!

I saw an ear nose and throat specialist when I was 20 years old, who said that there was nothing that could be done, except to prevent further damage by avoiding loud music. So I was quite excited when I stumbled across the book "Sound Therapy: Music to recharge your brain" in a bookstore in 2003, when I was 26, and read that perhaps my hearing damage and tinnitus weren't permanent after all! What particularly attracted me to Sound Therapy was its underpinning methods were created by another ear, nose and throat specialist who has received many accolades for his ground-breaking research in how the auditory system develops and works.

Within days of starting listening to Sound Therapy via the Basic Music Kit, I noticed that I didn't need as much sleep anymore - I just didn't feel tired! That was a blessed relief, as I had suffered from insomnia for years, and usually tossed and turned in bed for several hours before finally getting off to sleep, and would usually wake several times during the night before getting up in the morning feeling exhausted. I also found that if I answered the phone while listening to Sound Therapy (using bud earphones), I could concentrate on the conversation and hear what was being said much better. I used to avoid using the phone (which is practically impossible in a work situation) as I had immense trouble hearing and processing what was being said. My hearing noticeably improved in the first few months, as I kept having to turn the volume down on my walkman. What used to be soft to me now sounded very loud!

Growing a little over-enthusiastic, I started listening to Sound Therapy for a good 10 hours a day. Bad move! My tinnitus started getting worse, and where previously it had been constant in the left ear, some additional tones kicked in in the left year and my right ear started ringing as well! It became very distracting - at times it was very hard to concentrate with all that noise. I persevered with listening to Sound Therapy, though I cut back on the number of hours per day, and my tinnitus finally started improving - it stopped being so much of a distraction, and got quieter and quieter. One day a few months later, about 6 months after I started, I suddenly realised that there was no noise anymore, and hadn't been for some time!

I was so impressed with both my own success with Sound Therapy, the successes reported by others all over the world, and the research that has been conducted since the 1950s (particularly important to me as my own background is in the sciences - I have degrees in Physics, Applied Maths and Information Technology Systems, and worked in the IT Industry for 12 years) that I decided to change my career. I trained as a Sound Therapy consultant in late 2003, and embarked on other natural medicine studies in 2004. I qualified as a reflexologist in 2005, completed my Certificate IV in Massage Therapy Practice in 2009, and was initiated into the 1st degree of the Usui system of Reiki in 2010. I am gradually branching out into other complementary areas, such as flower essences and nutrition, as time (and family commitments!) permits, so I can assist my clients heal on as many levels as possible.

Now I have two young daughters, Ariana (3) and Eva (2), and they love "mummy's music". Ariana asks to use it whenever she isn't feeling well or is feeling sad, and after listening to it for a little while she declares that she is much better. Sound Therapy has been a blessing when Eva gets overstimulated - switching on Sound Therapy through an ipillow very quickly turns a screaming, thrashing toddler into a quiet little soul who happily lies down and drifts off to sleep. I encourage their listening as a preventative measure. So far neither have had any ear infections, and they are streets ahead with speaking / language skills. I highly, highly recommend Sound Therapy for all ages - it truly works!