It isn't usually realistic to expect Audiologists to be fully conversant with psychological therapies including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and to expect them to offer such a service to tinnitus patients. And it simply isn't enough to know about a few CBT tools to provide effective CBT for patients. Yet the Department of Health clearly expect CBT to be the treatment of choice for people with tinnitus distress.

To have been able to come up with the process in CBT4T (previously the CBT for Tinnitus E-Programme) has taken me 30 years of clinical practice including hundreds of hours of additional psychotherapy education, training and clinical supervision. Starting out as a Hearing Therapist qualified in 1994, I completed a PG Dip in Psychotherapy in 2005 and then an MSc in Psychotherapy by 2012.

I have trained Audiologists (NHS and those in private practice) in past years through the CSTCP (Counselling Skills & Tinnitus Care Pathway). However, the way CBT has evolved, along with more recent neuropsychotherapy that I have been using for the past 10 years or so, makes the CSTCP necessarily limited in terms of CBT content for patients that present with high scoring TFIs (categories 4 & 5), high scoring GAD-7 (15-21 severe anxiety), high stress (PSS 27-40) - the latter two reflected in high scoring ASQ (Anxiety/stress Symptoms Q). These are typical initial measures for people enrolling on CBT4T and are beyond the scope of even the wonderfully talented Audiologists that completed the CSTCP.

So it may be that CBT4T is something you can tell your patients about. It is already partnered with Tinnitus UK, previously the British Tinnitus Association (since January 2020) and many people coming to the course have been referred by Tinnitus UK. There is also an increasing number of referrals coming from Audiologists - both NHS and private practitioners. The cost is not prohibitive for most - currently under £300 with two 1-1 appointments using Zoom plus support via email, logs, checks and electronic CBT tools, all of which - bar two exceptions - are of my own bespoke design, purpose-built for the course. The two exceptions are the Beck Thought Record (introduced late in the course when Users can compare its benefit alongside the bespoke Meaning Adjuster) and Core Belief work in Stage 7 that is the work of Christine Padesky and fully referenced.

This information pack for Audiologists is to provide insight in to what the course involves, not just to say how effective it is.

If you have patients who would benefit from this course, just give them the details. A search for CBT4T, CBT for Tinnitus E-Programme or just Tinnitus E-Program will find it.

There are reviews from those having used the course here and my email address is debbie@tinnituseprogram.org  

Debbie Featherstone MSc
Hearing Therapist & Psychotherapist
CBT4T (CBT for Tinnitus E-Programme)