Systemic Listening Therapy (SLT) is a therapeutic auditory integration method for communication disorders.  It promotes the optimization and regulation of various communicative and creative processes in body, psyche & spirit.

Human development is always relational and systemic.  As a person’s sensory system perceives information that comes from the outside world and links that with information coming from their own internal experience, a subjective reality is developed.  Over time, as a person grows and matures, patterns are developed that are a result of an infinite number of communication interactions.  Under the best of conditions, a person creates his or her own intrapersonal structure of communicating that is integrative, stimulating and satisfying.  This allows them to be in optimal interpersonal relationships characterized by a high degree of self-esteem, social intelligence, and authentic connection with others.

Systemic Listening Therapy focuses its attention on the human system of auditory perception. The listening function and auditory processes designed for communication occupy a special place in the overall process of human development. In early prenatal life, sound and rhythm form our basic development. In the acoustic space of the womb, the unborn child experiences a variety of maternal sounds. The voice of the mother emerges as a strong presence and creates attention and interest from the developing child.  It also sensitizes the unborn child for language patterning and creates a desire for human communication. In addition, the growing ear combines the auditory and vestibular functions.  Therefore, it is an effective system both in an inwardly directed and outwardly directed sense.  The vestibular function organizes the sense of balance for the body in motion.  The auditory function makes self-perception possible because it allows us to hear our own voice.  Listening also allows us to extend outside of ourselves to hear the external environment.  Thus the auditory sense allows us to communicate with our inner and outer worlds and with others.

Communication is also one of the most important factors in the success of the therapy.  The most important first step is to establish authentic contact and relationship to the client – the child, the parents or the individual adult. The second step is to acknowledge and recognize the individual’s strengths & weaknesses and to focus on the positive potential growth of the client.  Therapy is a journey of discovery to one’s own inner treasures and can be a rich source of creativity and self-confidence.  This type of therapeutic journey is particularly supported by Systemic Listening Therapy, as one listens to specially selected and arranged music, active exercises and regular, detailed consultations.

The therapist becomes a significant relationship in his or her clients’ lives.  The therapist steps into resonance with the client, and at the same time, is the one who reflects and mirrors events, feelings & emotions.  This aspect is reflected in the words of the American researcher, Daniel Stern, who works in the area of infant mental health,

“In the beginning, I believed that I could investigate childlike experience by a purely intellectual approach.  Gradually, however, I realized that my interest was not based on curiosity.  It was the beginning of life I wanted to understand because that would lead me to the essential, to the innermost human nature.  In the end, we were all once children.”

When we talk about children, we always see their lives through our personal perspectives that came out of our own direct experience of childhood.  This affects us at a deep level.  In order to become therapists, conscious in body and psyche, with the ability to be in resonance with others therapeutically, we must have a high degree of self-knowledge, as well as the capacity for critical self-reflection. A therapist must have done his or her own psychological work. Therefore, a self-experience of the listening therapy is a prerequisite for the training.  After the training is complete, there will be periodic supervision to support the professional work with the independent practitioners.

The reflection and exchange with other therapeutic systems is vital to the work of Systemic Listening Therapy.  This approach looks beyond the work of auditory perception alone and integrates its approach with a variety of other disciplines and social science models.

• Systemic Listening Therapy is based on the ideas & scientific findings of developmental psychology and developmental neurology. A fundamental emphasis is found within the science of modern infant research (Daniel Stern; Mechthild Papousek; Martin Dornes; T. B. Brazelton; Bruce Perry); the sensory integration model (Jean Ayres, Inge Flehmig) and the therapeutic advances in developmental psychomotory.
• On the audiology and neuroacoustic level, Systemic Listening Therapy recognizes and applies the leading scientific knowledge in the field of anatomy and physiology of audition and central auditory processing: H.P. Zenner; H. P. Hessian; E. Lehnhardt; M. Spitzer; and J.G. Roederer.
• Systemic Listening Therapy is also informed by the practice and writings of depth psychology, as described and understood by C.G. Jung; D.W. Winnicott; J. Bowlby; J. Lichtenberg; as well as from humanistic psychology (Carl Rogers; Virginia Satir).
• For the latest practice and science of neurobiology, Systemic Listening Therapy acknowledges the recent work of G. Hüther; A. Damasio; J. Bauer; W. Singer; M. Spitzer; L. Eliot.
• The approaches of systems theory (G. Schiepek; H. Foerster) and constructivism (F.J. Varela; P. Watzlawick) are included into Systemic Listening Therapy.
• Included also is the field of art therapy (E. Wellendorf, G. Schmeer), the findings of trauma therapy (L. Reddemann) and of prenatal psychology (L. Janus).
• The philosophical and spiritual aspects of Systemic Listening Therapy have an integral place in the worldview of those engaged in the practice of this therapy.  Respect for the independent and unique individual spirit of all clients & practitioners is to be valued and protected.

Systemic Listening Therapy is a further development of the listening therapy created by Dr. A. Tomatis in the second half of the last century. Beginning in the 1950’s, Tomatis examined audition with a cybernetic working hypothesis. As a result of his experimentation, he was the first to prove scientifically the strong linkage between the quality of audition and the sound of the voice (today known as the ‘audio vocal loop’). His further scientific achievement was the pioneering discovery and research into the realm of prenatal audition. Dr. Tomatis called his applied research “Audio Psycho Phonology.” In this work, the connection between audition, psychological processing and communication was integrated into one combined field of practice and research.

New scientific and technological advances have now brought this therapeutic approach into the 21st century.  In the era of the original therapy of Tomatis, the emphasis was on the ear and the auditory process alone.  In today’s approach, the current fields of neurobiology and contemporary psychology are also incorporated.  Audio technology and high-quality digital equipment have also made remarkable advances in the last few years – enabling the audio engineering aspect of the Systemic Listening Therapy to use the latest, state-of-the-art equipment.

Characteristic aspects of the working methods for Systemic Listening Therapy are:

• Intensive and individually adapted acoustic stimulation of the auditory response pattern in a methodical, systematic procedure.
• Simultaneous transmission of music via both the air and bone conduction pathways.
• Scientifically-based application of specifically selected music, including the symphonic and concertante works of W. A. Mozart, Gregorian chants and, if applicable, a recording of the voice of the client’s mother.
• Therapeutic music is processed by a custom-designed electronically controlled amplifier and filter system. This equipment has the capacity for special gating, delays, filtering and channel regulation – important for the therapeutic effects.

The original concepts of A. Tomatis were further developed and enriched for Systemic Listening Therapy in the following ways:

• New, updated and validated diagnostic procedures supplement and refine the basic diagnostic methods developed by A. Tomatis.
• Objectives, methods and procedures are now integrated as a holistic therapeutic concept that is informed by the latest scientific research in neurobiology.
• Increased emphasis is placed on the important aspect of the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist.
• Technical advances have produced equipment that has been optimized for the highest quality acoustic characteristics and processing options. The new digital technology creates a greatly enhanced range of new possibilities for differentiated therapeutic approaches.
• New sound media were produced to meet the highest artistic and technical standards possible. The dynamic overtone spectrum of this media reaches a level above 21 kHz.

The concepts and practice of Systemic Listening Therapy are not closed to new ideas, but are open to the growth and development of the field.  We welcome the opportunity to explore and discover new ways of working with other professional practitioners and scientists.