Sound…The Seventh Nutrient

By Melissa East

I am a provider of The Listening Program™ (TLP) which is a safe, effective, drug-free approach that helps improve brain function, reduce stress, and trains the brain in auditory skills needed to effectively listen, learn and communicate.

The Listening Program is a method to train or retrain the ear and brain to process sound without distortion. When sounds are perceived without distortion, the auditory system is in balance, and this gives the listener the opportunity of being able to listen to others as well as to themselves. To listen is to communicate and connect with our mind, body, and soul. The Listening Program includes high quality music recordings with psychoacoustic (literally, “brain-ear” subjective perception of sound) and neurosonic (specialized processes that affect or modify sound waves) processes.

The music is all acoustic, strings, and woodwinds from the classical genre, featuring the works of Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi, Corelli, and Danzi. (source: ABT/Guidebook). The program is delivered through high quality approved headphones and CD or DVD player for an hour a day, five days a week for 8-10 weeks. As an added advantage, when TLP is combined with other therapies, i.e. occupational, speech, or counseling, these other modalities will produce more smooth and rapid results. It is recommended to complete two schedules of the program initially, back-to-back, to achieve and maintain goals. Results continue to be revealed up to 9-12 months post listening.

Most of my clients are families with children who have symptoms or diagnosis of disorders such as: Autism, Auditory Processing Disorder, depression, language-based learning deficiency, memory loss, seizure disorder, Downs Syndrome, ADD, PDD, ADHD, LD, behavioral and language issues. TLP is also for the ‘high functioning’ individual who desires improved productivity, creativity, and focus. Parents are taken through gratuitously, alongside their child, and many report positive changes in areas of mood, productivity, exercise, problem solving, relationships and sleep.

Listeners report changes in areas such as musical ability, memory, sensory integration, learning, relaxation, speaking, communication skills, reading, attention, cognition, and behavior. While these changes individually are cause for celebration, what touches my heart is how listeners are more in service of others — something the whole world can benefit from!

Transforming Relationships

• Adults who work in office environments are receiving accolades for improved work performance and are feeling comfortable, sometimes for the first time, at office socials. Managers report feeling more productive, realizing that instead of paying lip service to what’s not working, they are taking action and finding solutions.

• During their listening programs, children are giving their mothers accolades on dinners they serve, they are offering to carry in groceries, and telling their parents they love them, without any hidden agendas.

• Children and adults are acting more in the service of others. Can you imagine your child offering to organize your closet or shoes just because they really want to? Wives and husbands are also showing more affection towards each other and the little things that used to bother them before no longer irritate.

• Pets are benefiting too since listeners are treating them more gently and with more affection.

• Sibling rivalry is quieting down. Sisters and brothers are ‘getting off of it’ sooner and parents don’t need to step in to settle arguments as much. Some children have been able to calmly voice what they see as their truth and how they feel they are being unjustly treated instead of reacting with screams and tears. This has stopped neighborhood bullies in their tracks and in one child’s case, wholly changed how others on the bus and in school treated him. Children are also more accepting of consequences from parents and teachers since they are now less defensive and realize where they ‘messed up’.

• Intuition is coming to light in children and adults. Listeners are able to ‘hear’ the words behind the words and get a good sense of where the speaker is coming from. Many times I hear from parents that before commencing The Listening Program, their children seem to hear tones that weren’t present in their request like “please set the table”. The child would shout back, “you didn’t have to say it like that!” Now, with The Listening Program, language is processed just as it is, without anything added to it.

• Children and adults are also more in tune with their ‘heart’s desires’ and are pursuing activities more in kind with who they are, not what someone else wants of them.

When our listening has improved, when we are processing the sounds of our environment without distortion, only then will those self-defeating elements of stress, defense, and confusion fall away and put us into a more powerful position of being fully present and comfortable in our surroundings.

Melissa, a certified provider of The Listening Program™ is founder of Honeybee Listening Ltd.  Free initial phone consult 702-293-7793. email: Beelistening@cox.net  Visit: www.HoneyBeeListening.com