Exciting Announcement for World Hearing Day: Our New Book on Sudden Hearing Loss!
On this World Hearing Day, I’m proud to announce that I’ve co-authored a book with audiologist Andrea Simonson and psychotherapist Caroline Norman. Our journeys through sudden hearing loss were different, but they shared the emotional rollercoaster of SSNHL. Caroline went through it firsthand, while Andrea supported her husband through his diagnosis.
This book combines research-backed insights with personal stories from over 60 people globally, providing support, hope, and practical guidance.
Navigating Workplace Success with Hearing Loss: A Guide to Advocating for Accommodations
Navigating the workplace with hearing loss can present unique challenges. Everyone’s experience of working with a hearing loss will depend on the person’s type of hearing loss, their type of work, and the impact their hearing loss has on their ability to carry out their role. Whatever the situation, being a proactive and effective self-advocate can make a significant difference.
Advocating for Workplace Accommodations: My Experience and Lessons Learned
I look back on my return to work and wish I had asked for more accommodations. Following my profound sudden hearing loss in my left ear, I took several months to recover and adapt to my new sound levels. My hearing loss didn't come alone; it was accompanied by constant tinnitus, noise sensitivity (hyperacusis), and balance problems, including subsequent diagnoses of Meniere’s disease and vestibular migraine. These conditions left me feeling exhausted and off-balance much of the time.
How to Sleep Better with Tinnitus
"My tinnitus is keeping me awake!"—I hear this often from my clients. As a hearing loss coach, I work with people experiencing a wide range of hearing and balance conditions, from sudden hearing loss to vestibular disorders. Tinnitus is one of the most common complaints among my clients, particularly when it comes to sleep. Many tell me they struggle to fall or stay asleep due to their tinnitus—some for the first time in their lives.
Balance Awareness Week - Triggering Environments
This Balance Awareness Week, I’m raising awareness of environments that people with vestibular (balance) disorders may find triggering. I hope that with more awareness, more people will have some understanding and empathy toward loved ones and colleagues who have a balance disorder.
4 Things I’d Like People to Know about Living With a Balance Disorder
This Balance Awareness Week, I want to shed light on living with balance disorders like Meniere’s Disease and Vestibular Migraine. These conditions bring invisible yet significant challenges such as dizziness, brain fog, and unpredictable symptoms. Despite the struggles, I cherish the good days and strive to make the most of them. Greater awareness and understanding can help others offer better support and compassion.
Navigating the Emotional Impact of Hearing Loss: From Grief to Growth
If you’ve experienced hearing loss, you may have found it to be a life-changing experience. Often, learning to live without full sound not only means figuring out the practical implications, such as whether a hearing device might be helpful or the best place to sit in a restaurant to hear the people at your table but also means working through a landscape of emotions. Hearing loss not only affects how you interact with the world but also how you feel about yourself, and for me, the emotional impact of hearing loss was huge.
Tired of Listening? Understanding and Managing Listening Fatigue for Better Well-Being
Listening fatigue, also known as auditory fatigue, is the state of being mentally and emotionally drained due to the effort it takes to understand speech or sounds in challenging situations. It occurs when our brains become overwhelmed by continuous auditory input and is an associated impact of hearing loss.
International Coaching Week: 4 Ways I Can Support You to Live Well With Hearing Loss
It is not always easy to know where or how to begin living well with hearing loss, particularly when hearing loss is sudden. You may feel shock and grief, and it can be challenging to deal with both the practical and emotional impact of your loss. It can take time and perseverance to understand how hearing loss impacts different aspects of your life and the accommodation you need. It can be difficult to know where to turn for support.
As a hearing loss coach, I support people with hearing health issues, helping them to improve their emotional well-being and move forward positively with their hearing loss.
4 Tips for Building Self-Confidence After Hearing Loss
Have you lost confidence since your hearing loss?
When I lost the hearing in my left ear in 2016, I lost a lot of confidence. At the time, I was focused on the practical aspects of coping with my hearing loss and learning to live life without full sound, to pay much attention to any struggles with self-confidence. My focus was on understanding the best place to sit in a restaurant to have the best possibility of hearing the conversation, trying hearing technology and figuring out how to tell people about my hearing loss. My lost confidence went undetected for some time.
8 Ways to Optimize Your Audiology Appointment: A Guide to Coaching Support
While your audiologist can address all your hearing health matters, it's often difficult to remember to ask the questions you have during appointments. That's where I step in. I can help you express your needs effectively and get the most out of your appointment, ensuring you make informed decisions about your hearing health.
World Hearing Day: Changing Mindsets
When I was first learning to live with hearing loss I worried that my communication difficulties would make me look ignorant or unintelligent. I now realise that this is what the society I grew up in had always told me. So, with time, I decided not to listen (pun intended!)
Tinnitus Awareness Week
Tinnitus is defined as the perception of noise or ringing in the ears or head. The noise is not from an external source and can manifest itself in many forms. The varying sounds have been described as whistling, whirring, clicking, screeching, hissing, ringing, buzzing, pulsing, whooshing, or even musical. Tinnitus is a symptom of an underlying condition such as hearing loss, ear injury, or circulation problems. From the moment I lost the hearing in my left ear, I simultaneously gained these unwanted sounds. My life became noisier.
How to Enjoy the Holidays With Hearing Loss
The holiday season is in full swing. It is a time to be enjoyed, and to connect and socialize with friends, colleagues, and family. Yet, for those of us with hearing loss, we may be feeling less joy and more frustration.
If you find the holidays frustrating due to your hearing loss, here are 6 tips to help you get the most out of interactions with loved ones and get more enjoyment out of this busy time of year.
Sudden Hearing Loss Support: 4 Resources to Help You on Your Hearing Loss Journey
During my rehabilitation, I discovered how difficult It was to find helpful and reliable info online apart from the occasional article on hearing loss associations and charity websites. At the time of my loss, I struggled to find anything that encapsulated the whole sudden hearing loss experience - both the practical and emotional impact. There was also limited support in learning to live with a new hearing loss, and some of the forums I joined were so negative that I ended up leaving.
In connecting with others over the years, I identified a need for more support for people moving forward following a sudden hearing loss and began to create some resources to do just this.
Not Only Sudden Hearing Loss, but Also So Much More
If you have experienced a sudden hearing loss, you may find yourself dealing with much more than the hearing loss itself. Everyone experiences sudden hearing loss differently, and the emotional and practical impact can also vary.
For me, suddenly losing my hearing was not only sudden hearing loss but also so much more.
Balance Awareness Week 2023 - Triggering Environments
This Balance Awareness Week, I’m raising awareness of environments that people with vestibular (balance) disorders may find triggering. I hope that with more awareness, more people will have some understanding and empathy toward loved ones and colleagues who have a balance disorder.
Getting the Hearing Loss Balance Right: How to Enable Better Communication and Improved Interactions
Here is a short exercise to help you start to understand the balance that works best for you and take control of a repeating situation you would like to change.
First, we will establish the current pattern and response to the situation, and then we will determine a more effective pattern. You can then choose what changes you will make to help correct the balance.
Hearing Loss or Deaf Gain?
Deaf Gain is a concept that encourages us to reframe our thinking about hearing loss. Rather than focusing on the loss, Deaf Gain emphasises the unique perspectives and strengths that come with having hearing loss. Amongst other things, people with hearing loss tend to have enhanced visual and spatial awareness, a strong sense of community, and strong creative problem-solving skills.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
Experiencing hearing loss can feel overwhelming and all-consuming. Perhaps you are struggling to envision a full life with hearing loss. You may need to grieve your lost sound, the previous ease of conversation, or the sound of silence in the case of tinnitus. Maybe you are asking yourself, "Why me?" These are normal feelings and your reactions and valid.