From 2000 to 2025 I have been a co-director/owner and clinical audiologist at DWM Audiology, a private independent Audiology clinic based in Melbourne, Australia. Over that time, DWM Audiology has become a leading tinnitus, hyperacusis, acoustic shock, TTS and misophonia clinic in Australia, collaborating closely with a range of health/medical professionals in a multidisciplinary setting.
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Along with the demands of being a clinician and running a busy clinic, my focus has been to analyse, investigate and research my observations of lived experience in my patients, develop effective treatment approaches and teach/mentor other clinicians.
I am qualified to provide Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), which has been a springboard. My approach to therapy is interactive and personalised, utilising CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness therapy and trauma counselling. I draw on central pain sensitisation research and evidence-based pain treatment strategies.
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This approach to tinnitus, hyperacusis, acoustic shock, TTS and misophonia understanding and treatment has led to patients consulting me online from around the world.​ I have now retired from clinical practice but remain a consultant and educator in these fields.
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I am regularly invited to give conference presentations, training, workshops, articles and media interviews. I provide lectures to the Master of Clinical Audiology course at the University of Melburne and at Macquarie University Sydney.
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Background
My patients have been my teachers. Tens of thousands of hours carefully, respectfully, with a curious and open mind, have been spent listening to thousands of patients describe the factors relating to the onset, development and persistence of their tinnitus, hyperacusis, misophonia and their associated physical and psychological symptoms.
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Evaluating my patients’ histories and shepherding them through a recovery process has provided insights into hyperacusis mechanisms, TTS pathways and triggers, acoustic shock and tinnitus reactivity. A process of considered and analytical reflection has allowed common, consistent and repeated patterns and themes to emerge, with a number of lightbulb moments.
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I became increasingly confident modifying or discarding the available clinical guidance on sound intolerance definitions, mechanisms, classification and assessment if they were not congruent with my clinically based observations, analysis, research and positive outcomes. Joining the dots, I have developed my own perspective on hyperacusis mechanisms, TTS and tinnitus reactivity, along with effective treatment approaches, carefully curated and personalised, to ensure each patient remains safe from symptom exacerbation.
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After gaining my qualifications at the University of Melbourne, I started my audiological working life at National Acoustic Laboratory (NAL, now known as Hearing Australia) for six years, running a centre at the tender age of 23! My commitment to hearing rehabilitation, including hearing aid fitting and supporting the emotional reactions to hearing problems, stemmed from this time.
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While working at the Victorian Deaf Society HEAR (Hearing Education and Aural Rehabilitation) Service I was first drawn to the challenge of providing effective tinnitus and hyperacusis management in 1995. There was no available clinical training in sound intolerance at that time, until I attended a Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) course in Melbourne run by Prof. Pawel Jastreboff in 2000.
I had the opportunity at HEAR Service to focus solely on tinnitus, hyperacusis and misophonia therapy for five years, running the HEAR Service Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Program for most of that time.
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The HEAR Service pioneered patient-centered hearing rehabilitation. Those principles were embraced and taken into DWM Audiology, in partnership with Ross Dineen and later Kate Moore. Acoustic shock was first identified in call centre employees by Janice Milhinch, a colleague in my clinic, in the late 1990s. I have worked intensively with acoustic shock and tensor tympani syndrome (TTS) patients since 2002.
I have found it fascinating and a priviledge to take a deep dive with each patient: to explore, reveal, evaluate, explain and treat their unique, hidden auditory, psychological, neural and somatic pathways. Once patients understand how the brain processes sound subconsciously and how their tinnitus reaction, hyperacusis, TTS or misophonia has developed, there is potential for reversal.
This understanding provides reassurance, relief, insight and a personalised, targeted framework for treatment. Importantly, this understanding is of therapeutic benefit by limiting, and often halting, further escalation. ​
Recognition
In 2023, I was awarded as an Audiology Australia Fellow, joining a group of 11 others to achieve this recognition. This honour was given in recognition of my clincially based reseach and publications, and for providing presentations and workshops that make a substantial and original increase in the understanding of my areas of specialty.
Emeritus Fellow member Audiology Australia
