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This workshop explores my recent publication; The Noise Within Tinnitus. It is structured as a play, set in a Dramatherapy session with two separate clients whose emotional health is negatively impacted by tinnitus. They are highly distressed, anxious and feel trapped with their symptom and unable to imagine overcoming this condition. This leads to one client contemplating suicide as being a viable method to enable escape. These common themes are extracted from my experience in this field of clinical practice working alongside the chief audiologist Mark Williams (https://www.tinnituscare.co.uk/) and ENT consultant Nitesh Patel (https://www.consultantentsurgeon.co.uk/) on Harley Street (London) specialising in tinnitus care.

The play explores the universal themes of feeling incarcerated not just by tinnitus but also by life situations, relationships and self-limiting belief systems that impede the clients from living a fulfilling life, portrayed through fictional characters. My current integrative model of clinical practice includes the application of Dramatherapy with strategies from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and trauma-informed theory and practice. My clinical findings form the material for The Noise Within Tinnitus and the foundations of my contribution to the next Scott Brown publication (Williams M, Mullen, J & Patel N. Tinnitus and Hyperacusis, Chapter 9, Scott-Browns, Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery Vol 1, 2026.)

The workshop will creatively explore the phenomenon of tinnitus and the role it plays as an internal satellite navigational tool to self-knowledge, based on the play and practical workshops I run for my clients experiencing bothersome tinnitus.