Testimonies

Provisional page — the final content will be published later.

Documents in this section

• A Tribute to Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis (1920-2001)

  A tribute to Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis (1920-2001) by Billie M. Thompson — the life and work of the creator of the auditory stimulation method.

• The “BAT kids” — a Besson programme in an Australian school

  Filmed testimonial from Emerald Secondary College, near Melbourne: an auditory training programme (Besson Auditory Training, Martha Mack's protocols) for struggling students. Teachers and pupils describe the changes they observed — reading, writing, confidence. Video and English transcript.

• Mrs Pashou — “English was, for me, a language without sound”

  A German speaker, Mrs Pashou had hearing "blocked" in the frequencies of English. After the Tomatis programme, she testifies, "English has a sound": she can at last speak and follow a conversation.

• “Envoyé spécial” — the Tomatis method on television

  A report from the magazine programme “Envoyé spécial” (France 2, early 1990s) devoted to Dr Alfred Tomatis: the Electronic Ear, Mozart and the mother's voice, patients' testimonies, but also the reservations of the medical profession. An archive presented as a heritage document.

• The “bone voice” — a listener’s memory (1987)

  Toni Maha Evangelopoulos reports a public demonstration by Alfred Tomatis: lips closed, the microphone set down beside him, he produces a "bone voice" that the audience cannot locate.

• “My voice rose by an octave” — a session with the English filter

  Toni Maha Evangelopoulos recounts her first Electronic Ear session: set to the acoustic filter of English, her voice rises by an octave and cannot come back down — a lived illustration of Tomatis's first law.

• Paul Madaule — “The Dyslexified World”

  Paul Madaule, founder of The Listening Centre in Toronto and an early associate of Alfred Tomatis, looks back on his article “The Dyslexified World”: dyslexia seen from the inside, his listening-training programme and his own personal journey. Video testimony in English.

• Toni Maha Evangelopoulos — “From sound father to sound daughter”

  A Greek psychologist and scientific director of the Tomatis Centre in Greece, Toni Maha Evangelopoulos recounts her meeting with Alfred Tomatis in 1985 and the lifelong relationship that grew from it.

• Violaine Chrétien — the ear that listens, thirty years of Tomatis practice

  A speech therapist and practitioner of the Tomatis method for thirty years, Violaine Chrétien recounts how she discovered audio-psycho-phonology, and describes her daily practice: the listening test, the filtered maternal voice, Mozart and Gregorian chant.

• Gérard Depardieu — two visits to Tomatis

  In an audio interview, Gérard Depardieu recounts his two visits to Alfred Tomatis, twenty years apart: the adolescent struggling to speak, then the actor preparing a role in English through foetal listening.

• Famous voices and the method

  Public figures associated with Alfred Tomatis and his method: Maria Callas and Gérard Depardieu (re-educated voices), Françoise Dolto (convergence on prenatal listening), the Benedictine monks (via Doidge).

• Testimonies from the network

  Testimonies collected directly from practitioners and members of the Tomatis network. Each person speaks in their own name and has consented to publication. Presented in the original language (Spanish) and in English translation.

• The Benedictine monks who were wearing themselves out

  The case of the Benedictine monks of En-Calcat, deprived of their Gregorian chant after the Second Vatican Council: an unexplained exhaustion, and the "recharging" of the ear according to Alfred Tomatis. An account reported by Norman Doidge.

• “The bars of the cage are the noise”

  Daouba, a teacher hypersensitive to noise, tells how sound became a persecution for her — and how the sonic cure, by letting her hear her mother's filtered voice once more, unravelled the bond between noise, fear and the maternal figure. A clinical case from Dr Bernard Auriol, a disciple of Alfred Tomatis, drawn from La Clef des Sons.

• Historical accounts: Caruso and Daniel Sorano

  Two period clinical accounts at the origin of major discoveries of the method: the “Caruso secret” and the recovered voice of the actor Daniel Sorano.

• The encounter with Alfred Tomatis

  How the discovery of the method, at a congress in Neuchâtel in 1994, then the encounter with Dr Tomatis the following year, gave rise to a lasting commitment.

• Ménière's syndrome: two stories

  Two journeys in the face of Ménière's syndrome — vertigo, hearing loss, tinnitus — and the improvement observed after the Tomatis sessions.

• “Something had changed”

  In the autumn of 2000, an exhausted teacher tries the Tomatis listening sessions for her son, struggling at school. Concentration returns, and results improve.

• The journal of the first sessions

  The account, written by the parents, of the first Tomatis sessions of two twins born at twenty-seven weeks: the awakening of the gaze, of attention, and of the bond.

• The child who set it all in motion

  The support of a little boy with Down syndrome, followed from his very first months, who gave the authors the impulse to write their book.

• “I feel almost completely cured” — Long Covid and brain fog

  After a year of long Covid, a patient tries audio-psycho-phonology. In barely four sessions, a marked improvement, both cognitive and physical.

• “This technique is alive”

  A neurologist's view of the Tomatis method: a precious aid both in prevention and as a complement, because it acts upon a system of interconnected neural networks.

• Genesis of the Electronic Ear — A testimony by Christophe Besson

  Testimony of Christophe Besson, manufacturer of the Electronic Ear since 1992 and a close collaborator of Alfred Tomatis: the genesis and evolution of the apparatus, from 1945 to the present day, told by a first-hand witness.