A.Tomatis - Centre for Listening Training - Zurich

Treatment for tinnitus, stress symptoms and much more

Put your trust in 20 years' experience and the successful A. Tomatis method.

The A. Tomatis method

stimulates the ability to listen and communicate.

Do you have difficulties focusing when hearing?

Learn to filter what you hear in large crowds.


Important connections in terms of the Tomatis Method

Development of the ear

Background - A. Tomatis listening training - ZurichThe Tomatis method assumes that the human foetus hears at an early stage in the womb, i.e. at four and a half months. This is common knowledge nowadays, but when Professor Tomatis advocated this claim 40 years ago, he met with fierce criticism from his colleagues.

Both clinical observations in children as well as findings by the English laryngologist Negus allowed him to hold firmly to his former claim.

Hence, from the start, the ear occupies a very important role in the life of every human being and has much more functions in daily life than we are aware of.

Ear as a source of energy

The ear is not only the organ for hearing and listening, it is not just instrumental for balance and man's upright posture, but is above all the organ which charges the cerebral cortex with electrical energy.

The ear as a source of energy gives us the strength to cope with our daily life with all its ups and downs, helps us to see problems in their true dimensions and hence to put them into perspective, enhances concentration and facilitates more efficient and more motivated work.

Unless irreversible injury is present, the Tomatis method enables increased sensitising of the ear to high frequencies and hence crucially improves man's general condition.

Vegetative balance

Sensory vagus nerve fibres surface at the tympanic membrane and external auditory canal. Being the most important parasympathetic nervous system, this nerve ist responsible for our vegetative balance. With its extremely complex and dense network of branches, it supplies most of the organs, which also often develop psychosomatic disorders, such as, for example, in the gastrointestinal area, in the heart area and in the ear, nose and throat area.

The listening exercise causes tension in the tympanic membrane, which results in calming of the vagus nerve. Reactions of a vegetative nature (appetite, sleep and water balance) are frequently detected at sessions mediated by the electronic ear.

Vestibular system

The ear has another important function. It is responsible for the balance and upright posture of humans. We can only hear really well in an upright posture. The vestibular system, or also atrium, is part of the inner ear and has every muscle in the body under control. The atrial nerve runs along the spine.

Hence, a purely acoustic stimulus also has an impact on the body. Only perfect cooperation between cochlea and vestibular system allows a correct sound analysis.

During listening training, we automatically straighten up, so the vestibular system can work correctly and can fulfill its movement and posture control function ideally.


When Professor Tomatis still worked mainly with singers, he noted that there was auditory laterality i.e. laterality. While they  were singing, he masked one ear of each person with a noise, which was played in through headphones. The singer continued to sing with the same quality, when the left ear was disturbed. However, if Tomatis disturbed the right ear, it instantly had a negative impact on sound quality, intonation, rhythm and volume.

We find the asymmetry also in the production of a sound. In order to produce a sound, the brain sends impulses to the larynx. The latter is innervated by two branches of the vagus nerve, the left one of which (reaching below the aorta) is longer than the right one, which runs directly below under the clavicle. The delay approximately corresponds to the duration of a syllable.

This has quite a decisive impact on the flow of thought and speech and voice quality.

Practical information

Falkenstrasse 26 8008 Zurich

Mo-Fr: 08:30 - 19:30
Sa: 10:00 - 12:00

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