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I’m Don Turk.
I am an assistant professor of Humanities and Fine Arts.
I was, uh, working as an associate professor,
actually at Saint John’s University.
I’d been given a grant to prepare a course on listening
for, uh, psychology majors and uh, secondary education majors,
uh, and I had to expose myself to a lot of different types
of literature on listening, um, that explained the ways that
people listened and different varieties
of listening, and I came across a kind
of listening called therapeutic listening.
There’s a, a, a dimension to it which looks more
at the therapeutic effects that sound waves themselves can have
during the listening process.
And, uh, that got me really interested
when I started noticing that wow, people’s depression could,
for example, be changed with sound waves, or you could
get to sleep more effectively with sound waves,
or I started practicing with those things myself
and just became fascinated with the effects that it had
on me personally.
When I was operating as a sound therapist
in a practice in Colorado, I started working with patients
using, uh, digital technology and, uh, very advanced
sound technology that enabled, uh, the kinds of brainwave states
that, uh, I was interested in inducing in patients.
So, that was, uh, I guess, originally started back in 2006.
Typically, um, most people are, are surprised by the effect that
sound can have on their state of consciousness.
Um, a lot of skepticism, often times, will be a part
of, you know, a person’s disposition
when they first start this type of therapy,
but, uh, it’s very quick into the process they realize
that, wow, listening to sound waves
at certain frequencies can have [laughing]
a very strong effect on my psyche.
It depends on the problem that they arrive with.
You know,individuals that arrive with a, a problem
of, um, not having enough brainwave stimulation
and are suffering depression, they tend to, over time,
if, if used properly, the way that the,
the regimen that’s required for them is, you know,
recommending that they use their sound therapy,
if they use it the way that it should be used,
over time, they’ll notice they’ll actually be lifted
from depression. They’ll actually be happier.
It actually has a very positive effect
on their, uh, disposition over time.
Some classes, I’ve, uh, talked about the, um,
therapeutic listening literature and described that tributary
of studies that I mentioned earlier, you know,
that got me so interested in this area, I, and, uh,
and experimented even with some of the sound, uh, therapy bowls,
the quartz crystal bowls that, you know, I’m looking at now
with students.