Thanks mainly to Rossa Forbes, who located me through a comment I made years ago at Will Hall’s blog, she and several of her readers took the trouble to inform themselves about my Focused Listening therapy and launch programs with a schizophrenic relative. My first contact with Rossa, at the turn of the New Year 2018, sparked a chain of inquiries that continues to grow. At the six-month point in his Focused Listening therapy, Rossa’s son Chris has had the longest exposure to Focused Listening among this group and a further background in music therapy and singing.
Reporting Period: December 27, 2017, to June 24, 2018
#1 Chris
Rossa has written extensively on her blog and in her published book The Scenic Route: A Way through Madness about her son Chris, 34, who had his first psychotic break during his second year of university in 2003. After a few years of accepting standard medical and psychiatric practice, Rossa decided to find out what alternatives there might be to a system that clearly wasn’t healing her son. He is currently taking only 1.5 mg of liquid Abilify. Rossa tried various therapies over the years along with her son, including the Tomatis Method of music therapy. In one of the chapters of her book, she writes that she was extremely encouraged by the subtle changes the music therapy had produced in Chris when he was first introduced to the Tomatis Method in 2009.
“He spoke more with his brothers about factual, day-to-day things (and less about philosophical ramblings or poetic flights of fancy). His body movements were a bit more fluid. He seemed calmer and more determined. He told me his dreams were more vivid and continuous.”
In my opinion, the Tomatis Method music therapy is among other things her son has done with music that have prevented further damage to his ears from medications and from some of the riskier therapies they tried.
About nutrient and vitamin therapy, Rossa’s opinion is that “it seemed to be helpful at the time, but didn’t heal or eliminate the underlying cause of the symptoms. If money needs to be spent, it is better spent elsewhere.”
Chris began Focused Listening on January 7, 2018. In my one email exchange with Chris, I could see that he was very high-performing verbally, a sign of considerable left-brain control, but with manic loquaciousness that tailed off into less rational thought, a clear indicator of slipping from left-brain dominance into more right-brain dominated behavior. In the spring, Chris began socializing better and in April met a dynamic new girlfriend. He became better able to get to most appointments on time. After a long history of failed attempts, he completed several non-credit courses he signed up for. He has taken voice lessons for many years and sings with choirs and community groups.
When Rossa returned to Switzerland from the US recently, she wrote:
“When I got home yesterday afternoon, Chris was out. He came back briefly to say that he was going out later with his girlfriend. He said he attended his one-day coding course on Wednesday and would tell me more about it in the morning. I couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate homecoming. He was mature, involved, and not around!”
Chris intends to taper off Abilify gradually after the family moves from Switzerland to the US in July. Based on these behavioral changes and certain details I have observed in his artwork since he began coloring mandalas, I expect dramatic improvements in his cerebral integration once he is off medication.
#2 Rossa
Here is a lovely surprise! Rossa also practiced Focused Listening every day (beginning in January 2018). She finds that the music therapy has (1) made significant changes in her energy level, (2) ended her lifelong nail biting habit, (3) helped to correct the focus of her “lazy” left eye, (4) stopped the dragging of her right foot, (5) made her less ambidextrous and more right-lateralized, and (6) made her sensory perception more acute. These changes are strong indications of a healthier right ear, of stronger left-brain dominance, and of faster speeds of cerebral integration.