Tinnitus Help &
Hypnotherapy in Hampshire
Supportive therapy to ease the distress and improve your quality of life, in person across Hampshire or online.
CBT, hypnotherapy & counselling in Fareham, Hampshire, and online
Tinnitus therapy to ease the distress
We cannot switch off the sound, and we will never claim to. What therapy can do is loosen its grip on your sleep, your mood and your day. In person in Fareham or online across the UK.
Fareham, Hampshire, plus online therapy UK wide
Free · Confidential · No obligation · Works alongside your audiology care
Understanding it
You are not imagining it, and you are not alone
Tinnitus is the perception of sound when there is no outside sound present. It can be ringing, hissing, whistling, buzzing or whooshing, in one ear or both, constant or coming and going. It is very common, and for some people it seriously affects daily life.
The sound is real, not imagined. Its exact cause is often never identified, and it frequently sits alongside some degree of hearing loss. What we do know is that stress, anxiety, tiredness and how much attention the sound is getting all affect how loud and how distressing it feels.
That last part matters, because it is where therapy works. The distress and the sound are two different things, and one of them can change.
The cycle
Why tinnitus feels louder at 3am
Most people notice their tinnitus is worse when they are tired, stressed or lying awake. That is not imagination either, and it is the part therapy can interrupt.
Attention
The brain treats the sound as important and keeps monitoring it. The more you listen for it, the more it stands out, especially when nothing else is competing for your attention.
Alarm
Worry about what it means, or whether it will ever stop, keeps the nervous system on alert. A body on alert amplifies whatever it is monitoring.
Exhaustion
Broken sleep lowers your tolerance for everything, including the sound. By the next night the whole thing has more power than it did.
Break into that loop at any point and the sound tends to take up less room, even though it has not changed.
What the guidance says
CBT is the recommended therapy for tinnitus distress
NICE, which sets clinical guidance for the NHS, recommends cognitive behavioural therapy for adults whose tinnitus is affecting their wellbeing and daily life. It is the psychological approach with the strongest evidence behind it, and the European guideline takes the same position.
In practice, waiting lists for tinnitus-specific CBT on the NHS can be long, and provision varies a great deal by area. We offer CBT privately, and it is a good place to start if the sound has begun to dominate your sleep, your mood or your concentration.
To be clear about what CBT does: it does not reduce the volume of the sound. It changes the alarm, the attention and the meaning attached to it, which is what most people actually need help with.
More about CBT at OLIPHow hypnotherapy helps
Easing the distress, not the ears
Hypnotherapy does not remove the sound, and anyone telling you otherwise is overpromising. What many people find is that deep relaxation makes the sound easier to live with, particularly at night.
- Shifts where your attention sits, so the sound takes up less space in your awareness
- Calms the underlying anxiety, which commonly makes tinnitus feel more intense
- Supports sleep, which is where tinnitus does most of its damage
The research behind hypnotherapy for tinnitus is thinner than for CBT, and we would rather say that than not. Many people use the two together.
The wider impact
How tinnitus affects daily life
Tinnitus is rarely just about sound. The knock-on effects are usually what bring people to us.
Sleep and concentration
Broken nights and difficulty focusing lead to fatigue and a shorter fuse. This is the effect people most often want addressed first.
Mood and anxiety
Tinnitus is closely linked with anxiety, low mood and a sense of helplessness, particularly when you have been told nothing can be done.
Social life
Noisy places become harder work, and it is easy to start declining things. Withdrawing tends to make everything else feel worse.
There is a way forward
A calmer relationship with the sound
Many people reach a point where the tinnitus is still there but no longer runs the day. It stops being the first thing they notice in the morning and the thing they brace against at night. That shift is the realistic goal, and it is a meaningful one.
If you have been told to just live with it and left to get on with it, this is the part nobody helped you with.
No surprises
What happens when you get in touch
- 1
You send a message or call
A line or two is plenty. It helps to say whether you have already seen a GP or audiologist, but it is not a requirement.
- 2
A free 15 minute call
A relaxed, confidential chat with an experienced therapist about what the tinnitus is affecting most. No cost, no obligation.
- 3
We match you with the right therapist
We suggest the approach and therapist we think fits, in person in Fareham or online, and you decide whether to start.
CBT and hypnotherapy from £90 a session. Counselling from £72. See all fees
Good to know
Tinnitus questions, answered
Can hypnotherapy cure my tinnitus?
No, and we would never promise that. Hypnotherapy does not remove the sound. What it can do is help ease the distress, anxiety and sleep problems that come with tinnitus, so it feels more manageable. It works alongside medical care, not instead of it.
What is the best therapy for tinnitus?
For the distress side of tinnitus, cognitive behavioural therapy has the strongest evidence and is what NICE recommends for adults whose tinnitus is affecting their wellbeing and daily life. Hypnotherapy and counselling are used widely too and many people find them helpful, though the research behind them is thinner. We will talk through what suits you on the free call.
Should I see my GP or an audiologist too?
Yes, and please do this first. It matters particularly if your tinnitus is new, in one ear only, pulsing in time with your heartbeat, or comes with hearing loss or dizziness. A GP or audiologist can check for underlying causes and advise on hearing aids or sound therapy, and our work then supports the emotional side alongside that.
Can therapy help me sleep?
Sleep is one of the areas people most often report improving. Tinnitus tends to feel worse at night when nothing else is competing for your attention, and both CBT and hypnotherapy work directly on that. Better sleep then makes the daytime easier, which is why it is usually where we start.
I have had tinnitus for years. Can therapy still help?
Yes. How long you have had it matters far less than how much it is currently affecting you. Long-standing distress can still ease, and many of the people we see have lived with tinnitus for a decade or more before deciding to do something about the impact.
Will the noise ever go away?
For some people it does fade or become intermittent over time, and for others it does not. We cannot promise either way, and we would be cautious of anyone who does. What tends to change reliably is how much attention and distress it takes up, which for most people is the thing that was making life hard.
Is this the same as sound therapy or a tinnitus masker?
No. Sound therapy and maskers work on what you hear and are usually provided through audiology. We work on the distress, the sleep and the attention side. The two go together well, and we would encourage you to pursue both.
How many sessions will I need?
It varies. Some people want short, focused work on sleep or on the anxiety spiral. Others want longer support, particularly where tinnitus arrived alongside another difficult change such as hearing loss. You will get an honest sense of it after the first session or two.
Is support available online?
Yes. We offer sessions in person at our Fareham practice and online across the UK, so you can take part from home. Online works well for this kind of work, and it means you can practise in the room where you actually struggle at night.
Is it confidential?
Yes. Your sessions are private and treated with the strictest confidence, and nothing is shared with family, employers or your GP without your agreement.
Whenever you are ready, we are here
Start with a free 15 minute call. A relaxed, confidential conversation with an experienced therapist, a chance to be heard and to ask anything, with no cost and no obligation.