Your Empathic Audiology™ Neuroscience Based Experience
The Neuroscience of Empathy
1. Initial Consultation
Goal: To truly understand you, your concerns, and your audiological needs.
What we will do :
- Engage in a warm, open conversation about not only your hearing history, but also why your here.
- Explore how your lifestyle and communication challenges might affect your daily life.
Inspiring Story: Meet Sarah, a passionate 57-year-old artist, who was feeling overwhelmed by her hearing difficulties. During her first consultation, she shared how it was impacting her interactions with her clients. This heartfelt exchange allowed us to dive deeper into her auditory world together! To find the real reason for her being overwhelmed, it was that she is actually ashamed of her hearing loss.
2. Listening Session
Goal: To gain valuable insights into your listening experiences and struggles.
What we do:
- Participate in fun, interactive listening.
- Connect as we truly see you as who you are—sharing our experiences and expertise as it is in real life—pinpointing the challenges you are facing and addressing the real problems.
Inspiring Story: Here's Mike, a globetrotting adventurer who found airports particularly noisy and stressful. During his listening session, we enabled him to express his hearing challenges in those bustling spaces clearly. Finding a hearing solution for this travel stress.
3. Comprehensive Assessment
Goal: To thoroughly evaluate your hearing capabilities with diagnostic testing.
What we do:
- Conduct audiometric testing - hearing evaluation, dependent on your needs.
- Perform speech discrimination assessments to understand your hearing better.
- Tympanometry to assess your middle ear function
Depending on your needs, we may perform cerumen removal, a tinnitus evaluation, Vestibular evaluations, assess your outer hair cell functions, or your auditory brainstem response.
Inspiring Story- Lori, a lovely retiree and hospital volunteer, surprised herself during her evaluation when we discovered a mild sensorineural hearing loss that she did not realize she had. This revelation for her allowed us to craft a treatment plan together, not only for now but also for the future.
4. Recommendations:
Goal: To find the solution for your hearing situation.
What we do:
- If hearing aids are a solution, we will select the best device based not only on your hearing test but also on what you need them for.
- Our decades of experience and Empathic Audiology™ skills give us the ability to choose the best devices from the beginning, and if not, the ability to know them usually immediately. If they are not "the ones", we can try something else, as we have access to every hearing device manufacturer. You are not stuck with something that does not work for you.
Inspiring Story: 25 years and Empathic Audiology™ trained, Dr. Waugaman has had those patients for it just was not the correct hearing device for them. Patients do not leave with those devices. A solution is found for them. Hearing loss is very subjective, and no two ears are the same (even on the same head)
5. Follow-Up Care
Goal: To ensure you are happy and hearing.
- What we do:
- After you are up and hearing we like to see you every 3-6 months to check your hearing devices and
see how you are doing with them and your life.
- Clean, check hearing aids, and make any necessary adjustments. Get an update on what is new or exciting in your life. If nothing, that is sometimes the best thing too.
Inspiring Story- Jenna initially felt her hearing aids weren't right for her, but after a few follow-up visits where we made adjustments, she found herself relieved and much more satisfied! Never get discouraged, there is usually a fix to your problem, many solutions for everyday issues, or in extreme cases, we think outside the box
6. Ongoing Support
Goal: To provide continuous, heartfelt assistance and adjustments whenever needed.
-What we'll do:
- Offer counseling and educational resources to empower you.
- Foster community through support groups and workshops where you can share and learn.
We go out of our way to be there for you, even 7 days a week. Do not be afraid to call or reach out if you have issues. If we do not know, we cannot help, and that is what we love to do.
