Ease Your Tinnitus

CBT for Tinnitus

Compassionate cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) tailored to your unique tinnitus journey. Let's work together to calm the ringing in your ears.

Services

Teletherapy for Tinnitus

I provide kind and understanding third-wave CBT with ACT and mindfulness to calm your tinnitus. At this time I provide only telehealth services, for people in Ohio. Let's partner to bring you long lasting peace.

About

Laura Mackner, PhD

Ohio license P.5812

I'm a licensed clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience specializing in chronic health conditions. I've worked in hospitals, medical specialty clinics and psychology clinics helping people live well with a variety of health conditions. I also have tinnitus.

I received my bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and my PhD from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. I came to Ohio for a postdoctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital before moving to Columbus for a faculty position in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. At OSU, I worked with patients in various medical settings, conducted NIH-funded research, taught the next generation of medical professionals, and served on national-level committees helping set agendas for health-related research and policies.

While working at the OSU Speech and Hearing Clinic, I saw the impact tinnitus can have on every aspect of life, and how important it is to have effective, scientifically-backed tinnitus treatment. When I was ready for a change, I stepped away from my tenured position at OSU to pursue two separate clinical practices, CBT for tinnitus and equine-assisted psychotherapy.

For more information about me, here is a link to my CV/resume.

Frequently Asked Questions

CBT promotes habituation, which is the goal of treating tinnitus. Habituating to tinnitus involves calming the brain’s response to the sound.

Scientific studies have shown that CBT changes brain structure and function through neuroplasticity. CBT is a way to treat tinnitus through neuromodulation (neuro means brain, modulation means change).

Also see Why CBT for Tinnitus

Habituation is a process where your brain decides that a repeated sound, smell, or other sensation isn't important anymore, so it stops paying attention to it. Typically you don't actively choose to ignore it; your brain filters it out automatically so you can focus on new or more interesting things. Basically, it's your brain's way of saying, "I've seen this before, it's not dangerous or new, so I'll stop wasting energy reacting to it."

Why hasn't your brain habituated to your tinnitus? Maybe it's like an overly helpful friend, enthusiastically alerting you to hearing loss. Such an alert brain could be helpful for survival but isn't helpful for bothersome tinnitus.

Sometimes CBT is presented as simply changing your thinking or changing your behavior. Sometimes that works for some people. Your tinnitus might respond best to different CBT tools, tailored to your particular situation. Over 40 clinical trial studies that included over 3,500 people have shown that a variety of CBT tools work for a lot of different people with tinnitus. There is hope that it will get better.

Also see Why CBT for Tinnitus

Yes. I am only licensed in Ohio, so I can only provide CBT for people who are physically located in Ohio.

At this time I don't accept insurance. However, your insurance company might have out of network benefits you can use. I can generate a superbill that you can submit to them for reimbursement.

  • 50 minute individual session: $225 per session

  • No show or late cancellation (less than 24 hours): $115 per no show or late cancellation

  • Client phone call longer than 10 minutes: $50 per 15 minute increment

  • Care coordination virtual meeting or phone call: $50 per 15 minute increment

It's hard to know how many sessions you'll need. For a rough idea, we can look at the scientific studies on CBT programs for tinnitus. After an initial meeting, the average number of sessions was 8.4 in these studies.

To schedule an appointment, you can contact me via this website (click the contact button below).

If you're an established client, you can use my secure therapy portal Carepatron.

Please keep in mind that contacting me through this website is not confidential.

If you are a medical professional, there's more information about referrals on this page.

Resources

For urgent situations, call or text 988, call 911, or go to an emergency room.

For non-crisis support, call a Warmline:

https://www.warmline.org/directory

A warmline is a peer-run phone line for people who need support but are not in crisis. It is not a crisis hotline. It's staffed by people with lived experience of mental health challenges, not clinicians.

Tinnitus

ACT

Here are some ACT videos that some people find useful. Some of them refer to anxiety, but they can also be applied to tinnitus.

Alert brains are helpful for survival:

This video refers to anxiety but also applies to tinnitus:

Tinnitus can be like a one of the "monsters on a boat:"

Equine-assisted psychotherapy

I also provide equine-assisted psychotherapy for other issues at PBJ Connections in Pataskala and Galena, Ohio. While research supports the effectiveness of equine-assisted psychotherapy for many mental health problems, it is not a scientifically-supported or recommended treatment for tinnitus.

Contact

For established clients, use the Carepatron portal or SpruceHealth app for secure, confidential messaging.