Sheila Frick OTR/L:
Therapeutic Listening

Therapeutic Listening is a sound-based intervention that is embedded in a sensory integration perspective. It has evolved from clinical work built on a foundation of developmental and neurological principles. Because the auditory system has connections to many parts of the brain, sound is a powerful way to access the nervous system and affect changes.

Therapeutic Listening involves listening to specially recorded and enhanced music on headphones as part of a daily home program. The program is highly adaptable to the specific needs of the client. The choice of music, type of modulation, listening time, and individualized activity program vary depending on the treatment goals and needs of the child. By monitoring the child’s progress in Therapeutic Listening, the therapist is able to change and adapt the child’s individualized program to meet treatment goals.

Vital Links has developed an extensive library of electronically altered music for use in the Therapeutic Listening program. The music gives the listener unique and precisely controlled sensory information to trigger attention and activate body movement. The music varies in musical style, type of filtering, and level of complexity, offering therapists everything from familiar children’s songs to Baroque Era orchestrations to sounds found in nature.

Typically, clients will use Therapeutic Listening twice a day for thirty minutes per session as part of a sensory diet. When combined with other therapy treatment approaches, Therapeutic Listening can have a significant impact on the client’s functional abilities and progress toward treatment goals.

About the Speaker:

Sheila Frick, OTR/L is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and founder of Vital Links. Since 1980, Sheila taught internationally clinician, lecturer, and pioneer in Occupational Therapy. Sheila has well over 30 years of clinical experience, having worked in psychiatry, rehabilitation, and home health before specializing in pediatrics. Sheila expertise includes sensory processing dysfunction, sensory integration, and auditory interventions. Sheila has explored the links between Sensory Integration and developmental movement patterns through many avenues including the teaching of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen at Body Mind Centering, Marcia Monroe and Donna Farhi on developmental yoga training, and Peggy Hackney on Bartenieff Fundamentals.

In addition, Sheila has collaborated with well-recognized leaders in the field of Sensory Integration including Mary Kawar, Patricia Wilbarger, Julia Wilbarger, Patricia Oetter, Eileen Richter, and Mary Fiorentino. Sheila created and continues to expand Therapeutic Listening®, which has been taught to over 14,000 therapists worldwide. She also lectures on topics such as clinical neurology, respiration, the vestibular/auditory system, and various auditory interventions.

Sheila is the author of Listening with the Whole Body: Clinical Concepts and Treatment Guidelines for Therapeutic Listening, and co-author of Core Concepts in Action; Astronaut Training: A Sound Activated Vestibular-Visual Protocol; and Out of the Mouths of Babes. Recently, Sheila served as a contributing author for her section on Therapeutic Listening in the upcoming 3rd edition of Sensory Integration: Theory and Practice.

Sheila’s interest in further exploration of the impact of traumatic experiences on sensory processing and overall participation in daily life led her to training and later teaching with the TRE® organization. Her recent work in TRE® has influenced Sheila’s interest in expanding techniques and activities appropriate for children and young adults aimed at reducing stress, tension, and anxiety through movement and auditory based tools (Quickshifts). Sheila continues to lecture on clinical, practically oriented, treatment focused workshops worldwide along with seeing clients in her private practice in Madison, Wisconsin.