About The Author

Why write a book about my experience as a woman with a complex physical disability? After all, I am one of so many. Like so many others, my story may not be important, but how I achieved silence is essential. When I was growing up, prejudice and dysfunction were rife in disability services. Then again, the special needs system seemed to support others well. The problem was that the ‘one size fits all’ policy did not fit me. I was different as far back as I can remember. I did not identify with disability at all because I did not see the point as an individual.

Like many children, I developed self-awareness; with this, my hopes and dreams were like those of other children. The only difference was that the imposed idea that kids like me would not amount to much moulded the thinking of, let us say, those in authority who could shape how life would turn out for me. I now have a fulfilling career I enjoy was not the life that some expected me to have. However, this book is not an autobiography of a woman with a physical disability, but an account of how trauma had robbed me of silence and the process of sorting through my trauma to find silence again.

The Returning Silence is a book I wished I could have read when I experienced tinnitus and then had to listen to the unsatisfactory explanations of medical professionals related to the subject. I have a Ph.D. in an unrelated subject, have no formal background in either hypnosis or psychology, and claim not to be an expert. Therefore, this book is not the ultimate guide to recovering from tinnitus, but it will take you on a personal journey to better mental health and permanent silence. Building on my hypnotherapist David Corr's applied knowledge, I am sharing many years of personal research and experimentation into subconscious trauma, which gave me control over tinnitus and its effects. You may have tinnitus and have no hope of recovery, are interested in hypnosis and the subconscious, or are curious to know my personal story.