There are few feelings worse than powerlessness. Unfortunately, many parents of misophonia kids are too familiar with this feeling: powerless to fix their child’s sound sensitivity, while we wait for research to find a cure. This can be particularly frustrating as parents’ online searches for potential treatments, coping skills, and scientific information on the disorder often come up inaccurate, confusing, or empty. In order to remedy this issue, and continue to spread scientifically proven information on misophonia, the International Misophonia Research Network team has been conducting educational webinars through Duke University. Anyone who has listened in to one of these knows that there is nothing more empowering than learning about the disorder from those at the forefront of research.
Over the past two years, IMRN and Duke has produced three webinars, ranging in length from one to four hours, and all focused on some aspect of furthering the public’s understanding of misophonia. The first webinar, which took place in October 2016, covered the basics of misophonia, defining the disorder’s symptoms and providing a basic scientific understanding to viewers. The second webinar, in May 2017, dove deeper into the research, and included a presentation by Dr. Suhkbinder Kumar, as well as Drs. Jennifer Jo Brout and Zachary Rosenthal. Lastly, in November 2017, the IMRN team hosted an expanded webinar class, geared towards providers who work with misophonia clients, as well as parents. In this 4-hour class, Drs. Brout and Rosenthal presented updates on misophonia research, as well as information on helpful coping skills that can be utilized by children, parents, and adults with misophonia.
In two weeks, on March 26, the IMRN team will be hosting another webinar, taking the form of an interdisciplinary panel of providers who work with misophonia clients. Many of us know that working with a group of different types of providers is considered the ideal standard of care for misophonia sufferers, however it is often hard to understand how each type of provider can play into a care plan. This panel, featuring audiologists, psychologists, and an occupational therapist, will shed light on the types of services each professional can provide for families with misophonia. This information will be helpful to parents, as well as other providers who work with, or are interested in working with, misophonia clients.
A large portion of this 2-hour webinar will be dedicated to a question and answer session with participants, in which viewers will be encouraged to write in relevant questions for the 7 panelists to answer. This will be a unique opportunity to raise complex questions to a team of experts.
For parents and practitioners, staying up to date on research, and retaining an understanding of how clinicians can help, is critically important. This allows parents to suitably advocate for their children, and clinicians to ethically work with clients. Empower yourself with knowledge by signing up at the link below.
