Misophonia, an often misunderstood condition involving strong emotional reactions to specific sounds, is an area of both personal and professional expertise for me. I live with misophonia myself, which means the people I work with won't have to spend the first three sessions explaining what it is. I bring that lived experience together with clinical training to help people whose daily functioning is disrupted by sound sensitivities, integrating evidence based CBT strategies tailored to reduce distress and improve quality of life.
Misophonia has historically had far less research behind it than anxiety or mood disorders, but that is changing quickly. There has been a noticeable multiplication of publications from 2017 onwards, and misophonia is gaining recognition as an important area of scientific and clinical interest, a rapidly growing field with new findings emerging at an accelerating pace.
Against that backdrop, misophonia specific CBT protocols pioneered at the University of Oxford, where I trained, represent an exciting new direction in treatment. Protocols developed there and at Amsterdam UMC show meaningful clinical improvement for a substantial proportion of people who try them. I want to be precise about what that means: this work is not universally effective, and anyone promising a cure is overstating what we currently know. The realistic goal is reducing the intensity and duration of reactions and loosening the grip of avoidance, not eliminating the reaction altogether.
In practice, that starts with a detailed assessment to map a person's specific triggers, their reactions, and what they have started avoiding because of them. From there, the work draws on attention focused techniques, adjusting a person's relationship to the trigger, and arousal reduction, tracked with brief psychometric measures before every session, so progress is something we can actually see.
Bringing together rigorous clinical science and first hand understanding, the book I'm writing aims to bring that same combination to people who cannot yet access specialist misophonia treatment, and to the clinicians treating them. It is still in progress, being written the same way every AICBT program has been built: grounded in clinical technique, reviewed carefully, and published only once it's ready. I'll share more here as it develops.
If you experience misophonia yourself, or work with people who do, I'd genuinely like to hear what's been missing from the resources available to you so far.