Tomatis techniques

Dominique Waddell with Professor Tomatis and his wife during an audio-vocal course in Japan

The Audio-Vocal Centre™ was founded by Dominique Waddell-Cannet, first assistant of Professor Tomatis for the audio-vocal work and by her psychologist husband Justin Waddell trained directly in audio-psycho-phonological techniques by Professor Tomatis. Dominique Waddell-Cannet was responsible for the audio-vocal courses and training in the original Tomatis method at the Tomatis Centre Paris between 1990 and 1997, having followed rigorously the audio-vocal teaching from 1985 onwards. She remains the person who has benefited the most from this pedagogy of the ear and the voice.

Her departure from the Tomatis Centre, Paris followed Professor Tomatis’s own departure – very much at odds with the direction his centre was taking and the new management team.

Dominique Waddell then followed and supported Doctor Tomatis in England where she was the consultant at The Alfred Tomatis Foundation in Ecclestone Square, London as well as in Edinburgh.

Back in France, Dominique and Justin Waddell started with the support and advice of Alfred Tomatis : The Audio-Vocal Centre™. They now work in Versailles in the Yvelines and in the mountains in Morgins (Valais) close to Châtel, Haute Savoie and depending on the demand they come to London occasionally for listening tests and assessments and some vocal technique work at the British Psychological Society offices near Old Street Station.   See course planner or contact us for further details.

The Audio-Vocal Centre™ has benefited from the integrity of the original teaching of Professor Alfred Tomatis and observes the strictest standards regarding the  quality of the analogue equipment and recordings (very important for Tomatis in the optimal energetisation of the brain). Dominique Waddell participated often in the original analogue recordings carried out in Tomatis’s laboratory in Le Bec-Hellouin.
The music is recorded onto metal tapes from vinyls of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gregorian chant largely from the Solesmes Abbey  (diriected by Dom Gajard) as well as the abbey of Bec Hellouin using the highest quality analogue material.  Additional recordings are made for the integration of foreign languages and some operatic airs for the teaching of singing (Caruso, Gigli, Tebaldi …)

Accelerated Listening Training™

The Audio-Vocal Centre™ makes the treatment as short and efficient as possible in particular by making each person as quickly as possible independent through all sorts of advice, with respect to individual needs, and also through the teaching of audio-vocal exercises which can be carried out at home.

Equipped with 30 years of experience of both the audio-vocal sessions and the audio-vocal techniques Justin and Dominique Waddell have been able to enrich the programme of sessions and practical exercises which Tomatis developed considerably in the last years of his life with exercises for posture,  verticality, breathing, the ear and the voice for everyone whether they be adults, children or adolescents.

These exercises are accompanied with explanations of the diverse control circuits or loops between the leading ear and the voice and are taught from the first active sessions. Regularly controlled, they reinforce the effects of the sessions and provide everyone with the means to progress on their own at home at the end of the sessions.

This set of exercises and advice is regrouped under the name of Accelerated Listening Training™ which contain, when appropriate, also some dietary advice as well as exercises to relax the eyes and ENT sphere by the American Doctor, William Bates.

Linguistic sessions of integration of foreign languages and half or full-day immersion courses, in particular of the English and French language are equally offered throughout the year.

Alfred Tomatis with his wife Léna in the Parc Monceau next to the Tomatis Centre, Paris in 1994

Internationally known for his work on audition, the listening function,  phonation, specialist in phoniatrics and particularly auditive neurophysiology, Professeur Tomatis started his activity wth singers before extending it to all the dimensions of listening.  He created a new discipline within human sciences : audio-psycho-phonology, based on the application  of the three Tomatis laws. (Verified by the Professors Molonguet and Raoul Housson in 1957 for the French Academy of Medecine).

Doctor and ENT specialist he establishes a “listening test” which capturing bodily and psychological dimensions, behaviour and interactions with the environment served to objectify and enlarge the dimensions of traditional audiometry. He invents a machine the “Electronic Ear” to rectify listening distortions in multiple domains and applications.

The Audio-Vocal Centre was created in 1999 thanks to and at the request of Alfred Tomatis who having left his Paris Centre wanted Justin and Dominique Waddell to continue to apply his techniques to help as many adults and children as possible to progress towards a better listening, attention, concentration, memory and communication through not only listening sessions but also practical audio-vocal work.

After many years of training he entrusted to Dominique Waddell the task of transmitting his teaching of the audio-vocal techniques and to Justin Waddell the task of translating his works into English.

Alfred Tomatis first created The Language Centre in the 1950s, to which he lent his name becoming the Tomatis Centre, Paris.  He left the latter in 1997, in disaccord with the management team.  He finished not being able to use his method under his own name and used the term audio-psycho-phonology or audio-psycho-linguistics.

The Audio-Vocal Centre  offers sessions primarily in Morgins on the franco-swiss border and for some winter months also in Versailles.   The former situated at 1,250m altitude permits an attractive combination of sessions and relaxation for an optimal integration of benefits.

Vous pouvez voir tous les livres d’Alfred Tomatis encore édités dans notre rubrique bibliothèque – livres.  Tomatis a écrit 13 livres en tout. Nous vous recommandons :

Pour commencer “L’oreille et la vie” (Ed. Laffont) qui constitue l’autobiographie du Professeur Tomatis est sûrement le livre le plus intéressant et le plus accessible pour tous.
“Ecouter l’Univers” (Ed. Laffont) “Du Big Bang à Mozart – à la découverte du monde où tout est son”, fut son dernier livre et son préféré.
“L’oreille et la voix” (Ed. Laffont) constitue la base de notre enseignement sur le chant et la véritable technique audio-vocale selon Tomatis.
“Nous sommes tous nés polyglottes” (Ed. Fixot) Les découvertes de Tomatis sur les liens entre toutes les langues et l’oreille sont multiples et très intéressants à tous les niveaux.
“Les troubles scolaires” (Poche, occasion seulement) très accessible et plein d’informations, explications et conseils pour parents.
“Neuf mois au paradis” (Ed. Ergo Press, occasion seulement). De la vie intra-utérine à l’écoute de la voix maternelle au bébé, jusqu’au développement du langage de ce dernier. Très accessible également.
“Education et Dyslexie” (Ed. Stock) est un livre très intéressant spécifiquement sur la dyslexie.
“Vers l’écoute humaine” (Tome 1) vient de ré-apparaitre en format livre électronique sur Amazon et BnF (Ed: ESF).  Psychologique et très poétique en même temps. La première phrase donne le ton de départ : “Avant le commencement était l’Ecoute car, en vérité, à quoi aurait servi le Verbe s’il n’avait eu la chance d’être entendu ?”

Nous sommes encore en train de numériser les articles, documents, conférences etc. et qui vont apparaitre peu à peu dans les rubriques articles et documents.