kodama

For tinnitus, hyperacusis & misophonia

What you’re hearing is real. What it’s doing to you can change.

Self-paced, coach-guided CBT programs for tinnitus, hyperacusis, and misophonia. The aim isn’t silence. It’s getting your sleep, your attention, and the places you’ve been avoiding back, so the sound stops running your day.

Find your program Take the 3-minute assessment

What the work aims to change

  • Sleep Nights the sound interrupts less.
  • Attention Less scanning, so the sound spends more time in the background.
  • Your world Avoided places and sounds back in reach; a trigger can stay noticeable without controlling your day.

Choose a starting point

Start with the program that best matches your experience.

If you’re unsure, you can take the self-assessment first. You’ll still be in control of your next step.

Sound symptoms that are new, sudden, one-sided, pulsating, or painful, or that come with hearing changes or dizziness, should be evaluated by your own provider first

For ringing or noise in the ears

Tinnitus program

An eight-module guided program for tinnitus, sound-related anxiety, and the constant on-edge watchfulness that can build around them.

Strong evidence base$300 founding rate

Enroll in the tinnitus program Learn more

For sound sensitivity to specific triggers

Misophonia program

A guided program for misophonia: chewing, tapping, breathing, and other specific sounds that trigger a reaction far bigger than the sound itself.

Early evidenceComing soon

Coming soon: join the waitlist Learn more

Why it’s worth your time

A coach reads your check-in every week. The approach is one of the best-studied there is.

Kodama is self-paced, but it isn’t self-help left to chance. Someone is reading your work and writing back, and the method itself has been tested for years, most thoroughly for tinnitus.

Who guides you

Veronica Hollabaugh, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC designed the programs and, as your coach, personally reads and replies to every weekly check-in. The guidance is written, not a live appointment, so it fits around your week. Who replies, and how →

What the research shows, in plain terms

Across pooled trials, guided online CBT produced a large reduction in tinnitus distress. In a head-to-head trial it held up against in-person clinic care. Current U.S. guidelines recommend CBT for tinnitus. Evidence for hyperacusis and misophonia is newer and still emerging.

A big drop in distress
Across many studies, people who did guided online CBT ended up far less bothered by their tinnitus than people who didn’t.
Pooled results from randomized trials (effect size d = 0.83, which researchers class as large).
Comparable to in-person care
In a head-to-head trial, guided online CBT reduced tinnitus distress about as much as face-to-face CBT.
Randomized trial, 92 participants.
Recommended by clinical guidelines
The current U.S. guideline for treating tinnitus recommends CBT, the approach Kodama is built on.
VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Tinnitus, 2024.

These are findings from the published literature on the approach and delivery format broadly, not outcomes measured in Kodama participants. Kodama’s own outcomes are still being collected.

Read the full evidence, with sources

How the program works

The modules come in a fixed order. The pace is yours.

Each module is a short lesson, a practice to try in real life, and a check-in that a coach reads. You move to the next one when you are ready, and you never fall behind.

A coach check-in follows your progress through the modules.

  1. Understanding what’s happening
  2. Settling the body
  3. Breath, reframe, and sleep
  4. Steadying attention
  5. Working with your thoughts
  6. Returning to what you’ve avoided
  7. Sitting with it
  8. Holding your gains

What it asks of you

It takes consistent practice. It doesn’t take perfection.

Kodama is a structured program, not a quick fix. Here is what the work looks like week to week, and what keeps it going.

About 30 minutes, most days

Short daily practice, plus one module a week (30–45 minutes of reading) and a written check-in. Eight modules for tinnitus, ten for hyperacusis, eight for misophonia.

Your pace, no falling behind

The modules wait for you. Consistency matters more than perfection: a missed day or a hard week is information, not failure.

A coach writes back, weekly

Each week Veronica reads your check-in and replies personally. It’s written, not a live appointment, and it’s what keeps the work moving when motivation dips.

Recognize your experience

If a sound has taken over your life, you are not imagining it.

Auditory, medical, and pain mechanisms matter. So do the attention, alarm, and protective patterns that build around them, and those patterns are where established CBT skills can help, without dismissing what you’re experiencing.

This may feel familiar

The sound is hardest to ignore when everything else is quiet.

You brace before a noisy place, or have begun avoiding it altogether.

A specific sound can trigger a reaction that feels far bigger than you want it to be.

Three patterns the program works with

Attention

Constant scanning can keep a sound in the foreground of your mind.

Arousal

A body on alert can make everyday sound feel harder to bear.

Protection

Avoidance can feel necessary while gradually making your world smaller.

Questions people ask

A few things worth knowing before you start.

Do I need a referral to start?

No, not for most people. For tinnitus and hyperacusis, if a hearing evaluation is required and you haven’t already had one, enrollment pauses while your own audiologist, ear-nose-and-throat (ENT) doctor, or other provider completes the evaluation and the documentation is received. For misophonia, a referral is only brought in if it’s warranted; most people need nothing in person to begin.

What does it cost?

Pricing is per program and is listed with each one on the Get started page, along with what’s included.