About

Who’s behind Kodama

Kodama exists because tinnitus, hyperacusis, and misophonia distress is real, treatable, and underserved, and because the people living with it deserve a program built on evidence, not reassurance alone.

  • Designed by a PMHNP-BC

    Content, methodology, and evidence base

  • One coach, every week

    No rotating team, no re-explaining

  • Typically within 48 hours

    On every check-in you submit

Why Kodama exists

What you’re hearing or experiencing is real. The effect it has on your attention, sleep, emotional well-being, and daily life is also real, and that part of the experience can change.

People with sound-related distress are sometimes left without a clear next step once the medical work-up is complete. They may be told that nothing dangerous was found, or that they simply need to live with the symptom. Although that information may be medically reassuring, reassurance alone does not teach the brain and nervous system how to respond differently.

Kodama exists to provide a structured, clinician-designed way to work on that distress at your own pace.

A clear medical work-up can rule out urgent causes. It does not make the distress unreal, or mean there is nothing left to work on.

Program design

Veronica Hollabaugh, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC

Program designer

Veronica Hollabaugh

MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC · Board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

Kodama’s content, clinical methodology, safety framework, and evidence base were designed by Veronica. She also writes every check-in reply personally, in the coach role.

These credentials describe the expertise behind the program. They do not mean that Kodama provides individualized psychiatric treatment, medical care, or psychotherapy.

Kodama was created at the intersection of neurotology and mental health.

Through her work as an ENT Administrator and Otology Clinical Administrator, Veronica works alongside a team of neurotologists and has sustained, firsthand exposure to the care experiences of people with tinnitus, hyperacusis, misophonia, dizziness, and other complex otologic concerns.

She understands how discouraging it can be when symptoms continue to affect sleep, concentration, emotional well-being, and daily life, even after testing has ruled out an urgent medical cause or no additional medical intervention is recommended.

As a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Veronica also understands the attention, threat, arousal, avoidance, and sleep processes that can intensify sound-related distress. Kodama brings these two perspectives together: respect for appropriate medical evaluation and structured support for the distress that may remain afterward.

Veronica’s work in neurotology gives her a close understanding of the care pathway surrounding these conditions: the uncertainty before evaluation, the relief or frustration that can follow testing, the difficulty of finding specialized support, and the gap that often remains between medical reassurance and meaningful improvement in daily life.

Her psychiatric training informs the behavioral side of the program, including how attention, interpretation, nervous-system arousal, sleep disruption, avoidance, and repeated monitoring can reinforce distress.

This combined background shapes a program that:

  • Takes sound-related symptoms seriously
  • Respects the importance of appropriate medical evaluation
  • Does not treat distress as imaginary or “just anxiety”
  • Focuses on evidence-based, changeable processes
  • Recognizes when a participant’s needs fall outside the program’s scope

Veronica is not a neurotologist, audiologist, or otologist, and Kodama does not replace medical evaluation or treatment. Her neurotology experience comes from working within the specialty and alongside the physicians who diagnose and medically manage these conditions.

Who provides your guidance

Exactly what you get, what you don’t, and where the boundaries sit, stated plainly before you enroll.

Who repliesVeronica Hollabaugh, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC

Veronica Hollabaugh, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC, a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. The same person who designed the program writes every check-in reply personally, as your coach.

ContinuityThe same person, every week

The same person, every week, for as long as you’re enrolled, not a rotating team.

Response windowTypically within 48 hours

Typically within 48 hours, outside of holidays or planned time away.

What replies areProtocol guidance

Protocol guidance, not individual psychotherapy, psychiatric treatment, medical advice, or open-ended advice outside the program’s method. Replies reflect what you report against the program’s standardized protocol and point you to the material that fits, so the same quality of guidance can scale to every participant.

What can be individualizedPacing and module emphasis

Pacing, and which pathway or module gets emphasis, based on what you report. The underlying protocol itself isn’t rewritten session-to-session, and replies don’t diagnose, prescribe, or substitute for individual psychotherapy.

When needs exceed our scopeYou’re referred out

If a check-in shows a medical or psychiatric need beyond what the program addresses, you’re referred out (to your own provider, a specialist, or crisis resources), following the same fixed safety rules applied to every check-in.

AvailabilityParticipants in any state

Because replies are protocol guidance rather than individual clinical treatment, Kodama is available to participants in any state.

The evidence behind the program design

Kodama draws on cognitive behavioral therapy for sound-related distress. Evidence strength varies by condition, and we would rather show you where it is thin than imply it is uniform.

  • Tinnitus

    Most extensively studied

    Cognitive behavioral therapy for tinnitus distress has the deepest trial base of the three conditions we work with.

  • Hyperacusis

    Emerging evidence

    A newer literature with fewer controlled trials, drawing on shared mechanisms with tinnitus distress.

  • Misophonia

    Earliest evidence base

    The youngest evidence base of the three. We name the limits rather than overstate what is known.

Read the evidence page: named sources and honest limitations

Questions

About Kodama, its programs, or who’s behind them: a real person reads every message.

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