Who we are

Dominique Waddell with Professor Tomatis and his wife on a trip to Japan

The Audio-Vocal Centre™ was founded by Dominique Cannet-Waddell, first assistant of Professor Tomatis for the audio-vocal work and by her husband Justin Waddell, British psychologist and audio-psycho-phonologist trained by Professor Tomatis. Dominique Waddell was responsible for the audio-vocal courses and training at the Centre Tomatis in Paris between 1990 and 1997, having followed Tomatis’s audio-vocal training from 1985.  She remains today the person who has benefited the most from the Tomatis audio-vocal teaching.

Her departure from the Tomatis centre in Paris in 1997 followed shortly Tomatis’s own departure, who was in complete disaccord with the new management team and the direction it was taking.

Dominique Waddell supported Doctor Tomatis following him to London where she became the consultant at the Alfred A. Tomatis Foundation in both London and Edinburgh.

Following Doctor Tomatis back to France in 1999, Dominique and Justin Waddell created with the encouragement and support of Tomatis the Audio-Vocal Centre™. They currently work in the Versailles area in the Yvelines outside Paris as well as in the mountains in the holiday destination of Morgins (Valais) in the Swiss alps close to Châtel in Haute Savoie. See course planner in the left hand margin.

The Centre Audio-Vocal™ benefits from the integrity of Tomatis’s teaching and is particularly committed to the quality of the material as well as the analogue recordings which were fundamental for Tomatis. Dominique Waddell participated often at the original recordings conducted at Tomatis’s laboratory in Bec-Helloin. These analogue recordings together with the teaching of the audio-vocal techniques are at the very heart of the success of the treatment. (See our testimonies).

The Audio-Vocal Centre™ attempts to make the treatment as short and efficient as possible with the aim of rendering everyone independent of the machine (the Electronic Ear) through all sorts of advice and notably through practical exercises which Tomatis developed considerably in the last years of his life.

An experience of more than 30 years in the application of the techniques of Professor Tomatis have permitted Justin and Dominique Waddell to enrich the audio-vocal sessions with postural, breathing and vocal technique  exercises for adults, adolescents and children alike in accordance with their levels and age.  A solid psychological training is also used in the interpretation of the listening tests (conducted after every 15 hours of treatment) which enables advice and exercises to be carefully and effectively targeted.

Exercises are accompanied with precise explications of the different control circuits from the ear and are taught from the start of the first active sessions.  Controlled regularly they reinforce the benefits of the sessions and give everyone the means to improve alone at home at the end of the programme.

Sessions for the integration of foreign languages are also provided regularly throughout the year.