Tinnitus Retraining Therapy at Home: What an App Can and Can't Do

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10 min read·Updated September 2026·Reviewed by the Tinnitus Relief App team

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is one of the most talked-about approaches to tinnitus, and one of the most misunderstood. This guide explains what it is, what the research actually shows, which parts you can practise at home, and where an app fits.

What Is Tinnitus Retraining Therapy?

TRT is a structured programme developed in the 1990s by Pawel Jastreboff, built on his neurophysiological model of tinnitus. The model’s central claim is that distress comes less from the sound itself than from how the brain classifies it: as a threat worth monitoring. TRT aims to move the signal into the “irrelevant” category, a process called habituation.

A full TRT programme has two parts that run together over roughly 12 to 24 months:

• Directive counselling — structured sessions with a trained audiologist or hearing therapist explaining the model, reframing the tinnitus, and reviewing progress.
• Sound enrichment — low-level background sound, often from wearable generators, set just below the tinnitus so it is still audible through the sound.

What the Research Actually Shows

TRT is widely used, but the evidence for it is thinner than its reputation suggests, and you deserve to know that before committing months to it.

• A Cochrane review of TRT found only one trial that met its criteria, and rated it low quality. The reviewers could not draw firm conclusions.
• The largest study since, the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy Trial (TRTT) published in 2019, randomised 151 people to full TRT, TRT with a placebo sound generator, or standard care. All three groups improved on tinnitus-related quality of life over 18 months, and the differences between them were not significant.
• A separate Cochrane review of sound therapy in general found no convincing evidence that any sound option is superior to another, or to no sound.

What that adds up to: the counselling and the passage of time appear to do most of the work, and the specific sound-generator component has not been shown to add much on top. That is not a reason to dismiss sound enrichment — many people find it makes daily life more tolerable, which is a reasonable goal in itself. It is a reason not to expect it to “retrain” anything on its own. Individual results vary significantly.

The Two Stages of Habituation

Neither stage requires the tinnitus to get quieter. Many people who describe reaching habituation say the sound is unchanged when they listen for it. What changed is how much of their attention it takes.

What You Can Practise at Home

The parts below are drawn from TRT’s sound-enrichment guidance and from general tinnitus self-management. Nothing here needs special equipment.

A Home Sound-Enrichment Routine

If you want to try the sound half at home, here is a routine that many people use. Give it 12 weeks before judging it, and compare weekly averages rather than single days.

1. Weeks 1–2 — Set up the sound

   Start with white noise or rain at barely audible volume in the room where tinnitus bothers you most, usually the bedroom. Note once a day, in the evening, two numbers from 0–10: how loud it seems, and how much it bothers you. Keep them separate.

2. Weeks 3–4 — Extend and stop checking

   Run the sound through the day as well: desk, reading, meals, calls. Every time you catch yourself testing the tinnitus, redirect for at least a minute. Do not test it in silence or with your ears plugged.

3. Weeks 5–8 — Work on the reaction

   Keep the sound going. Each evening write down one anxious thought about the tinnitus and a calmer, accurate response next to it. Spend at least 30 minutes a day in something absorbing enough to hold your attention.

4. Weeks 9–12 — Compare and decide

   Look at your evening scores as four-week averages. If “bothers me” has dropped even half a point while “loudness” is unchanged, that is the pattern the TRT literature predicts. If nothing has moved, that is useful information too, and a good moment to talk to a professional.

Volume, sounds and timing

When to Seek a Professional

• Severe distress — persistent low mood, panic, or thoughts of self-harm. Please speak to a doctor promptly; this is beyond any self-management routine.
• Complex symptoms — pulsatile tinnitus, sudden or one-sided onset, hearing loss, dizziness or ear pain.
• You want the full programme — ask directly whether the audiologist or hearing therapist offers Tinnitus Retraining Therapy under the Jastreboff model, or CBT for tinnitus.
• Twelve weeks with no change — a professional can see what a routine cannot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tinnitus Relief App

The sound-enrichment half, done properly

Low-level sound that keeps running through phone calls, meetings and a locked screen, so the routine above has no gaps. Free tier: white noise and a tone matched to your pitch. Premium adds brown noise, rain, 44 sounds and a sleep timer with fade-out.

White noise at your pitch — freePlays during callsLocked screen playNo signup · Works offline

Brown noise, rain, 44 sounds · PremiumSleep timer with fade-out · PremiumPer-ear control · Premium

Free · Premium optional · No signup

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