Toni Maha Evangelopoulos — “From sound father to sound daughter”
Testimony of a collaborator and practitioner
Documentary testimony. Toni Maha Evangelopoulos, psychologist, specialist in audio-psycho-phonology, scientific director of the Tomatis Centre in Greece. Excerpts from her appearances on Greek public television (EPT TV, broadcasts of 23 and 30 April 2010), translated from Greek and condensed.
An early listener
In a way, she says, she was “programmed” to meet Tomatis. As a child in a Greek political family, she would observe, from her corner, the conversations in her father’s office:
“I noticed that one person would speak, and the other, instead of answering what had just been said, would give a completely unrelated reply. When I would point this out, I was told, in good faith: ‘No, you didn’t hear well, be quiet, little one.’ But I knew that I had heard well.”
Having become a psychologist (trained in Greece, America and France), she encounters the same enigma in children said to be “distracted” at school yet perfectly focused one-to-one: “It isn’t that, it’s something else.”
Paris, 1985
It is her daughter, then in America, who tells her of “a French professor, a neuro-otologist, who works on the ear and on human communication.” They write to Tomatis, who replies very quickly and invites them. Setting out one from Greece, the other from America, they meet in Paris, at Easter.
“He had each of us put on a white coat, sat us down on his right and his left, and the man saw patients from nine in the morning to nine at night. He came out fresh as a daisy; as for us, all we lacked was a stretcher. He is one of the most joyful, most energetic people I have known in my life.”
Faced with the acoustic curves she cannot yet read — “red lines, blue lines, diagonals like a curtain closing” — she sees the patients astonished: “But we told no one, how do you know?”
“I thought it was something magical. And I said: this, I want to do; this, I want to learn, however long it takes me. I went and sat beside him and I learned. I stayed until the end, in constant communication and scientific contact.”
A lifelong relationship
“It was not a professional relationship, but in the end a father-daughter relationship — from sound father to sound daughter. It has lasted since 1985, and it is thanks to him that I came to Greece and took over the scientific centre that bears his name.”
And in conclusion to her appearances:
“Thank you for giving me the chance to speak about my very dear subject — listening — and about my beloved professor, who was for me a turning point and a change of life.”
Editor’s note: this testimony is reproduced for documentary purposes, as an attributed and dated piece. Its publication does not constitute a validation of the methods or results mentioned.