Neurofeedback Treatment in Utah

A Neurofeedback Assessment Includes:

• Consultation +qEEG Individual neurofeedback training plan
• Report of finds and a free Neurotherapy session
• Baseline standardized test of attention (QikTest)
• An initial Neurotherapy training session

Individual Neurofeedback Training sessions:

• 1 and 4 channel training
• Alpha-Theta Training
• Broadman train of 19 areas gel and paste free

The broad application of Neurotherapy applies whether the client is an adult suffering from symptoms like chronic headaches, trauma, or mood dysregulation, or a child dealing with more severe disorders like autism or epilepsy. Peak performance is another reason to consider Neurotherapy. Concentration, focus, and the ability to sustain emotional control are key elements to achieving optimal performance in virtually all areas where one strives for excellence. Athletes, artists, business executives, entrepreneurs or anyone looking to maximize their performance and function can greatly benefit by taking advantage of neurofeedback treatment to increase their full potential to reach their peak.

History and Development

Neurotherapy began in the late 1950s and early ’60s through the work of both Dr Joe Kamiya at the University of Chicago and Dr. Barry Sterman at UCLA. 

Dr. Kamiya was studying consciousness and discovered that by using a simple reward system, people could learn to alter their brain activity. This was the first-ever EEG neurofeedback training.

Along similar lines, Dr. Sterman ran an experiment to see if cats could increase their sensory-motor rhythm (SMR). A simple machine gave them a food pellet every time they ‘got it right’, and they quickly learned to control their brainwaves to get the treat. 

Several years later he was doing an experiment for NASA, again using the cats from his lab. This time, he was testing the effects of exposure to lunar lander fuel. For most the cats, as the levels of toxic fumes increased there was a linear progression of brain instability; first drowsiness, then headaches, followed by hallucinations, seizures, and finally death. 

However, some of the cats seemed to be immune. Sterman noticed that the cats who were immune were the same cats he had used in the SMR brain training experiment a couple of years before. The SMR training had given those cats ultra-stable brains. Sterman moved on to train SMR in humans to control their epilepsy; 60% of his subjects reduced their seizure levels by 20-100%, and the results lasted.

As a result, NASA trained their lunar astronauts to control their brain’s SMR rhythms. Fifty years later, Neurotherapy is still part of the astronaut training program.

In the mid-1970s, Neurotherapy caught the attention of meditators as an aid in spiritual development, and so wandered into the no-man’s land between science and religion. Conferences were attended by two people in orange robes for each one in a white lab coat. Soon Neurotherapy gained a dubious reputation as a meditation or spiritual tool, which considering the extreme biases of the time made it an unpopular choice for career-minded researchers. 

Neurotherapy didn’t fit the (now defunct) medical view of how the brain functioned. Though the empirical data proved that Neurotherapy worked, it couldn’t possibly work under the scientific beliefs of the time. Thus, Neurotherapy became regarded as ‘spooky’ medicine.

Out on the fringes of science, work continued. By the late ’80s Neurotherapy was being applied to attention deficit disorders, and through the ’90s to a wide variety of psychological and central nervous system-based conditions.

Over the last decade, the medical view of the brain has changed completely and the principles of neuroplasticity are universally accepted. Neuroscience has come to accept the interrelation between the central nervous system, the autoimmune system, and emotional, physical, and mental health. It has conceded that indeed, the brain can change at any age and that we create new neurons throughout life. The natural mechanisms underlying neurofeedback are now becoming clear.  

To most medical practitioners, Neurotherapy is still foreign. Many hold a view based on its old reputation and have had no exposure to the research. Old views die hard, particularly regarding competing methods that lie outside of their expertise.

Brainwave monitoring is no longer ‘experimental’. It is common practice in scientific studies to assess how people’s brains are functioning under various conditions of illness, stress, and mental difficulties. Patterns in the EEG reflect emotional and cognitive states and predict whether people are paying attention, or even what their mood is likely to be. Today, to describe a condition properly, you have to describe its effect on the brain. This research allows neuro therapists to target a wide range of conditions. 

With the advances in computer software and brainwave monitoring equipment, Neurotherapy practitioners now have affordable precision tools. With 50 years of independent development behind it, the methods have become highly sophisticated, and highly effective. In the realm of brainwave training, Neurotherapy has a half-century head-start on conventional medicine. 

SESSIONS

What Happens After?

The weeks following your sessions are important to making the new neural nets dominant over the old. It is important to use your new mental freedom to make healthier choices and implement the changes you need to make. 

The more you use your new neural connections, the more dominant they become. It’s the nature of the brain, and of learning any new skill.

The brain naturally seeks a balanced, stable condition, so after you have trained it is more difficult to get out of balance, and easier to return to balance. It is a good idea to take some time each day in a quiet environment to integrate the changes; you may find it helpful to keep a journal to track your progress.

To ensure lasting results, do not drink alcohol or use recreational drugs during and for several weeks following your sessions. Brain neurons become ‘rubberized’ with alcohol and drug use and fail to set lasting neural nets.

Will I Still Need Medication?

As the central nervous system becomes more regulated and symptoms subside, we often see a reduction in the amount of medication required to manage those symptoms.

This is usually first apparent with sleeping medications, as sleep becomes easier without outside help. 

Any reductions in medication should be handled by your doctor. NEVER stop taking or altering your dosage of prescribed medications without consulting with the prescribing physician. 

What is it like?

Sessions are quite pleasant.

You recline comfortably in a chair while sensors listen to your brainwaves.

A video, some music, or a game tells you when your brain is meeting the training target and when it’s not. Using this gauge, you are learning how to move your brain in new ways – stretching your mental muscles, showing your brain the way toward more comfort, more balance, and better function. 

There is a description of neurofeedback here…

You will be working one-on-one with a neurotherapist who will monitor and assist your progress, working with you to assure the best results.

What is Neurofeedback?

The activity in your brain determines everything you feel and do. 

While most people have normal brain function, they still have brain imbalances or chronic emotions that affect their day-to-day life. This is where Neurotherapy can help.

Neurotherapy is a way to train brain activity; it is biofeedback for the brain. To understand Neurotherapy, first, we need to understand a little about brainwaves.

Brainwaves are the electrical impulses produced as your brain cells communicate with one another. Brainwaves tell us a great deal about how you feel and function; your thought habits, stress levels, underlying mood, and overall brain function. 

Using sensors on the scalp, we can measure and monitor this activity. With brain analysis software (QEEG brain map), we can identify what specific activity is giving rise to your symptoms. 

Once we know the areas of concern, we can create a training plan to help draw your brain into a comfortable, efficient state. That brings us to Neurotherapy. 

During a Neurotherapy session, we compare what your brain is actually doing to what you’d like it to be doing. When your brain is nearing a more comfortable state, you are rewarded with a positive response on a computer screen. Usually, this ‘neuro-feedback’ is in the form of a video game, music, or movie. 

The sounds and images tell you immediately when your brain approaches a more efficient place and when not. When the movie plays, it is because your brain is approaching the desired state. When the movie stops, it is because your brain is heading the other way. 

Much like physical exercises develop specific muscles, the more your brain is exercised into reaching a more comfortable, more efficient position, the better it gets at it (see neuroplasticity). As with learning any new skill, it simply requires time and repetition. 

Neurofeedback Example

As an example, Jane is having trouble getting to sleep. Her concentration is suffering, and she is finding herself unable to control her emotional reactions. 

We review her case and determine that we will likely be able to help. We record a QEEG brain map, and can see that her brain is on high alert; the areas involved in emotional reactivity and anxiety are running at triple the comfortable rate. No wonder she’s uncomfortable. 

After careful analysis of her brain activity, we see that this underlying anxiety is affecting her ability to shift from an alert state to rest; the likely culprit in her sleep troubles. While there is no visible problem with her concentration per se, her anxiety is taking the majority of her brain’s resources and there is little left for concentration and clear decision making. 

Having identified the areas of concern, we create Jane’s Neurotherapy training plan. Her favorite movie is Love Actually, so we’ll use that as the feedback for her training session. 

During Jane’s Neurotherapy sessions, we monitor the areas involved in her anxiety in real-time. When her brain is moving towards a calmer position, her movie plays – a positive signal letting her know that her brain is heading the right way. When she’s getting a bit more internally anxious, the movie will go dark and the sound fades – a negative signal telling her that she’s heading the wrong way. 

The better she gets at it, the more difficult we make it – so if she wants to watch Love Actually, her brain has to continually shift further and further into a more and more balanced, non-anxious state. As Jane makes this shift time and again, she is learning how to return her mind to a calm position.

With more practice, her skills improve, and she is soon able to make this shift on her own, without our help. As we track her progress, we notice a corresponding shift on her brain map. She reports that she is better able to choose her emotional reactions, and is no longer being overrun by them. Her sleep and concentration are now better as a result. 

Her symptoms have subsided, her brain is now in a more comfortable position, and her brain map confirms it. Job done. 

Jane is only one example. We work with everyone from corporate CEOs and professional artists to those with severe autism and brain injury. Whatever the cause or symptom, Neurotherapy can be helpful in retraining the brain into a healthier pattern.