I want to share about neurofeedback. It is a tool that many people do not know about but can be a valuable asset. I am going to share some background information on why I pursued neurofeedback. My hope is that the more people learn about it the more people can understand why they may be having some of the problems they are having and find long-term solutions.
As a Licensed Psychologist conceptually I think broadly about the issues that people have, and subsequently then the interventions that we can make, as being 1) behavioral (things we do), 2) cognitive (things we think/decisions we make), 3) biological/genetic/physiological, and 4) spiritual. These categories are not mutually exclusive and often making a change in one will affect another. (for example, eating is a behavior but it affects our biology and it affects our thinking - ask anyone with an eating disorder and they will tell you that restricting food intake will affect their ability to focus and concentrate. That is actually a motivator for some people who do not want to deal with the many racing thoughts of their trauma that bombard them).
When I started in my practice I primarily utilized behavioral and cognitive therapies. Essentially, if you do this - this will happen. If you think that - that will happen. While that works in various situations, it does not help all situations. Then one adds in the biological piece (through the use of medication, or through other means that affect our physiology) and we have more improvement. But medication does not always fix all. Sometimes it makes things worse. Sometimes the side effects are too much. And sometimes it temporarily alleviates problems but when the medication ends the problems remain.
Over the years my practice began to be more and more about treating trauma. There is so much trauma in this world and I saw the effects of that very close to home when we brought home our 4 adopted kiddos. Adoption is trauma. Color it in pretty words, but at its root there is loss and trauma. Living with our kids, and the increasing types of trauma my clients were sharing about, had me desperate to learn more strategies to understand how to help those who have experienced trauma. Please do not tell (or believe) an adoptive parent that if they just "love your child enough" it will be better. That is a lie and it hurts everyone involved. Trauma causes physiological changes in the body which affect behavior and thought processes. Add in if there were genetic issues (for example, there is new research which is finding a significant genetic link (up to 40%) for personality disorders which were previously thought to only be due to "nurture" and not "nature" and ADHD is 90% due to genetic causes) or prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol and you have even more biological issues to overcome. Then the current research on how trauma in parents affects the offspring?
Please read the above article on some fascinating research of how long term trauma of parents (holocaust survivors) and short term trauma of parents (9/11 attacks) biologically impacts their children. We need to understand the effects so we can intervene appropriately and early before more generations are negatively impacted.
All of that to say that we know that there is a physiological component that must be considered. We are failing if we believe that "just" doing or thinking differently is all we need to do to improve. There is a great 6 minute video below that discusses Polyvagal Theory (PVT) showing how our fight/flight/freeze systems work and the the impact on our emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. I highly recommend watching:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYvZUorQbrg
As PVT describes, we move back and forth throughout our days and lives from states of feeling safe and states of feeling danger. That is a great design for our bodies, but often due to trauma we (or our parents) have experienced we will perceive "danger" even when it is not present (TBRI therapy which is developed solely for the purpose of working with children who have been through trauma has a critical component of helping the child find "felt safety." Not being told they are safe, but feeling safe). That leads to our body being in an exhausting and damaging state of fight/flight or freeze when it should not be. Our bodies are designed to have a cortisol/adrenaline dump (part of the fight/flight or freeze response) to help us get through the crisis, then within 20-30 minutes going back to "normal." People who have experienced trauma often have cortisol levels that are 2-3 times higher than they are supposed to for years causing damage to the brain and body including the immune system.
I am one of those people. Despite years of elevated labs and many many "traditional" types of interventions (behavioral, cognitive, spiritual, and medicine) I am still elevated. I heard many of my clients share the same concerns - despite doing all of the "right" therapies, they are still "a constant worrier" or "always anxious" or "can't feel calm" or "get upset about small things all of the time." In trying to find alternatives I had not yet used I came across neurofeedback. Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback but it is specifically monitoring the central nervous system (the fight/flight and freeze system). I was skeptical and did a lot of research. There are many different types of neurofeedback but eventually I settled on NeurOptimal (NO) for many reasons (that are beyond this post). I believe it to be the best neurofeedback system.
I have been using the NO and have noticed things like improved sleep, feeling more alert and functioning upon waking, physically feeling calmer, and not getting as worried or anxious about situations that before would make me lose a lot of sleep. I have an iwatch that I wear to bed to monitor my sleep, heart rate, etc. My heart rate went from averaging in the upper 70's and 80's DURING SLEEP when I am supposed to be calm and relaxed, to 61. I have a lot going on with my business right now and feel like I am actually keeping the balls I am juggling in the air rather than dropping them or trying to hide away from all of the work as it is overwhelming.
Every day my husband texts me and asks me how I am feeling (yes, he is the best of men:). I am always writing back some complaint (this past year has been so hard medically) or at best an "ok." I was surprised awhile back that I was answering him with "I am good!" I actually feel...good. My pain levels are low. So low that I even have times when I experience NO PAIN. In church Sunday I even held my 3 year old grandson while standing up. Something I have never been able to do. Something that makes me sad because he already knows that Nana can't pick him up so he just bypasses me and heads to someone else. I held him Sunday AND had no pain during or afterwards.
I will be having more lab work done in a couple of months and I am very curious about what my cortisol number will be.
Nothing is a cure all - but understanding PVT and the benefits of neurofeedback in mitigating the central nervous system feeling like it is in danger all of the time can help with a lot of issues.
If you have questions, please ask! Just be prepared to get a longer answer than you probably want as I am very passionate on this topic;)
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