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Our Services
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Trauma and
Psychodrama
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Treatment for
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Weekly Psychiatrist
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3 Psycho Therapy Groups
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21 Intervention
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Transportation and
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Mountain Youth Academy
can offer Neurofeedback to it’s youth.
• What is Neurofeedback used for?
Neurofeedback addresses problems of brain disregulation. These
happen to be numerous. They include the anxiety-depression spectrum,
attention deficits, behavior disorders, various sleep disorders,
headaches and migraines, PMS and emotional disturbances. It is also
useful for organic brain conditions such as seizures, the autism
spectrum, and cerebral palsy.
Most experienced clinicians are well aware of the limitations of
medications and psychotherapy. But what are their options?
Biofeedback is not strange, and it's not new. Few clinicians are
aware of brain biofeedback and how far it has advanced. Once they
hear about it and start to look into it further, you hear them say -
"it made sense" or "I knew I had to look into this further." That's
true for even very conservative professionals. They just have to be
willing to dig in. Most clinician who adopt neurofeedback already
have 15-20 years or more experience. It's clearly not the young
clinicians who pick it up first. It seems experienced clinicians are
more acutely aware of the limits of meds and psychotherapy.
Many clinicians say - they've always had an interest in the brain,
and that the idea you can train the brain and improve
self-regulation through biofeedback simply makes sense to them. It's
obvious many patients have very dysregulated brains. How does a
clinician help the client change the brain? Meditation, yoga, or
slow breathing helps clients change the brain. But many of the
problems patients bring need stronger interventions. Biofeedback
helps an individual learn to regulate their brain - to increase
certain activity, and decrease other activity. .
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Many clinicians are unconvinced or very cautious as they look into
neurofeedback. But if they get to a really good course that makes
the neurophysiology understandable, it can be an "aha" moment. (Note
- this isn't simple stuff and it takes when someone changes their
EEG you are by definition changing activation and timing patterns.
These affect many pathways and feedback loops in the brain,
including the thalamocortical axis down to the reticular activating
system start to understand those mechanisms, neurofeedback becomes
more compelling.
Seeing someone experience a change rapidly that cannot be explained
any other way never fails to amaze. The brain can shift states very
quickly. As an example, in many training courses observed, by the
end of several days of training, 80+% of attendees have noticed
clear, significant changes in state. Changes affect sleep, mood,
alertness or attention. It's not uncommon to see a migraine or
headache stopped. For some clients, changes occur in minutes - often
quite unexpected changes. Experienced clinicians quickly note these
unexpected changes cannot be placebo, and can only be explained by
the training. NOTE: Many training sessions are needed before any
short term transitory changes can be expected to be hold.
Though the "lack of research" or it's limitations is often cited,
that's usually from people who haven't read much of it. When
clinicians read enough of the research, and look at some outcome
studies, particularly with ADD, depression (small studies) and
addictions, it's very hard to dismiss. The size of the clinical
effect is impressive, compared for example to the tiny effects you
see in many studies on medications.
Many clinicians enter this field because someone they personally met
had an experience that was simply too difficult to dismiss. It could
be chronic refractory depression that's no longer chronic. Or a
really out of control child who's settled down and making great
grades. Those are two examples. But what's compelling about
neurofeedback successes? The changes tend to sustain over time. How
many alternatives see changes sustain 2, 4, or 5 years later? Though
it doesn't always occur, it's not unusual.
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