Helping Your Brain to Help Itself! What is Neurofeedback Therapy?
I have written a lot about my journey with ADHD both professionally and personally and I feel I have tried many things to support my son with his challenges, which you can read more about at ADHD, My Son and Me. 10 things I wish I hadn't worried about and the 4 valuable lessons I’ve learnt!
However, I also have an interest in how trauma impacts the body. So, in my quest to find a way to help my son whilst also trying to take the next step in my career, I came across Neurofeedback Therapy. Whilst listening to the seminal book The Body Keeps the Score by Dr Bessel Van de Kolk, I had a light bulb moment.
Dr Van de Kolk, who is regarded as the godfather of trauma and how it affects the body says of this therapy that it calms the fear driven brain, stating that:
"Neurofeedback makes use of the brain’s capacity for change to reshape brain networks. It is a way to directly train the brain to function better. Neurofeedback is a research-supported treatment to manage arousal, sharpen attention, relieve anxiety, and improve learning …without medication and with sustained results"
Not everyone knows or is able to communicate about a traumatic experience to a therapist, especially children, and not everyone wants to have to relive challenging moments from their past by retelling the story.
Neurofeedback Therapy helps your brain to move from ‘fight or flight’ mode and to permanently re-regulate the Nervous System and in turn the Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), allowing the brain to function more efficiently. This Includes the immune system which is vital for our bodies protection against mental and physical impairments. The NF therapy is looking to help you regain your sense of 'self' by helping the brain to help itself to regulate emotionally and physically.
What does trauma do to your brain?
Trauma takes away a person’s sense of safety and stability at a deep, core level and activates the amygdala. The amygdala is part of the limbic system, a deeper, more primitive part of the brain that primarily responds to basic signals about fear and safety.
Here, memory is stored as a lived experience with feelings and physical sensations that may not be connected in a logical story which is why trauma can be re-triggered and pop up at the most random of times!
However it is not 'The Trauma' itself that is the catalyst to ill health, it is how you respond.
So, How do you heal from Trauma? Is it even possible?
It might seem like trauma does irreversible damage to your brain, but that's not true. Our brains are extremely adaptable. Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to form new connections, explains why we can rewire our brains to reverse trauma's damaging effects
Some ways to help rewire your brain and boost cognitive function include exercising regularly, stimulating your brain with activities like reading, playing music, laughing, learning a new language, and eating a balanced diet. You could also consider many other ways of addressing stress and trauma outlined in my other blog 'Is your trauma making you ill?'.
So what is Neurofeedback Therapy (NF)?
When I came across NF my thoughts were, having had a lot of therapy, including CBT, NLP, EFT (basically all the acronyms, psychotherapy and other 'talking' therapies, somatic and alternative therapies and after studying Psychology for years in various forms) I came to the conclusion that I’m just so bored of my own story! This isn't who I am, it is part but not all of me.....
I'm not one to wallow and I certainly don't want to relive the experiences time and again, although I have a sneaking suspicion that there are repressed elements that I am not even aware of! And I am grateful that therapy has taken me so far but where to next? Plus, I am not convinced I want to give my son medication for his ADHD (and I have until Nov 2025 to find an alternative as that is how long we need to wait.)
What is NF? An analogy.......
"If you make a fist right now, you'll know that you made it because you have visual and tactile feedback [you can see the tips of your fingers clenching tightly into your palm]. And because you have that sort of power from the feedback loop, you could become a pianist if you wanted to. You have incredible control over your hands! Now, if I would ask you to slow down your heart rate, what would you do? Probably a deep breathing exercise. But how would you know that you've slowed down your heart rate? You don't have a feedback loop. On the other hand, if I gave you a stethoscope, you would have a feedback loop, and you would probably be able to lower your heart rate five beats a minute inside of five minutes." (Dr. Zara Brown)
Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback that measures and trains brain activity using visual, auditory and kinetic cues. By getting insight into your brain activity with neurofeedback, you'll have the knowledge necessary to have more control over your brain.
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Balancing Your Brain - A safe alternative to medication!
Neurofeedback therapy supports many different types of neurological conditions:
Returning to the musical themed analogy above,
low-frequency brainwaves are like a deep drumbeat, and the higher ones are like a subtle, high-pitched violin. As a symphony, the higher and lower frequencies link and cohere with each other.
A particular brainwave may be dominant over others and, if the client’s brainwaves are not balanced properly [irregular brainwaves], they may experience both emotional and neurobehavioral mental health concerns.
Neurofeedback is a tool to improve brain regulation. It closes the loop and provides high-quality information to your brain’s control function, allowing the brain to self-regulate and learn how to work better. Putting you in control of your own mental health.
Our brains are amazing machines, the most complex structures in the universe. And it was discovered long ago that our brains will change in response to feedback. However, because it is difficult to give the brain direct feedback, this feedback-based learning mechanism is rarely used. This means that when the brain’s regulatory system misfires altogether, causing mild to severe symptoms of conditions such as ADHD, ASD, depression or trauma, the lack of feedback means the brain doesn’t realise there is a problem. Just as it would be a struggle to drive a car without being able to see through the windscreen, or fly an aircraft without radar, without a correctly functioning feedback mechanism the brain’s control function can’t correct itself – it does not know how well it is working.
The brain can adapt and improve its performance by using a feedback control function to self-regulate. A bit like stabilisers on a bike, after some practice, we don’t need the stabilisers anymore. Neurofeedback has no side effects and integrates into long lasting sustained brain function improvement, so unlike medication which would be a lifelong requirement for those with ADHD, this method helps the brain to help itself!
How is Neurofeedback applied? It's child's play!
In your first Neurofeedback session you will be asked about 20 Yes/No questions regarding your physical and mental health (trauma responses) but at no time are we asking you about 'Traumatic events'. This will then indicate to the practitioner where to place the sensors for the first 15 mins and where to move them to for the 2nd 15mins based on your individual/specific requirements. After your first session you will be asked to review a list of 180 symptoms and these will be mapped to brain functions to create your neurofeedback plan. Your feedback on progress will be used to guide you through the plan.
The clients head is then measured and the sensors are applied according to the information provided above, first by cleaning the 4 sites on the head with a gentle cleaning/exfoliant paste and then attaching them with a special cream. After testing that the sensors have all made contact you are good to go!
As a client you get to watch a movie from a large catalogue and simply relax. You literally won’t feel a thing (apart from a faint occasional buzzing behind a cushion)! My son is a super fidgety 8 year old and lacks the ability to pay attention for long periods but he sat there quite relaxed (the signals being applied will help to create that relaxed state, and the promise of Robux was another incentive!)
The sensors simply measure the brains activity and feedback information to the brain. Once you find the right frequency you hold it there throughout the session and the brain then learns from its own activity. Read more
Once the 30 min session has been completed (45 mins in total) you then receive a reports after each session. Most clients will require 10-20 sessions and then they won’t need to return as the benefits are sustainable and lifelong however for more imbedded trauma or for severe autism etc you may need more. Each session that you return for you will be asked to explain how you have felt since the last session and then the sensors may be moved to tailor it for your individual needs.
For research, scientific data and information visit: www.braintrainuk.com
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