“In my experience, the diagnosis of brain-functioning disorders such as ADHD is chaotic in that the same label is attached to vastly different combinations of symptoms. Hence, from a clinical perspective, the label is useless for it carries no information that would help a neurotherapist decide on a regimen of treatment. I tend to avoid […]
“With the development of relatively low-cost devices for brainwave biofeedback, clients occasionally inquire about the possibility of treating themselves or their children at home. When considering self-treatment, you should keep in mind that neurofeedback is not a stand-alone therapy. A widely held notion is that all a therapist needs to do to treat depression, for […]
“The frontal lobes are the executive portions of the brain. Consider them to be your mental managers. Traditionally, the left lobe is thought to control the rational, objective, quantified, and linear activities of the brain. The right lobe controls the emotional, subjective, creative, parallel, and associative brain functions. Frontal-lobe dysfunctions can have severe behavioral and […]
“The sensory motor cortex is a central location for sensory and motor functioning. Specific parts of the brain control different parts of our bodies and thought processes. The sensory motor cortex plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of learning, attention, and memory problems. This site is frequently used in treatment for both […]
“The other important brainwave band to consider at the occiput is alpha. When the client goes from eyes open to eyes closed to eyes open again, the neurotherapist should observe a large increase in the alpha amplitude during the eyes-closed phase. In the back of the brain, the jump up should be at least 50 […]
“The occiput, located at the back of the brain, is one of the most critical brain areas. In this area of the brain, neurothrapists look for several indicators of healthy brain functioning. If you are relaxed and your eyes are open, the theta/beta ratio should be around two to one—that is, the amplitude of the […]
How does a neurotherapist interpret brainwave activity? The task for the neurotherapist is to learn how to decipher and find meaning in the patterns of the brain activity that are measured. Today the clinical portrait that I obtain on a client is brief, consisting essentially of the history of any medications, neurological symptoms, seizures, or […]
“The significance of your delta activity depends on how alert you are when the EEG measurements are obtained. If you are drowsy, with eyes closed, high-amplitude delta waves present in the EEG indicate the early stages of sleep or drowsiness. However, if you are alert and attentive, delta activity over the frontal area of the […]
“Theta is probably the most important brainwave band used in a neurotherapist’s diagnosis and treatment. The significance of theta activity, between 3 and 7 Hz, is closely related to the area of the brain where the activity is measured. In most areas, theta is associated with hypoactivity (reduced activity), daydreaming, inattention, absence of directed thought, […]
“Alpha activity (8-12Hz) is related to relaxed attentiveness. Alpha, in general, is the parking or idling frequency in the brain. Your brain is an enormously energy-hungry organ. It weights only about three pounds in an adult but consumes more than 20 percent of body energy when it is working efficiently. Hence, your brain’s efficiency in […]
“Beta waves cycle faster than delta, theta, alpha, and SMR (Sensory Motor Rhythm) and are associated with processing information. When beta waves dominate, your brain is using a lot of energy, so it is important that the brain quickly ramp up to produce beta activity when required and, perhaps more important, rapidly clamp down the […]
“Clients are understandably nervous when they are “having their head examined.” Still, they know that something is not quite right for them, either mentally, cognitively, or behaviorally; otherwise, they would not be sitting in my office. “Brain examination” can be a daunting concept, and it is made more so because of the myths we have […]
The Brain Injury Association of America estimates that 2 percent of the population is disabled from TBI. In addition to mood disorders and anger problems, the common effects of TBI are problems with memory, agitation, anxiety, fatigue, comprehension, perseveration, motivation, reasoning, problem solving, rate of activity and concentration. One of the major contributions of neurotherapy […]
Children can learn to regualte their brainwaves by playing a type of video game, but only with their brain. For example, when the brain is producing a healthy pattern, such as reducing the amount of theta-wave activity, balloons move on the computer monitor or a clownlike figure stays out of the water. A brain-controlled Pac-Man […]
“The treatment I provide was once called “bloodless brain surgery” by a patient of mine who experienced a marked reduction in symptoms that had remained unchanged after many years of both conventional medical and alternative treatments. When clients tell me about their problems, my job is not to label the problem but rather to discover […]
Many clients tell me that after making the rounds of health care providers who have not been able to help, they end up in a psychiatrist’s office. Many of these clients, strugging with neurological and psychological symptoms, find that our health care system typically blames the client for not getting better. Hence, the referral to […]
Although perhaps surprising, self-regulation of brain activity has been practiced for thousands of years in meditation, yoga, and the martial arts. Elmer Green, at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, observed that people practiced in meditation produced high-amplitude slow-frequency brain signals when in profoundly relaxed states. Green further reported on the use of brainwave biofeedback […]
In 1968, in the journal “Physiology and Behavior“, M. Barry Sterman, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, published the results of his experiments training cats to control their own brainwaves. Later, in 1972, Sterman published the first scientific paper about using brainwave feedback to suppress seizures in a tweny-three-year-old […]
“FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: STROKES Q: I had a stroke four years ago. I made a good recovery during the first year or so but little since. My physiotherapist said that most of the recovery takes place in the first two years and little thereafter. Is there any reason for optimism four years after the stroke? […]
“Vincent had fifteen treatment sessions before he stopped worrying about me electrically stimulating his brain. The obsessiveness, or perseveration, is common in TBI, where short term memory is compromised: patients get an idea in their heads and cannot get it out. The effects of brain injury on concentration and memory have been well documented, for […]