Neurofeedback for PTSD
Trauma:
Trauma (whether from a one-time dramatic event or from a repetitive type, stemming from childhood) causes our central nervous system (CNS) to be on high alert. Whether the event/events took place today or years ago, the brain has changed to accommodate that traumatic experience. It’s as if a robber has come into a house causing panic to the residents of the home. The family (in the house ) all experience an emergency response to the event. Yet for the person who has PTSD or lasting symptoms from trauma, he or she experiences that robber, in his or her brain every day. The metaphorical robber never leaves the system. The stress from the event is part of a continual loop that raises stress hormones, anxiety levels, and hyper vigilance. Even though the event presents no current danger or threat, the CNS cannot escape the event. Even if a person can acknowledge something on a conscious level as having happened in the past, they will still be unable to convince the brain and the CNS that the trauma is not occurring in the present moment. It’s as confounding as it is painful for those who suffer. Trauma, without intervention, will remain trapped in the right brain, assaulting its host without mercy and causing damage to the brain.
PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs in approximately 10% of those who have been subjected to traumatic events which are outside the range of everyday life experience. This 10% is made up of people who have an attachment trauma (disorder) which takes place during the first 18 months of life. Afterwards, these people become vulnerable to trauma which could include: abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual), accidents, witnessing something horrific, receiving shocking news, exposure to combat, or unrelenting grief. PTSD can also be a result of ongoing child neglect or stress.
The symptoms of trauma and PTSD can vary from states of extreme hyper vigilance with anxiety, disturbing nightmares, exaggerated startle responses, and social withdrawal. Painful memories, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks are recurring symptom of PTSD. Dissociation is one of the most common defense mechanisms that occurs with trauma. And due to this, they often can only talk about the trauma in a dissociative state. Otherwise, left brain language for the right brain phenomenon is not available. Other issues often associated with trauma are insomnia, lack of focus and concentration, phobias, depression, alcoholism, addictions, mood lability, and unstable relational and behavioral patterns.
Whether it’s the pioneering work of Dr. Eugene Peniston at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Fort Lyons, Colorado, and Dr. Carol Manchester in Cincinnati, Ohio, there is new hope for those who have been held captive to traumatic events from the past. The brain can literally be trained out of the destructive brainwave loops that keep the PTSD active. Using the Brainpaint System for Neurofeedback , we have permanently eliminated the symptoms of PTSD from our clients who have suffered, many for most of their lives.
Neurofeedback Works
After a comprehensive assessment, the practitioner and the Brainpaint system design a set of protocols designed to benefit the client suffering from a host of issues, including trauma. The computer then offers auditory and visual feedback to encourage the client in generating more desirable brain rhythms. This “neuro-feed-back” actually guides the client to a more calm state. In fact, using the slow wave, alpha theta protocol, Clients are in a deep state of relaxation in which they are able to integrate trapped trauma and difficult material from the right brain into the left brain where language and logic live. Clients begin to feel a tremendous sense of empowerment as they take back their lives.
Some studies suggest that 80% of the PTSD symptoms are resolved by the 18th session of Neurofeedback. See EEG Info. and the accompanying Youtube video on Neurofeedback and Trauma.
Why Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback addresses the source of the trouble—problematic brainwave activity that got stuck in a disrupted pattern due to trauma. Neurofeedback does not rely on drugs and other chemicals to mask or modify the symptoms. Neurofeedback does not need the client to “relive” the trauma in order to move past it (which retraumatizing the Client). Neurofeedback addresses each brain individually and effectively. See Bessel Van der Kolk’s research on Neurofeedback and Trauma Treatment.
Addiction and Trauma
All addicts and alcoholics come from attachment trauma (like PTSD sufferers) as well as those with personality disorders. This becomes foundational to any traumatic life experience that occurs afterward (family of origin problems, child abuse, and violence). Therefore, the relational patterns, behavioral patterns, and defensive mechanisms that accompany addiction can be addressed with the Alpha Theta protocol, changing lifelong patterns of painful, unhealthy adaptations.
By Janice Witt, M.A., Addiction and Trauma Specialist Certified Neurofeedback Practitioner Treatment Consultant
(818) 634-2848