Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
ADD /ADHD is characterised by symptoms of inattention impulsiveness, distractibility and/or hyperactivity that interferes with functioning or development. Three main subtypes have been identified: one dominated by inattention; another characterized mainly by impulsivity and hyperactivity; and a third that is afflicted with both. Often ADHD is accompanied by more severe behavioural disorders such as oppositionality and conduct disorder as well as by specific learning difficulties. Without effective treatment children, adolescents or adults with ADHD may be at a greater risk of developing academic, behavioural, mood, and anxiety disorders, incur accidental injury, and struggle with substance abuse disorders (Monastra et al., 2005).
While medication and behavioural interventions can do a good job managing symptoms of children with ADHD. Reports from parents include decreased tantrums or angry outbursts, improved communication, increased focus and concentration and overall increased calming. However, a child’s behaviour is impacted by a number of social, biological and environmental factors. Ongoing counselling may be required for the child and parents to learn effective behaviour management, develop understanding around what is driving the behaviour and teach the child better communication and coping.
The video below demonstrates how Dr. Moshe Perl has helped a boy with ADHD using neurofeedback therapy.
In belows video Robert discusses how neurofeedback therapy has helped him overcome ADHD.
Trauma/Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
What is trauma and how does it impact us?
Trauma occurs when an individual’s ability to integrate his/her emotional experience is overwhelmed. The individual’s situation is perceived as threatening one’s survival and safety and hypo/hyper subcortical defenses are triggered. One may describe the feeling as if their body is hi-jacked or on constant repetitive survival mode. It is as though you are continuing the action or rather the attempt at action which began when the traumatic event occurred, as a result you feel exhausted in these everlasting recommencements like your system cannot distinguish present from past.
Trauma can occur at one’s physiological, emotional, cognitive, sensorimotor and conscious/subconscious levels. Overwhelming experiences cannot be integrated which elicits defense mechanisms resulting in dys-regulated arousal. Remember though not everyone who experiences trauma is ‘traumatised.’
There are many types of trauma that exist for example:
Attack
Sexual abuse
Disaster
Racial trauma
Vicarious trauma
Inside threat
Accidents
Medical/surgical
Loss/Death
Neglect
Trans-generational
Development and attachment
Some of the immediate symptoms of trauma can be:
Cognitive: Ruminating, hard to concentrate, confusion, impaired judgment, self judgment or minimising
Emotional: Panic, fear, crying spells, confusion, disorientation, clinging or distancing, worry, numbness, flat, anger, helpless, frustration, rage or impatience.
Sensorimotor: exaggerated startled response, hyper-vigilance, changes in heart rate or breath or temperature, tension, digestion issues, sleep issues, insomnia, physical issues (back ache, headache, itching), startled agitation or nightmares.
Some of the long-term symptoms of trauma can be:
Depression, insomnia, panic attacks, apathy, relationship problems, self-destructive behaviours, attention difficulties, self-hatred, foreshortened future, amnesia, hopelessness, generalized anxiety, addictions, eating disorders, substance abuse or dissociative disorders.
‘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 (Chandra, 2021).
‘During a traumatic event, the amygdala alerts the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that coordinates the body’s stress response by producing hormones like cortisol. In addition, the autonomic nervous system - which controls our involuntary body functions - goes into fight-or-flight mode. This means having a faster heart rate, breathing more shallowly, sweating, and not being able to think clearly. In this way, trauma can change the body’s biology. Even after the trigger is gone, the amygdala can hold onto the physical memory of trauma, and our bodies can get stuck in this fight-or-flight mode, leaving us with higher levels of cortisol and symptoms of hyper-arousal (Chandra, 2021).’
Talk therapy can be great in accessing the pre-frontal cortex where we learn, plan and organize and additionally understand the impact trauma has had on ones body. However, if you are already in a state of panic (too much arousal/hyper-arousal/reactivity) to regulate your own emotions, speaking about the trauma can further perturb an individual, which may not be as helpful. This is where neurofeedback can be an effective tool in assisting an individual to auto-regulate their own physiological responses through the deeper parts of their brain. Neurofeedback can address these specific areas of the brain that store memories of trauma such as the Central Nervous System and Limbic system without having to constantly re-live the traumatic event. Neurofeedback is an effective tool which works to ameliorate trauma based symptoms without unnecessary distress. Neurofeedback can modulate brain activity through monitoring and feedback of EEG signals, which are used to self-regulate brain functions. It has the ability to address neurological functioning on a deeper level, which can result from trauma.
“The goal of trauma-focused neurofeedback is to help shift people from a hyper-aroused state to a calmer one so that they can experience a sense of safety and react more appropriately to everyday events, (Chandra, 2021).”
“Twenty-four sessions of neurofeedback produced significant improvements in PTSD symptomatology in multiply traumatized individuals with PTSD who had not responded to at least six months of trauma-focused psychotherapy, compared to a waitlist control group that continued to receive treatment as usual… Neurofeedback is a promising change agent for habitual dysfunctional neuronal patterns.” (Bessel A. van der Kolk ,Hilary Hodgdon,Mark Gapen,Regina Musicaro,Michael K. Suvak,Ed Hamlin, Joseph Spinazzola.)
Belows video, Bessel Van Der Kolk discusses the impacts of trauma.
Below, both videos discuss how neurofeedback therapy has assisted individuals with PTSD.
Autism
Research on Autistic Spectrum disorder (ASD) has shown related symptoms to be the result of brain dysfunction in multiple brain regions. Neuroimaging technologies and research has shown that autism is related to abnormal neural connectivity problems. There is a combination of over and under connectivity at the heart of this multifaceted disorder. Neurofeedback training can improve connectivity between brain networks and regions, which can lead to reductions in Autistic symptoms, networks involving emotional connectivity and also functional connectivity. Many areas of neurological dysregulation are implicated in ASD, therefore this often requires a considerable number of neurofeedback sessions to address them all.
Belows video discusses how neurofeedback assists with Autism.
Learning Difficulties/Disorders
Learning disorders involve difficulty learning and using academic skills, this includes: Difficulty reading; difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read; difficulty with spelling; difficulties with written expression; Difficulty mastering number sense, number facts or calculation; difficulties with mathematical reasoning; These difficulties can be rated as mild, moderate or severe (DSM-V, APA 2013).
With learning disabilities and learning performance, neurofeedback training has been able to achieve improvements in performance on visual motor integration, reading, arithmetic, spelling, semantic working memory, reading comprehension and creative thinking.
Depression
Depression can be characterised by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. This condition appears to be effective with brain training wherein normal regulation of arousal may be restored which means that sleep may normalise , increased energy and normal range of affect may return.
Anxiety
Anxiety states include such reactions as panic attacks and phobias at one extreme, and problems such as performance anxiety and stage fright on the other. When an individual is challenged to perform in some way the brain can react by overly heightened vigilance that undermines its ability to function well hence an individual observes themselves as becoming more anxious. This condition is highly responsive to brain wave training. By challenging the brain to regulate itself better, it functions better under life’s challenges (Perl, M).
Bruxism/Teeth Grinding
Bruxism (teeth grinding) is highly prevalent in our population. It is highly correlated with ADHD, Chronic and headache pain.
Sleep Disturbances - Waking During the Night, Difficulties getting to sleep, Insomnia
Headaches and Migraines
Difficulties with Focus and Concentration
Low Energy Levels
Low Self-Confidence
Difficulties in regulating emotionally, unstable mood
Epilepsy - Seizure disorders can be complex as they can be focal, generalised or unknown, reducing the incidence and severity of seizures traditionally has been medication. However with refractory epilepsy, medication can be unresponsive or difficult to work well. Neurofeedback training began 30 years ago for individuals with poorly controlled seizures who were unresponsive to pharmacological treatment (Sterman & Egner 2006). Ongoing results have proven that neurofeedback training is effective for the reduction of seizure activity. Research has demonstrated that 82% of 174 patients had shown significant improvements in the reduction of seizure incidence (Sterman & Egner 2006).
Constant racing thoughts and worry, busy-mind, difficulties switching your mind off before sleeping
Peak Performance - enhancing or improving brain performance
