Providing individual, couples and family counseling and Integrative Neurofeedback
Treatment specialization includes:
- Emotional & Cognitive Reboot
- Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, OCD, Autism Spectrum
- Intergrative Neurofeedback
- Brain, Heart and Body Biofeedback
- Couples, Family & Parenting Solutions (Emotionally Focused Relationship Neurobiology)
- ADD, Attention and Learning
- Neurocognitive Behavioral Therapy (NCBT)
- Art Therapy & Neurofeedback For Children
- Grief Counseling and Trauma Healing
- Work and Career Issues (Recharging Creativity)
- Sleep, Stress and Anger Management
- Addiction & Recovery
- Pain and Immune System Support
- Athletic & Executive Peak Performance
I work with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues providing services that span from therapy for depression and grief counseling to parenting support, couples counseling, and peak performance for professional and amateur athletes, business executives, creative artists and beyond.
In a comfortable and supportive atmosphere, I offer a highly personalized approach tailored to each of my clients individual needs to help attain the personal growth for which they’re striving. When indicated, and wished for by my clients, in addition to talk therapy, I offer neurofeedback and other techniques based on the latest brain science and technology, as well as other useful forms of biofeedback.
WHAT IS NEUROFEEDBACK?
Neurofeedback is a recent and powerfully effective addition to the fields of psychotherapy, creative growth and personal transformation. As powerful as it is, it is completely nonintrusive and has no negative side effects. Neurofeedback is actually a form of biofeedback, utilizing the individual's brain frequency wave patterns and/or quality of brain blood circulation as a focus for feedback. It is based on the brain science discovery that various brain wave frequency patterns are associated with different Central Nervous System states and that by feeding information back to the brain about how it is operating, the brain can actually optimize it's own functioning.
These states are reflected in levels of arousal (ranging from very calm to extremely excited, from unconscious or depressed to highly anxious or in panic, from being comfortable to being in constant pain, from healing restful sleep to being unable to fall asleep or to stay asleep), varing degrees of CNS self regulation (from highly present and resilient to being very slow to recover after disregulation, or to addictive personality self medication, seizures, post stroke and concussion syndrome or autism spectrum), qualities of focus and concentration (very clearly focused and present to over-fixated, as in OCD, or spaced out, as in ADD), locus and quality of attention (whether our attention is internally or externally focused or distracted), and memory quality (whether we have easy access to memory or frequent lapses and disconnects), etc.
An optimally functioning person will have the ability to flow from one state to another, based on what is called for in the moment, and to have an awareness of what state they are currently in. Such an individual is highly effective, relationship ready and present, resilient and creative, with an optimally functioning immune system. Injury, emotional stress, chemicals, genetics, poor attachment and bonding or trauma can interfere with the brains ability to be consciously present, state aware and resiliently able to shift from one state to another. Such a nervous system is stuck in surviving rather than thriving.
Neurofeedback gives real time information to the brain about it's own functioning so that it can self regulate in a more optimal direction. And since neurofeedback is a brain "learning" process, even individuals who are already very high functioning (like professional athletes, CEO's, and excellent creative artists) find their brains can learn more and function at an even higher peak performance level. That means a "Gold" instead of a "Bronze" or "no medal" at the games or, more importantly, in life and relationship success and happiness. And it's all a very comfortable, relaxing, pleasant and no stress learning experience. Once experienced, you will look forward to your sessions.
HOW IS NEUROFEEDBACK DONE?
In the training sessions, generally you will be resting in a nice reclining chair, looking at pleasant images on a monitor screen and listening to enjoyable music or sounds. Little gold electrodes will be placed comfortably on your scalp and your ears, using a water soluable paste (which is removed with a warm water sponge before you leave). These electrodes pick up the microvoltage of electricity coming off your brain and through your scalp. No electricity ever goes into you from the electrodes. Only your own body's electricity is measured.
This goes through a little amplifier, making the signal big enough for us to read and use for feedback. You are told what the feedback will look and sound like. Once your brain knows that, it will automatically do it's job. You don't have to "try" to do anything. Just lean back and enjoy the journey as your brain responds to the feedback and makes adjustments that "it" knows will help it do it's own job of learning, regulating and healing.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
Many individuals notice at least the beginning of something in the first session. Sometimes very clear and very significant positive changes happen, sometimes it is experienced as more of a subtle awareness or sense. Almost everyone notices experiencing a deeper state of relaxation or letting go. We don't promise that to anyone, and suggest you don't even expect it, but that is what is typically reported. By the 6th session, you can reasonably expect to experience some form of positive change. The degree of change is related to the degree of initial disregulation, highly disregulated or constrained systems obviously take longer, but the degree of change may be much greater.
If possible, 2 or more sessions per week is recommended for the first 6-8 sessions, to maximally support the brain's initial learning. How many sessions in the overall training varies with the individual desire, similar in a way to working out in a gym, or physical therapy or learning to ride a bike or training for a sport. Do you want to just solve a problem or do you want to soar? If you want to know an "average" number, it's 26, but MUCH can and does happen before that, and Much can happen after (if that fits your goal). You will know when to stop and when to come back in for a tuneup in the future.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
Your individual brain, in it's wisdom, will decide what changes it will address first, or if it will work on several things at once. You can keep track of what you would like to see happen, and also be surprised by some positive change you weren't even planning on. Many individuals' brains are stuck in disregulation, where they either can not relax, recharge and let go fully, or in the other extreme, they can not summon increased arousal to be able to sustain focus and accomplish goals. Instead of flexibility and resilience, they are stuck in "chronically strung too tight or too loose" or swing from one to the other. You and your friends probably already can guess where you are on that continuum.
You can expect that the brain will typically first regulate sleep, and also support deeper relaxation and ease of letting go, then finding a more flexible mental and CNS tone. That makes a lot of sense, knowing an optimally self regulating brain recognizes the importance of all 3 in helping our immune system (to help us stay alive). These factors also often lead to a reduction, and in some cases a full absence of pain, including migraines, muscular and internal pain. Many report noticing "for some reason, without even trying" they just aren't as stressed by things that really used to bother them.
Another common report is greater focus, concentration and memory, probably from less energy being tied up in hanging on to stuff. ADD children suddenly are getting better grades, and actually begin to show an interest in learning. Research has surprisingly shown actual increase in IQ scores.Improvements in brain circulation from integrative neurofeedback is one of the factors affecting improvement in memory and attention.
Frequently clients report no longer being as fixated on food, and noticing that their body is becoming more balanced, or they are exercising "without making it such a big deal." We've had some clients who found their post-open heart surgery afibrilation and blood pressure regulation was helped greatly by the Integrative Neurofeedback. Autistic spectrum clients or their families invariably report that "they are just more there and seem to have more moments of happiness."
The most common comment from therapists who referred stuck clients to us is, "I don't know what happened, but suddenly my client just began to open up more to themselves and then to me." Even though it may not be our explicit focus, a fair percentage of clients tell us that their own personal spirituality seems supported, and their prayer and meditation feels deeper, and more connected to the rest of life.
Some clients include Integrative Neurofeedback as part of their support for their immune system as they fight cancer of various types and "chemo brain." Individuals with traumatic brain injury, stroke, post concussion syndrome (including NFL and amateur athletes) have reported significant reduction in secondary symptoms. Our returning wounded warriors and first responders suffering PTSD report a significant reduction in symptoms and an increase in presence and life enjoyment. If you are depressed, you can anticipate a lift in your mood. If you are anxious, you can expect to feel more calm in situations that used to trigger you.
Creative persons who had been experiencing a block, report the juices flowing again. A new movie, a book, award winning music, and some marvelous art have all been inspired and supported in follow through in our neurofeedback chair.
A fun part of the work for us, is when professional and amateur athletes happily come back for a a few sessions "reboot" when they sense they are either over-thinking and tense or unfocused and spacy. Their score is what they talk about. Their families say "keep it up, whatever you're doing, they are so much nicer at home."
We know this sounds like a lot to expect. And IT IS. That's why we have been offering this service for over 30 years. How can Integrative Neurofeedback affect so many things? Simply, because our brain controls everything we do and every emotional state we experience. And with a more optimally toned and regulated central nervous system, "anything you can do, you can do better !"
DO THE EFFECTS LAST?
They certainly do. The reason is simple, this is a learning process for the brain. And when it learns, it doesn't unlearn. Taking in new information, when the brain learns the efficiency of more optimal balancing, it retains the feedback and experience, and has no good reason to unlearn it. Just like we don't unlearn to ride a bike. And if we get adversly bumped by a life incident or get rusty, a quick reboot usually does the trick.
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT OUR "INTEGRATIVE NEUROFEEDBACK" COMPARED TO OTHER NEUROFEEDBACK?
Based on our understanding of the unique needs and capabilities of each client, in addition to utilizing the absolutely most advanced brain wave neurofeedback equipment and programs, we can seamlessly integrate the use of other forms of training or biofeedback, guided visualization and nutritional assessment that greatly enhances the power of doing neurofeedback alone. This might include brain blood flow feedback, heart rate variability training, as well as breath awareness and temperature, muscle tone and skin conductance biofeedback. Our method allows this all to happen in a very effective and enjoyable way.
IF YOU WANT TO READ MORE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, HISTORY, ETC, please contact us and we will be happy to give you further references.
