NEUROFEEDBACK HELP
Help with Neurobehavioral problems Treatment:
The brain is the conductor which orchestras our behaviors. When it is not working properly, the individual can evidence a range of neurobehavioral problems treatment. This can include verbal aggression, physical aggression, poor judgment, substance abuse, poor medication compliance, a decreased ability to initiate and sustain purposeful behavior, self-injurious behavior and poor awareness of safety issues. It may also involve inappropriate social behavior, egocentricity, sexual disinhibition, depression, anxiety, frequent non compliance with rules and expectations, destruction of property and elopement.
At Central Florida Neuropsychology we work to help normalize brainwave functions through use of Neurofeedback and cognitive remediation while employing a positive teaching and reinforcement approach to promote appropriate behaviors. In our cognitive behavioral therapy sessions, we teach patients self-management and self-control strategies and work with families to help them provide frequent and intensive opportunities for the patient to practice these skills until they are mastered. We teach, praise and reinforce self-control and help families to do the same at home. We also work with families to identify the antecedents or actions that precede inappropriate behaviors, the behavior itself and what it accomplishes for the patient, and finally the consequences that inadvertently reinforce and maintain the behavior. We then work to modify the environmental facts that precede the behavior, teach the patient alternative methods to respond to stressful situations, and reinforce the more adaptive behaviors. Since we not only use this process in our sessions, but teach families to follow the same process at home and in the community, we foster generalization of the new skills. The types of skills taught include management of medications, cognitive skills, communication skills, adaptive behaviors, and social skills.
Introduction to Neurofeedback, Neurofeedback is a subdivision of Biofeedback:
Biofeedback is the general category, and refers a method of gaining information by monitoring skin temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, brain waves and other body conditions to help promote control over bodily processes that are normally involuntary through relaxation and operant conditioning.
As with a variety of fruits, such as apples or citrus, or melons, There biofeedback: heart rate variability (HRV), thermal (as seen in a "mood ring"), muscular (EMG), and neurological (EEG), also called neurotherapy or neurobiofeedback or neurofeedback.
All forms of Biofeedback employ some type of computer or monitoring device along with electronic sensors to give information about what is going on in the body. With neurofeedback, it is giving feedback about specific brain waves: the percentage amount of each one in specific areas of the brain, called amplitude; are the brain waves working harmoniously together (regulated) or is there a dysregulation.
We frequently map out the brain through Quantitative EEG (QEEG), or identify specific regions of the brain that are evidencing dysfucntion. compared to others of the same gender and age.
How Neurofeedback Helps:
This leads to how does neurofeedback help neurological issues, such as a stroke/aneurysm, brain surgery, concussion, anxiety, sleep problems, PTSD, Parkinson Disease, and movement disorders, such as myoclonic. Neurofeedback is able to assess, as mentioned above, the functioning of the brain and where it is not functioning properly. It can locate a specific location, if there is one, which is often the situation with a stroke, or it can locate neural dysregulation of the various neural hubs, as seen in a concussion and PTSD. It is important to remember that anxiety is the symptom, not the cause. Neurofeedback looks for the cause, such as what specific pathways are dysregulated or over or under activated. Once this type of assessment locates the cause of the symptom, then a wide variety of methods and equipment can be chosen based on what is the best one specifically for your needs and neurological issues.
Clinicians need the training in the use of the various methods and equipment to best help your specific unique needs, symptoms and goals.
