The Benefits of Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is an alternative and revolutionary method of treating neuropsychiatric disorders and traumatic brain injuries that has produced established, peer-reviewed evidence of its efficiency for over half a century.
To familiarize yourself with the benefits of Neurofeedback and what it can do for your brain, you must first understand the essence of the phrase “Every brain tells a different story.”
Delve into Neurofeedback with the knowledge that your brain is a complex, diverse, and unique organ in your body. Continue reading the rest of the article to find out how Clinicians and Neuro-practitioners at Myneurva can help you aid your brain through Neurofeedback.
Why Does My Brain Need Neurofeedback?
The human brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It is a multidimensional platform that has no working hierarchy. In other words, the brain is a complex system capable of significant redundancy. It can rewire, reroute and learn new ways to operate.
The chemical and electrical communication between neurons in different areas can be modified using Neurofeedback. Clinicians and Neuropractors at Myneurva have the most critical role in determining the course of your Neurofeedback training. They do this by measuring the electrical power of your brain and in turn, measure and track your brain waves to reach the most efficient state of functioning.
Think of a route you have driven by car day after day. One day, you take this route and you notice a detour sign causing you to go much further than your regular direct route. After so many days and months of that road being closed, you might automatically take the detour road and give up on the direct pathway.
This detour example is similar to what happens when the brain is not functioning correctly. The direct road is out, therefore your brain finds another path that is less efficient than the first way. Neurofeedback works by reopening that direct route, mending broken pathways, and helping new ones form. When brain waves are: asymmetric, out-of-phase, or incoherent, a term commonly referred to as dysregulated, they inhibit the channels through which messages are being delivered from one area of the brain to another. Neurofeedback, as a form of biofeedback, enhances or inhibits the overworked and underworked parts of the brain by regulating the brain waves state and bringing your brain back to a harmonious working state.
Benefits of Neurofeedback for Mood Regulation
Neurofeedback is beneficial for people who suffer from mood issues, have emotional control problems and experience sudden angry outbursts. One example of how Neurofeedback can provide relief is by reducing the power of mood swings’ negative and repetitive cycles. What this means is that as training progresses, you will start to experience less intense and less frequent episodic outbursts. These can also be shorter in time, which will affect the overall sensation of feeling significantly calmer and happier. Your brain is being rewarded in training and learns how to regulate and support itself. (Johnston, Boehm, Healy, Goebel & Linden, 2010)
Benefits of Neurofeedback For Sleep Problems
Neurofeedback is one of the most used non-medical tools for assisting with sleep regulation. Throughout the years, Neuro-practitioners and clinicians at Myneurva have reviewed and recorded countless QEEG cases of clients who exhibit inconsistency in their sleep patterns. As opposed to medications that suppress the natural sleep cycle, Neurofeedback actively works on regulating brain waves to teach the brain how to adapt to a healthier activity pattern that can improve restfulness (Hammer, Colbert, Brown, Ilioi, 2011)
Benefits of Neurofeedback For Concentration And Attention
Neurofeedback can improve both concentration and attention. If you are experiencing brain fog, struggling to be effective during your working hours, or feel like your brain is all over the place, Neurofeedback at Myneurva may be the answer for you. Clients who experience these symptoms on more than one occasion may have findings that indicate excess theta in their frontal lobes. With the carefully designed and curated protocols, we expect to see a pattern of exponential increase in the time spent on paying attention to the task during training. Additionally, improving concentration means that your brain will better retain and recall information. (Pacheco, 2016)
Benefits of Neurofeedback For Improved Mindfulness
Similar to how eastern esoteric practices like yoga, balances the “chakras” in our body, Neurofeedback soothes the dysregulated brain. The evolutionary mark of humanity has been the “fight or flight” defense mechanism we have learned and adapted to survive. Biologically speaking, , we are long past the era of needing this mechanism for survival in nature, yet with continuous technological advancement and a changing world, , the flight or fight defense cycle is being activated unnecessarily.
Perhaps if we complied and compared the brain maps of our ancestors and those of our clients today, we would find a similar pattern – one of anxiety and scattered high beta waves. Neurofeedback aims to calm your brain and induce serenity by decreasing anxiety. Clinicians and Practitioners at Myneurva are continuously advocating the importance of living a balanced life. Neurofeedback can help you achieve that. (Tolin, Davies, Moskow & Hoffman, 2021; Hunkin, King & Zajac, 2021)
Benefits of Neurofeedback For Academics
Improving one’s cognition can be done through Neurofeedback as well. For example, individuals may raise their IQs, improve their episodic and semantic memory ability and train their brains to achieve a higher state of efficiency.This is specifically accomplished via a sophisticated blend of protocols developed over decades of Dr. Starr’s research and is only possible using state-of-the-art equipment. In specific studies, college students’ IQs showed an increase of 16 point (Cannon & Lubar, 2011; Da Silva & De Souza, 2021; Lubar et al, 1995)
Benefits Of Neurofeedback For Athletes
Brain training is much like exercising, which is why many athletes use Neurofeedback as a tool to enhance their performance and focus, giving them optimal results during game season. Dr. Starr and his staff have assisted athletes at all skill levels, from amateur to professional to elite, to improve their performance.
Specific sports we have assisted with include skiing, tennis, golf, MMA, volleyball, equestrian, swimming, football, and soccer. Neurofeedback can improve sports performance by lowering performance anxiety, decreasing reaction time, improving the ability to relax, and increasing feelings of reward (Anmin, Feng, Wenya, Yi, Changhao & Yunfa, 2021)
Benefits of Neurofeedback for ADHD
Neurofeedback is proving to be an effective nonpharmacological tool for the treatment of certain ADHD characteristics in both children and adults. Furthermore, the benefits of Neurofeedback for ADHD have been reported to have long-lasting effects on the brain. The most common way in which Neurofeedback helps ADHD is by training the brain to produce brain waves at a frequency of 12-15Hz, commonly known as SMR. In common language, what we mean is that the brain is teaching itself to improve focus and attention and decrease distractibility. Additionally, with Neurofeedback we can also expect improvement in executive functioning and better emotional regulation which can lead to fewer outbursts and an increase in academic performance. (Arns, Heinrich & Strehl, 2014)
Benefits of Neurofeedback for PTSD
Whether we are aware of this notion or not, trauma takes up a big portion of our daily lives. As such, it is no wonder that the percentage of people who exhibit PTSD symptoms grows exponentially higher each year. In the DSM literature, the acronym PTDS stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it is a diagnosis usually given to people who have experienced a traumatic event in their lives. It is most commonly known as a condition connected to abuse, but as the neuropsychological field would argue, the conceptualization of trauma is rooted in more than just abuse itself. While symptoms may vary in intensity and frequency, one prevalent state amasses them all, and that is the state of constant anxiety and hypervigilance. This means that the brain is going through continuous cycles of arousal while having no chance to reach a relaxed state of mind. Furthermore, people who suffer from cPTSD and PTSD present with vivid flashbacks of past traumatic events, experience sleep pattern irregularities, nightmares, and are more prone to developing mood disorders. Symptoms also include intrusive negative thoughts about themselves and the world, anxiety about the future, and overwhelming physical sensations in response to their hyperarousal.
PTSD in itself is a complex condition for treatment. If you, or someone you know, exhibits symptoms or has been diagnosed with it, you might start thinking about implementing Neurofeedback as a highly rated and successful alternative route for treatment. Studies have shown that while talk therapy helps with facing the trauma, Neurofeedback reaches regions of the brain that have trauma imprinted on them. With the help of our revolutionary tool, clients can expect an improvement in their mood, a return to a cycle of sleep undisturbed by nightmares, fewer flashbacks of the traumatic event, and feelings of overall bodily wellbeing. (Reiter, Andersen, Søren & Carlsson, 2016). For this, and more, It’s important to find the most qualified provider with a hands-on approach for cPTSD and PTSD, which is what our expert Neuropractors and Clinicians at Myneurva are offering. Our clinic has been successfully treating clients with cPTSD and PTSD for over a decade by providing relief and alleviation of symptoms that in turn affect the overall bettering of the quality of life of individuals suffering from cPTS and PTSD.
Benefits of Neurofeedback for TBI
Traumatic Brain Injury, commonly known by its acronym TBI, is an occult mental illness. It often mascarades as virtually every other neuropsychiatric disorder. A vast majority of people are not aware of ever sustaining a TBI and do not report it unless questioned. It does not take much for an undiagnosed TBI to leave long-lasting effects that impede the communication of the neural pathways. It is important to understand that every brain reacts differently and perhaps the exhibited symptoms of people with neuropsychological disorders are essentially mirroring an undiagnosed TBI. This means that it is of the utmost importance to place your brain in the hands of people who will be able to read your brain maps and spot a potential TBI. The mission of our Clinicians and Neuropractor at Myneurva is to shine a light on the importance of disregarded and untreated TBI in people. Furthermore, Neurofeedback with Myneurva can aid in strengthening cognition by fixing disrupted communication pathways within the brain.