Not too long ago, there were not many treatment options for sufferers of PTSD. Today, we have excellent counseling and science-based treatments, such as neurofeedback, that allow us to provide measurable results for our patients. Neurofeedback has proven to be very helpful in treating PTSD, and the Center for NeuroPotential is the premier center for neurofeedback in East Haven, CT.
Many people are skeptical about neurofeedback, but after just a few sessions, they can already notice a marked difference.
How Does Neurofeedback Work?
The Center for NeuroPotential will place sensors on your scalp, which records EEG. With this technology, we can reflect back to you exactly what your brain is doing in real-time. This allows us to peer deep into the electroactivity of your brain. The information that we gather can help us to see what's going on inside of your brain and how you can remain in an optimal place – the optimal zone of functioning.
VA campuses, organizations, and military bases alike are using neurofeedback to treat PTSD. Indeed, the results of neurofeedback – especially as it relates to PTSD – have been very impressive thus far. We've seen some of the most dramatic turnarounds with military personnel, police officers, and other professionals who are exposed to higher than normal levels of traumatic experiences.
How the PTSD Brain Works
Understanding how trauma changes the brain and how neurofeedback can help is very important. Trauma manifests itself by causing the fear center of the brain always to keep running. Indeed, this part of the brain is always on for people with PTSD. They always feel as though they are in some kind of danger. The conscious mind cannot tell the person, “there's no need to feel this way.”
How Neurofeedback Works
When the Center for NeuroPotential performs neurofeedback treatment, we calm the fear center of the brain down. We can then watch how the brain calms itself down, how the EG changes, and then we look at how the symptoms change. Much to our amazement, the big change is not picked up by how fearful patients feel. Rather, it's picked up in peoples' executive functioning.
Following neurofeedback treatment, people begin to think about the future. They develop a sense of long-term. They have the capacity to plan and function from day-to-day. We're not seeing an extension function in the patient or a counter-conditioning process as in CBT. Neurofeedback treatment creates a parallel track – the ability for someone to think as well as to feel.
Neurofeedback treatment calms down a certain part of the brain. As that part of the brain starts to calm down, another part of the brain begins to come to life. As long as the fear center of the brain is constantly firing, telling the patient that they are in danger, they are always uptight. As the fear center calms down, the patient becomes a more reasonable, generous person.