The Extraordinary and Everyday Effects of Neurofeedback
By Cassandra Rose, L.Ac. – Licensed Acupuncturist
As many of you know Bhakti Wellness Center is a cooperative of small healing businesses. My favorite thing about having my practice here, besides all of you wonderful patients, is learning about the ways that my colleagues practice the healing arts. When I learned that Fran Bieganek, MS, LP, Andrea Chazin and Guy Odishaw, RCST were introducing Neurofeedback here at Bhakti I was intrigued. I had heard of it but that was the extent of my knowledge. I started reading about the remarkable results folks were having after going through a course of treatment.
I signed up for the initial testing. Fran put me in the cap that allows them to read what is happening in my brain and we recorded the 20 minutes test. The hardest part was waiting for my results. I was surprised how much I wanted to see what was happening as soon as the test was done. I feel I am a pretty healthy person but I grew up doing mountain sports before helmets were popular so I know I have had some head injuries. I was hoping to find that some mild anxiety and my tendency towards feeling overwhelmed if too many sounds where happening at once would be easily addressed with treatments. So to have this anticipation caught me off guard. When my results came back with a positive for a past brain injury I was shocked and had a lot of feelings about it even though I was expecting those results. I started training right away.
With my appointments on the books I was ready to start. It is hard in a busy life but I was committed to seeing to my brain health. My first appointment was much stronger than I was expecting. Even though I was in a comfortable resting position, and it was 15 minutes of training all told, I felt like my brain had run a marathon. I was so tired I went straight home and fell asleep until the next morning!
After two or three treatments I started to notice some subtle changes. Mostly around being able to switch modes of being more quickly. I could go from work to home playing with my daughter without needing to take as much of a pause to rest. This had a profound impact on our time together. Even she has noticed and comments on how happy I am to play after work.
The anxiety and sensory processing issues that had inspired me to start treatment had started to shift as well. Things I didn’t even know were part of an anxiety response changed. It is funny because it is a subtle thing. I would never not go to the new location but I would plan routes and times and look at pictures on google and and and… At first I was not even aware of the shift. I just realized I was getting in the car, turning on the map and heading out. I was trusting the world and myself.
My senses of myself and the world have shifted in profound ways. I can take in a lot more information all at once without feeling overwhelmed but my sense of the small beauty in a single piece of music or piece of art in not diminished. I was expecting and hoping for this result. The surprising thing I noticed was my sense of my own physicality was changing. I was more aware of the space around me. My endurance and coordination when exercising improved. I just felt like it all worked together in a smooth way. Again, I keep coming back to noticing subtle but powerful changes on a deep level.
It is hard to put all of the effects that I feel into words. I am still noticing some of the effects. My mind keeps coming back to the word resilience. I feel resilient. I feel good. I feel good enough. An extraordinary and everyday experience of knowing I will measure up and make it through the variety of demands life places on me. It is not an unrealistic view that everything will be rainbows and puppies but a firm belief that it doesn’t need to be for me to measure up. There are more personal changes having to do with my brain’s language processing that I am still working through and I know it will move towards healing. Neurofeedback is a profound tool.
As a practitioner I cannot help but think about the ways in which humans have always worked to create these changes in the brain. We use meditation, exercise, psychotherapy, acupuncture and more to slowly make the body create changes in the brain. It works. It is slow and hard. Neurofeedback seems to reverse that path. It teaches the brain to heal itself and the effects move quickly. I am fascinated by the possibilities.
This time of year I would usually use my turn as the feature in the newsletter to write about some lovely Chinese medicine tips about preparing for Fall. Tips like pears steamed with ginger and honey will protect your lungs from the dry energy of the season. Or I would share some of the new developments in retinal health. New developments like the ForeseeHome, a new retinal scanner approved for for home use. However, I have been so moved by my experience of Neurofeedback I had to share with you all. I hope you find your best self and I think Neurofeedback can help.
Cassandra Rose, L.Ac. is a board certified and licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in Minnesota. She specializes in Macular Regeneration, a treatment using Acunova and Micro-Acupuncture, microcurrent therapy, herbs and supplements to address degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt’s, conjuntivitis, post-herpetic eye pain, dry eye and more.
As a licensed acupuncturist she has given more than 10,000 acupuncture treatments. In her family practice she has supported folks with stress, anxiety, depression, grief, digestion, seasonal and esoteric alignment, allergies, oncology side effects, reproductive health, immune support, the common cold, injury recovery, pain management and more. She is an experienced practitioner and she can help you find your path forward.