Why Neurofeedback?
Society is becoming disenchanted with conventional remedies that carry with them exhausting lists of side effects. Evidence suggests that there are increasing numbers of patients and parents seeking less-invasive treatment, treatment alternatives to medications, therapies that still address the underlying factors biological factors associated with various disorders such as ADD/ADHD, OCD, and anxiety and depression. At East Valley Naturopathic Doctors we offer an exciting, cutting-edge modality that is receiving attention and evidentiary support as an effective alternative. Neurofeedback, unlike medications, holds the potential to produce enduring modifications to the abnormally functioning brain.
Neurofeedback has been found to be effective in modifying brain function, producing significant improvements in clinical sign and symptoms in children, adolescents and adults who present with various brain disorders: epilepsy, ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities, anxiety and phobic disorders, depression, insomnia, migraines, Bipolar disorder,drug and alcohol addiction and many others.
Neurofeedback does not reward or signal out a specific range for training as does Biofeedback. Instead it stimulates the dominant brainwave frequency at an “offset,” or slightly lower frequency, thus allowing the brain to self-regulate. We now know that the brain is “plastic,” capable of enormous reorganization, able to change not only its functioning but also its physiological substrata: neurons and their synapses and the entire biochemical environment dwelling within the brain. Neurofeedback has the delicacy to mobilize these endogenous systems within the brain.
Neurofeedback helps strengthen the brain; supports it to more easily maintain a stable state. Brain science has shown that repetitive exercise of the brain’s networks reshapes the brain. By “exercising” the brain in a certain way, the brain learns to better regulate itself. Better regulation leads to better control, healthier behaviors, improved balance with decreased effort. Benefits include increased independence, ability to control the self, improved relationships, increased sense of well-being and self-esteem,better functioning and performance at school and work. Neurofeedback improves memory, attention and learning, and increases the ability to handle conflicts, difficulties and the stressors of everyday life.
