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Trauma and Recovery: The Integration of
Neurofeedback and Psychotherapy
Post-traumatic stress disorder is, at its foundation, a disorder of the
brain, particularly of the brain's ability to regulate fear. The brain
oscillates between high sympathetic arousal as manifest in nightmares,
startle responses and aggression and parasympathic under arousal, manifest,
at its worst, in dissociation. PTSD is a brain in the grip of fear.
Neurofeedback can be used to regulate the fear circuitries in the brain.
Regulation of fear may, in fact, be the single most important contribution
that neurofeedback makes to the treatment of severe conditions such as PTSD,
attachment disorder and personality disorders.
This workshop will focus on the integration of neurofeedback and
psychotherapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, both acute
and chronic.
Among the topics we will discuss will be:
Once neurofeedback is introduced, what is the role of the therapist?
What role does neurofeedback play when integrated into psychotherapeutic
treatments?
Affect regulation as the corner stone of effective psychotherapy
The role of neurofeedback in the regulation of affect
Fear as the central affect of concern
The circuitry of fear: an overview of the limbic brain and the "greater
amygdaloid region"
Recent findings of the effects of trauma on the brain- overview of Schore,
Siegel, Perry and others
State dependence and neurofeedback
Repressed memory and neurofeedback training
The discovery and use of FPO2: frequency and time considerations
We will also discuss the pragmatics of the integration of neurofeedback and
psychotherapy. Among the issues we will discuss will be:
When and how to introduce neurofeedback
When to talk and when to train
Touch
The presence of the therapist
The length of sessions
How to set up your system to enhance relational aspects of this endeavor
When to introduce alpha/theta training
We will discuss, as well, the need for self training and its inherent
limits.
Case studies will be used throughout
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Futurehealth
Winter Brain, Optimal Functioning &
Positive Psychology and StoryCon
Meeting
Futurehealth.org
