Integrating Neurofeedback and Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Trauma Survivors

This will be a pragmatic, “how to” workshop on the treatment of traumatized people with neurofeedback and psychotherapy. Issues we will cover include:

• Trauma, neglect and poverty:  Complex PTSD, Developmental Trauma Disorder, acute PTSD, attachment and personality disorders: what should we expect from neurofeedback with these populations>
• Affect regulation for the wildly disregulated
• Sympathetic and parasympathetic inflexibility in trauma: protocol implications
• Fear circuitry in the brain
• Fear, shame and rage in these disorders
• Training to quiet fear, shame, rage and overall CNS reactivity
• Somatic representations of trauma: the vagal track and neurofeedback training
• States, traits, frequencies and identity –case vignettes
• Implicit and explicit memory: the implications for treatment course and protocol development
• Repressed memory or inaccessible memory?  Developmental stages and the EEG; a new paradigm. The return of “repressed” memory- case examples
The neuronal signature of a flashback

• Clinical assessment of the trauma survivor, initial and ongoing. What are we looking and listening for?
• Protocols from front side to side and front to back: why and when to use them
• FPO2
• When and how to consider Alpha/Theta training
• Clinical issues: Touching the head, the length of the session, system set up, when to talk and when to train; transference implications of neurofeedback
• Therapist self training: imperatives and cautions
• The crisis of change: the dissolution of fear, the onset of confusion and the beginning of curiosity – case examples
• Body work and neurofeedback
• The therapist’s dual track: learning to listen to the CNS and to the mind, equally but separately
• At every level, this therapy is about regulation. Therapeutic approaches that emphasize and enhance regulation.

There will be time to share cases.  I greatly value group participation. 

• Learn how macronutrients, phytonutrients, enzymes and amino acids are critical aspects of effective neurofeedback
• Learn the effects that eating disorders can have on brain power and cell energy
• Identify clients at risk for nutritional deficiencies
• Increase your ability to discuss nutritional interventions with your clients
• Learn how to maximize the brain/body energy store to fortify neuronal activity, mitochondria and ATP
• Learn about nutritional theories thought to influence autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, ADHD, S.A.D.
• Understand the importance of the antioxidant effects of whole foods versus supplements
• Understand the process of inflammation, free radical damage, oxidative stress and cell death
• Understand the nutritional and inflammatory processes thought to be involved with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis
• Increase your awareness of client friendly products like True Hope’s Empower Plus, Juice Plus+, Complete Nutrition-LiquiMax, Carlson’s Omega 3
• Receive information about the detrimental effects of heavy metals, toxins and amino acid deficiencies
• Understand the effects of nutrition on cell physiology as it relates to cell communication and neurotransmission