Neurofeedback for Brain Injury & Strokes
These include Traumatic Brain Injuries (caused by a physical impact to the head) and Non-traumatic Brain Injuries (e.g. strokes, ruptured brain aneurysm). For people who have gone through the medical system, there is sometimes more information about the areas of the brain that have been affected and how. However, what is most useful is the person’s own experience and those closest to them, to see how they have been affected. This combined with brainwave analysis will help me understand the areas of the brain that are affected.
There are essentially two main problems that we are trying to address with neurofeedback.
The first is to do with the frequencies that the damaged area(s) is producing. For an area of the brain to work well, it needs to have the right mix of frequencies, but when a brain injury happens, the area will slow everything to do repair work, just like when it rests when you are asleep. However, the brain can struggle to go back to the higher frequencies you need to function and to finish the area’s repair (as much as it can).
The other difficulty is to do with the ability of areas of the brain to connect well; sometimes these connections can be impaired and may need some encouragement to reconnect.
For people with minor head injuries neurofeedback may be the only option, as often there is nothing more the NHS can do; with more serious cases neurofeedback can be a very useful addition to other professionals’ input.
Action Plan
I will take all this information, from the person, their family, other professional input and from an EEG brain analysis, and devise a neurofeedback training plan that will aim to help those areas to regain their correct frequency balance, and encourage interconnection between areas, using both types of neurofeedback.
What is most useful is the person’s own experience and those closest to them, to see how they have been affected.
Counselling for Brain Injury & Strokes
This is something that takes time, as there are multiple factors. There can be losses of mental, emotional, and physical functions that the person has been used to. There can be traumatic memory that is stored in the brain and body through a network of neurons (brain cells). There can be grief, loss, and guilty feelings. Additionally there can be issues outside the person themselves, such as changing relationships, partners may become carers, work roles may change or stop, and the ability to regulate all this with a brain that often struggles to manage emotions can be hard.
The more of these factors a person has, generally the longer it will take for them to come to terms with their situation and start to look forward with a realistic optimism.
Action Plan
A key part is to listen and help the person listen to themselves.
To help them process their thoughts, feelings and body held trauma I use the techniques described in the counselling page, to enable them as far as possible to process their trauma.
The other part of the process is to help them look at how they want their new future to look like, and how to step towards this.
