If you have experienced trauma, there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that trauma affects the brain, producing many enduring symptoms in its wake and often results in PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). The good news is that the brain has the ability to learn new patterns, and as the brain waves change their patterns, symptoms diminish. How do you change the patterns of a brain affected by trauma? Very simply, actually….A non-invasive technique called neurofeedback teaches the brain new patterns through operant conditioning with auditory reinforcement. Spending a half hour a couple of times a week watching Netflix while the neurofeedback training occurs can be all it takes to calm a brain which is over-activated. Think of it as going to the gym for your brain. Like building a muscle, the brain learns to rebuild itself with regular neurofeedback training.

When a client comes into my office who has experienced trauma, I often know within minutes. Although they have usually yet to tell me about the trauma, their body is telling me. Emotional pain isn’t the only by-product of trauma; the autonomic nervous system is impacted and the body is affected.

When PTSD occurs, the brain often has difficulty switching from fight or flight to rest and digest. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for protecting the body, so when a threat is detected, it goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. An unimpaired brain easily switches to fight, flight or freeze mode only when needed. A traumatized bran with an overactive sympathetic nervous system stays in a constant state of readiness for threat. The excessive stress signaling causes wear and tear on the body over time. Symptoms of a brain that is overly sympathetic may include anxiety attacks, difficulty sleeping, constipation, nightmares, extreme anger or agitation, hypersensitivity to threat, an exaggerated startle response, a busy brain, hyperactivity and difficulty managing emotions. Over time, the sympathetic nervous dysfunction can lead to chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, cardiac disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

The parasympathetic nervous system’s job is to calm the body, stimulating the body to rest, relax, digest and repair. It is our natural state. The parasympathetic nervous system can go into overdrive when a trauma occurs. The overdrive results in a shutdown of the whole system. Since children are unable to protect themselves through fight or flight, this type of dysfunction is often seen in adults who experienced trauma as children. At the time of the trauma, the brain helped them by going into freeze mode as it attempted to suppress high arousal. Yet the emotional shutdown can remain after the trauma, resulting in other problems such as extreme fatigue, lethargy, dizziness, depression, diarrhea/IBS, nausea, lower body temperature, decreased heart rate and migraines. When the parasympathetic system dominates, dissociation may occur.

With neurofeedback, the brain can learn to stabilize the autonomic nervous system. No, this isn’t something you can do on your own. The help of a skilled professional is needed to monitor your symptoms and brain waves, guide the neurofeedback training, and revise protocols as needed from session to session. As a psychotherapist who works with trauma, it is a no-brainer to specialize in Infraslow Neurofeedback (ISF). ISF Neurofeedback training helps calm the amygdala, where the emotion of trauma lives, enabling trauma survivors to be able to regulate their emotions.

The brain is trained through ISF neurofeedback to function at its most calm, resilient state. The optimal result is a flexible autonomic nervous system that is able to rest, digest and repair and moves into fight or flight only when a real threat arises. Sleep improves, bowel movements regulate, anxiety diminishes, depression lifts, concentration improves, anger diminishes, blood pressure regulates and other symptoms of PTSD improve dramatically. Many of these symptoms are symptoms that will not change dramatically with talk therapy alone. Although talk therapy can be an integral part of healing from trauma, it does not address the neural circuitry of the brain. Yet with neurofeedback, particularly ISF neurofeedback, dramatic and lasting changes can occur in the neural circuitry of a brain affected by trauma. It is an unfair consequence that a traumatic event continues to live in the body long after the event occurs. Yet, for anyone that suffers from PTSD, there is hope...more than you might have ever dreamed.

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