(An Intervention for ADHD, anxiety, depression, dyslexia, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, PTSD and other causes of discomfort- 2nd Edition (2020))
You may be one of them – a person that is navigating life enveloped in unrelenting, pulsating fear. Millions of us with unresolved trauma histories have been given different diagnoses. The average person in the aftermath of abuse and neglect does not understand that she or he lives in an unstable or over-aroused central nervous system and sadly, many practitioners that hand out diagnoses that justify the prescriptions of benzodiazepines, anti-depressants or worse, do not understand that either.
It is an irrefutable fact that that trauma intervention ought to begin at the level of the brain. The reduction of fear and arousal are paramount for the population that live enveloped in the shroud of developmental trauma as well as for the victims of post- traumatic stress disorder. Neuroscience illuminates the reality of the existence of millions of fear-driven brains with clarity and insight and suggests that neurofeedback practitioners have the most appropriate skills and equipment to address the discomfort of those suffering and constantly negotiating the myriad consequences of trauma. Psychotherapy, however important after the regulation of the central nervous system has improved, is mostly not successful initially. Those that inhabit fear due to their histories of trauma, have impaired connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain. The DMN is a key network involved in the development of a sense of self and a sense of other. One of the implications of a malfunctioning DMN is inaccessibility of brain functions necessary for the success of psychotherapy. This insight revealed by the latest neuroscience research is one of many research findings elucidated in chapter 11 of the second edition of Neurofeedback- The Non-Invasive Alternative (2020).
This added chapter provides an overview of the symptoms and some examples of different guises of those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder or developmental trauma. Some common comorbidities and misdiagnoses are alluded to, but the main goal of the chapter is to expound the profound impact trauma has on the brain and describe and illustrate how neurofeedback can restore normal brain function. The consequences of trauma are catastrophic and neurofeedback, a modality of applied neuroscience, can enable individuals doomed to desperate attempts to survive, to thrive.
Trauma and its devastating wake are perceived and treated differently owing to the important insights and research published by leading experts including Sebern Fisher (2014) and Dr Ruth Lanius (2020) richly cited in the book.
Chapter 11, entitled Neurofeedback for PTSD and Developmental Trauma is the most important addition in the second edition of Neurofeedback-The Non-Invasive Alternative. The following link leads to a brief synopsis:
The book was launched by the Foundation of Neurofeedback and Research on 1 December 2020. Copies are available at a 20% discounted price until 31 December.