David Pavlick, MS, LCSW, BCN has successfully used Neurofeedback Therapy in the treatment of a wide range of symptoms and conditions including the ones described below.
If you struggle with any of these symptoms or conditions, please call our office (860-567-0852) or get in touch with us online. We would be more than happy to discuss how neurofeedback may help your specific issue and allow you to gain control of your thoughts, emotions and behaviors, achieving greater mental flexibility and emotional stability.
Stress
Acute stress is a part of everyday life. We can experience good stress, such as going on a date or meeting a deadline, and we can experience bad stress, such as being overworked, feeling stuck, or experiencing problems with money. The issue with stress is our inability to cope with multiple demands, allowing them to “pile up” and lead to chronic disease-causing stress overtime. Studies have found neurofeedback training to interact with the stress response system and restore our ability to cope with life’s multiple demands.
Restrictive Eating Disorders
David Pavlick has over 20 years of experience working with various eating disorder patients. Since incorporating Neurofeedback Therapy into his practice he has seen even greater success rates in treating anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Mood Problems
Mood problems can mean a variety of things to many different people, but at the end of the day, we can sometimes find that we just don’t “feel like ourselves” in our overwhelmingly stimulating world. Things like feeling low, ‘”off” or unmotivated, experiencing less pleasure in life than normal, finding it difficult to keep up with daily demands, fatigue, and increased drinking or substance use can all be signs of shifts in our mood and performance. Clinical research has found neurofeedback training to re-stabilize these shifts in brain processing, restoring what it means to feel like “you.”
Attention & Focus
The ability to focus our attention is an essential part of learning and growing. When people have difficulty paying attention and concentrating at will, a number of stresses can arise such as frustration, anxiety, drops in performance or grades, even shifts in social dynamics. Neurofeedback therapy has been used by a wide range of individuals including young and older students, businessmen, athletes, musicians, surgeons and so on to improve the brain’s ability to dial into a given task, filter out irrelevant information, and accomplish life goals. Neurofeedback has also proven beneficial for individuals with ADHD and various learning disabilities.
Memory
Working memory refers to an aspect of short-term memory that is involved in the holding and manipulating of information during a given task, such as remembering a phone number, where you parked your car, or studying for an exam. Although problems with retention and recall can result from a wide number of things, a healthy working memory is crucial for growth and development. Studies have found that individuals trained in neurofeedback increased their ability to correctly recall information compared to those not trained, pointing to the great therapeutic potential of neurofeedback as well as it’s value in optimal performance training.
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders include a range of related mental conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social and simple phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although stress and anxiety is typically experienced in everyday life, therapeutic intervention becomes necessary when these symptoms persist over months and years, interfering with daily functioning and diminishing our quality of life. Neurofeedback therapy works to correct the hyperactive brain states specific to anxiety disorders, and restores adaptive perception and processing of life’s daily demands.
Sleep Problems
Problems with sleep can result from a number of variables including stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, and trauma. Common complaints can include difficulties falling asleep, interrupted sleep, nightmares, bed-wetting, and early morning waking. Whatever the cause or disruption, neurofeedback training helps to restore the brain to proper sleep rhythms and the ability to shift between wakefulness and rest naturally.
Depression
Depression can far exceed the simple notion of feeling sad. People suffering from depression often feel like a shell of themselves, overcome with feelings of emptiness, helplessness or worthlessness, drastic changes in sleep, eating and social patterns, inability to think, concentrate or complete tasks, and possibly even recurrent thoughts of death or suicide ideation. Research has shown neurofeedback therapy to be extremely helpful for managing depressive episodes and restoring healthier thinking patterns.
Emotional Trauma
Trauma can be thought of simply as severely distressing psychological and emotional overload. This type of damage to the mind results from experiencing an event that far exceeds our coping mechanisms both in stress and integration of emotion. Whether trauma occurs following a single event, such as with post-traumatic stress disorder, or repetitive early life trauma, such as with complex developmental trauma, neurofeedback has been shown to calm the fear-driven brain and aid in the development of healthy coping mechanisms.
Asperger’s & Autism
Autism spectrum disorder encompasses a wide range, or “spectrum” of developmental symptoms, skills, and levels of disability. The easiest way to understand this spectrum is that according to research, children with ASD have irregular connectivity in their brains, excessive in some areas and deficient in others. While neurofeedback is not a cure for ASD, families have enjoyed a number of clinical improvements including clear speech patterns, decreased hyperactivity and emotional outbursts, and improved social skills and responses to parental and teacher instruction.
Post Concussive Syndrome
Closed head injuries are extremely common and can often cause concussions. Although the brain has an innate ability to heal itself, some post-concussive damage is so severe that brain tissue is torn and cognitive abilities become impaired. Neurofeedback therapy has shown great benefit in treatment of memory and attention span issues, mood irregularities, as well as headache and fatigue.
Addiction Recovery
Addiction can be characterized around a number of different compulsive behaviors, including alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, etc. While rehabilitation is not a service offered at LNFB, neurofeedback therapy is an effective addition in strengthening and maintaining clarity of mind and rational coping strategies during recovery.
Migraines
Migraines are intense and often debilitating headaches that can be accompanied by feelings of nausea, as well as sensitivity to light and sound. Some individuals can suffer from recurring migraines that continue for decades, interrupting their personal and occupational lives, and decreasing overall quality of life. Neurofeedback therapy has shown incredible application in the treatment of headaches and migraines, stopping a migraine while it’s occurring in the short term, and rewiring the brain to decrease the frequency and intensity of episodes in the future.