by Tyler Purdy

Neurological biofeedback or neurofeedback is a treatment modality that helps you regulate your brain states. Throughout the day your brain experiences states of high arousal; which may arise from a task at work or engaging in some family function, homework, studying for a test: to states of lower arousal such as watching a movie, reading a book, practicing mindfulness. Neurofeedback helps regulate these transitional states so that you can go from a high arousal to a low arousal more smoothly and with less dysregulation.

For example, when I’m at the gym exercising, I want my body to maintain a higher heart rate and to feel the exertion of my muscles while I’m lifting or doing a cardio program and then as I engage in a cool down program, I want my body to start calming down and become less elevated and more relaxed. The same goes for my brain. My brain needs to meet a high arousal task but then be able to regulate and resume the tasks of a lower arousal state as that is indicated.  Sometimes my brain has difficulty doing this and so I experience dysregulation.

For some of us this dysregulation manifests as attention deficit disorder symptoms, or maybe with emotional instability such as depression, anxiety or angry outbursts.  For others, the dysregulation may not manifest until a task is given and the brain is having difficulty meeting the needs of said task. I’ve noticed in my own neurofeedback training, that my ADD symptoms have lessened and I have become more well regulated and better able to handle tasks given  me at work as well as the honey do list my wife gives me over the weekend. Instead of experiencing that “deer in the head lights look” when an unplanned task is given to me, my brain is better able to handle the newly assigned task and finish it in a more timely manner than in times previous to my own neurofeedback training.

One reason The Green House Center is deeply rooted in neurological feedback is because, as therapists, we’ve seen it work. Many therapists at The Green House Center have done their own neurofeedback work and are willing to talk about how it helps them be more regulated in their personal lives as well as in their professional lives. And because our therapists have done their own neurological biofeedback, we can confidently recommend it to our clients who are experiencing dysregulation in their brain state and know that it can be beneficial to them as well.