My previous radio program and my present webcast program are both entitled “It’s all in your head!” How I came up with this title was listening to the discouraged patients that I routinely treated, and still treat, who have been told, by the doctors they have consulted, that the pain, discomfort, distress, debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance and depression that they endure is “all in your head.”  What this remark is meant to imply, of course, is that there is no physical cause of the condition and that the symptoms are manifestations of psychological factors. My response to these patients is that “of course it is in your head, where else would it be?” My remark however is not disparaging but rather indicates the actual location of many of the patients symptoms. The brain controls everything so all symptoms are associated with brain activity. The remarkable effectiveness of neurotherapy for the treatment of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue is due to the fact that the brain functioning associated with the symptoms is treated. Although this derogatory sentiment about fibromyalgia patients was widespread among health care providers in the past, it is remarkable to me that it still persists with many doctors to this day. A few days ago I was surfing the internet health news feeds and was dismayed to find an item entitled “Fibromyalgia: A mental illness?” In this item was a quote from a Canadian neurologist stating that fibromyalgia was a term waiting for a definition.

There is an old saying among psychotherapists that clients have difficulty in finding a good match because only about 15% of therapists are competent, and of that limited number the client will get along with only about 15%.  This wry observation is overdrawn, of course, but the point is that not all therapists or therapeutic approaches are right for you.  This is also true of neurotherapists.  Further, brainwave therapy is not a stand-alone therapy but must be integrated with other therapies.  In selecting a neurotherapist, you should insist upon several basic requirements.  These include:  an independent license within the practitioner’s jurisdiction, certified training in neurotherapy, and considerable relevant experience.  If possible, you should also be referred by a former client of the therapist.

Let’s take a look at these requirements in order.  First, the neurotherapist must hold an independent license within the jurisdiction of the therapist’s practice.  Thus, the person should hold a license to practice psychology, medicine, or some other relevant health care profession.  For example, the person doing neurotherapy might be a neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, naturopathic physician, licensed clinical social worker, chiropractor, registered clinical counselor, or a medical doctor.  The discipline should be relevant to the disorder that you wish to have treated.  For example, a chiropractor would probably not be as suitable as a psychologist for a traumatic stress problem, even though both are experienced neurotherapists.

There are many things we can do to enhance physical and mental performance. And all are important. These include proper exercise, good diet, nutritional supplements, disciplined work ethic, positive mental attitude, rehearsal, and good sleep hygiene. The present article focuses on an additional procedure that optimizes brain functioning – neurotherapy.

Simply stated, neurotherapy changes brain functioning by modifying brainwave activity. Research over the last four decades or so has identified brainwave activity that is not only associated with conditions such as depression, attention deficiencies, addiction, sleep disturbances, emotional volatility, and the like, but also those brainwave states that are associated with peak or optimal performance.

However, identifying brainwave patterns associated with specific symptoms and conditions was not the key breakthrough. The pivotal discovery was that of brain plasticity! As early as the 1940s researchers at McGill and Brown Universities demonstrated that brainwaves could be conditioned, That is, just like Pavlov did with conditioning a salivary response in dogs, these researchers were able to accomplish with brainwaves. Later, in the 1960’s researchers at Columbia and University of California showed that animals could learn to control autonomic (heart rate) and brainwave activity. Subsequently many additional researchers have shown that the brain can change. This has had huge implications and toppled our incorrect notions of how the brain functions. For example, when I went to school, medical and graduate schools taught that the brain had limited capacity for recovery. This is simply wrong! Sufferers of brain injuries were lead to believe that recovery after eighteen months would be limited at best. We now know that substantial recovery is possible long after the brain injury.

Further, the discovery of the extent of the brain’s capacity for functional change has lead to the development of very efficient non-drug methods for treating depression, attention problems in children, age related cognitive declines, anxiety conditions, and, in fact, all conditions that are associated with brain activity.

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In my practice we see many children who have been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, ODD, LD, ASD and many other acronyms. The central or common behavioral difficulties shared by many of these children include problems with attention, problems with learning, problems with getting along with others, oppositional and defiant behavior, and problems with impulse control. Based on the specific combination of these “problematic” behaviors as judged by parents and teachers, the health care provider – physician, psychologist, school counselor, and the like – attach one or more of the above acronymic labels and recommend “treatment”. The treatment usually includes a dangerous medication, a special school program and often counseling to help the family cope with the problematic child.

The problem with the above procedure is that the health care providers neglected to consider a very important acronym, TBI, which stands for traumatic brain injury. Common characteristic symptoms associated with TBI include problems with concentration and attention, difficulty with planning and organizing, problems with anxiety and depression, sleep disturbances, mood swings, major problems with impulse control, irritability, personality changes and visual/spatial impairments.

She came bopping into my office, jumped into the chair behind my desk, and started twirling herself around while watching to see if her mother or I would react. Her mother was about to admonish Susie but saw that I was smiling and extending my hand to her daughter. “Pumpkins sit here,” I said, pointing to some chairs on the other side of my desk. Susie ran to the other chair while giggling, “You’re a cucumber!”

Marnie clung so tightly that her mother had difficulty walking into my office. She was clearly very frightened, climbing into her mother’s lap and burying her head into her mother’s neck. When I addressed her, Marnie’s grip tightened to the point that her mother had to peel her off so she could breathe.

Similar to the SomatoEmotional Release protocol which promotes the release of past negative emotional and physical trauma, the Emotional Freedom Technique is a simple self-help protocol based on the principle that releasing negative emotional energy, assists the body’s energy to flow more smoothly. In this article, Dr. Swingle describes how to self-administer a simple EFT technique. Download EFT instuctions as PDF.

SUBTLE ENERGIES AND ENERGY MEDICINE, VOL15,(1), 75-86

Abstract

Clients previously involved in a motor vehicle accident who reported traumatic stress associated with the accident received two sessions of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) treatments. All clients reported improvement immediately following treatment. Brainwave assessments before and after EFT treatment indicated that clients who sustained the benefit of the EFT treatments had increased 13-15 Hz amplitude over the sensory motor cortex, decreased right frontal cortex arousal and an increased 3-7 Hz / 16-25 Hz ratio in the occiput. The benefits of psychoneurological research to reveal the processes of subtle energy healing are discussed.

Keywords

Emotional Freedom Technique, Traumatic Stress, EEG