Q - I've heard that closed brain injuries are more easily treated than open brain injuries. I wonder whether neurotherapy could help in correcting the symptoms of penetrating injuries such as memory loss or executive difficulties.
A - Yes, in general closed head injuries are far more efficiently treated. And we have considerably more information on the treatment of the closed head injured client. However, given the effectiveness of neurotherapy in treating brain injury, it should be considered as adjunct in treatment of the conditions you describe to facilitate brain recruitment for executive functions compromised by brain damage. |
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Q - My 10 year old son has Neurofibromatosis. The last few years I have noticed that he has difficulty coping with frustrations at school and at home. He is anxious most of the time, complaining of stomach aches every morning before school. He has been teased and struggles with his education (has an SEA - part time). He cries at the slightest thing. In the last few months these symptoms have gotten worse and his ability to cope is non-existent. Can neurofibromatosis be affecting his mental health?
A - In general, all disorders can affect mental health. With neurofibromatosis, there are several possibilities for affecting mental health. First because this condition can be related to learning difficulties, the areas of the brain implicated are also associated with emotionality. Hence, although one might focus on the cognitive effects of frontal lobe involvement, there is also an emotional component to the frontal lobe inefficiencies caused by the condition. Neurotherapy is often very useful in improving both the cognitive and the emotional difficulties. One the other hand, the stigmatizing effect of the physical effects of the disorder can be very problematic for the child and seriously effect self-esteem. The child may be teased or bullied or made to feel deficient. Also, the cognitive problems often associated with this disorder can effect the child's self-esteem. You report that the child seems anxious most of the time and is complaining of stomach aches each morning before school. These are, obviously, anxiety responses that are most likely related to the psychological effects of his condition. He may feel inadequate for the school work and/or rejected by his peer group because of his appearance or motor inefficiencies. The emotional volatility, likewise, can be either his fragile self-esteem or the neurological problem associated with the disorder affecting the right frontal cortex, or likely, both. |
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Q - My son, age 10, has trouble with reading, writing and math. His social & cognitive skills are quite high. We have done tutoring, vision therapy and the Tomatis program all of which have helped enormously, and he is in a great school so has lots of confidence and works in a multi-age setting. Do you think he would benefit from your program? Are the sessions difficult in any way for the child?
A - Neurotherapy can be profoundly helpful with ASD at all levels of severity. In addition to neurotherapy we often recommend adjunctive treatment programs such as the ones you describe. To determine the areas of inefficiency in brain functioning the first step is to make an appointment for a brain assessment. Based on that assessment we can determine the areas in which neurotherapy can be helpful. Generally, the sessions are very enjoyable for the child. They have the opportunity to play a video type game with their brain. Somewhat more demanding protocols are often introduced later in treatment in which the child is required to perform a task during neurotherapy treatment. Such tasks may include reading, writing, holding a conversation on a specific topic and the like. If the child is having a problem with one of these tasks, reading for example, the session could be difficult and tiring although as the tasks are introduced gradually the child does not react to these more demanding sessions in any distressed manner. |
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Q - I'm a 56 year old woman. I was repeatedly drowned, smothered, and deliberately shocked by my grandmother who was dying of cervical cancer and was trying to get her spirit into my body by taking me to near death stated. This occured between the ages of 2-5. I survived but I have nightmares and problems with trust and intimacy. I had a 38 year addiction to marijuana which I managed to overcome through meditation. Can your work help me with the anxiety I still experience?
A - We treat many clients who have been ritually tortured/abused. Neurotherapy is a very effective treatment for the sequella (aftermath) of emotional trauma. |
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Q - I recently heard that you have a CD to assist those who have difficulty sleeping. I didn't find it on your website. Could you tell me about it?
A - All of Dr. Swingle's CDs and more are available at www.soundhealthproducts.com |
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Q - I currently seem to be using psychic abilities, phenomena in my thoughts where I receive signals of things outside of my normal sensory view. Sometimes this skill seems like a gift but often a hindrance to stay focused on my immediate task. I'm interested in how neurotherapy would affect this psychic side of my thoughts. Has Swingle and Associates worked with others who have reported psychic tendencies, if so what were the results?
A - We have many clients who have psychic experiences. Sometimes these psychic experiences are actually related to the psychological disorder for which the person is seeking treatment (for example, delusional states). However, other clients do appear to have bone fide psychic capabilities and from their reports these skills were not compromised by the neurotherapeutic treatments. |
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Q - I'd like to have contact with someone who has completed treatment or is being treated for Bi Polar disorder before I begin the treatment myself. Could you help me with this?
A - We never establish contact between our clients and unknown persons. |
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Q - Am I to understand that you won't provide any references of those treated by you? I am uncomfortable with this.
A - To preserve doctor patient confidentiality, we do not give out any identifying information on any client, past or present. However, if you wish to speak with a person who has agreed to comment on our treatment, we can arrange this. The contact person is a strong advocate for our practice: we have seen several members of his immediate family, and he has referred many clients to our care. If you with to speak with this person, send us your telephone number, and we will arrange to have this person contact you. We do have several online testimonials by clients who have agreed to let us place them on this site. They are available on our testimonials page. Dr. Paul Swingle |
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Q - I have difficulty falling asleep. The initial incident occured about several years ago. In short, I have been prescribed immovane dose 7.5 mg. 3 at at bedtime. I usally get to sleep for 3 to 4 hours and wake up. I cant get back to sleep so I take another couple. I know that amount I am taking is affecting my memory and I have now a hight tolerance to it. And finally I am getting tired of the metal taste.
A - We see many clients for treatment of sleep disturbance. You are quite correct, sleep medication does adversely affect cognitive processes. If you are not close to a neurotherapy practitioner, you may wish to try the "Harmonic Sleep" CD and the CES unit, both available from the Soundhealth products web-site. Most efficient approach is to see a neurotherapy practitioner, however. |
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Q - Steps to get an adult child (27) who refuses to cooperate into a rehabilitation program? In and out of hospitals ever since she fell off a race horse and smashed her helmeted head on pavement/cement in May 2005. It is evident there is permanent brain damage that has led to behavioral problems getting her into more serious trouble as the years go by. How do I get all her medical files so I can have a more complete package to present to the next doctor & lawyer that there may be some progress in treating her for what really ails her? Thank you
A - We routinely have parents, children and spouses ask this question. One of the common effects of head injury is agonistic, uncooperative and/or socially inappropriate behavior. Getting these head injured individuals to cooperate and receive treatment is very challenging for family members. There is no standard method for persuading these individuals to at least explore the possibility for beneficial treatment. We have had family members try all manner of methods to get the person to an initial evaluation session. Some have been successful in convincing the head injured person to "explore" the options just as they would explore any other situation such as finding a good auto mechanic. Others have simply "insisted" that the person gather information (i.e., come for an evaluation), that saying "no" to something they have limited information about is not intelligent behavior. And just About every other method between these previous two. It is important to keep in mind that with frontal lobe injury the person's judgement is seriously impaired and their behavior may be completely illogical. We have had instances in which the person agreed to come and then would not leave the waiting room to have the assessment. With persistence of family members, however, we are often successful in eventually getting the injured person to have the assessment that in turn becomes persuasive evidence for the head injured person to pursue treatment. Getting the medical records, on the other hand, only requires signed consent and then the files are forwarded either to the patient directly or to the professional (lawyer, physician, psychologist) designated by the patient. |
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Q - My husband has every single symptom of borderline personality disorder. He is causing such chaos in my life and my children's. We have been married 25 years and I have always been the greatest person in his life. We have been living apart for 3 years and just recently he has been so negative and now wants a divorce. It is just crazy. Now I am not worth even working problems out with. He has moved all his belongings out of the family home. He works in Vancouver at a high stress job and was coming home to Kelowna on weekends. Now he is totally focussed on having complete control over everything in his life and is totally selfish now. I just don't understand. He is seeing a psychologist in Vancouver but I don't know if they would know to look for borderline disorder. He made his decision to cut me out of his life 2 days after his first psychologist appointment. Do you think this would have raised a red flag that something more than marital problems was wrong with my husband. He has had so much anger our whole marriage and it has been conflict ridden and so hard. I just know know what to do.
A - The situation that you describe is, unfortunately, not uncommon. There is not much you can do in such circumstance. Fortunately, your husband is seeing a psychologist. If the therapist is a psychologist then it is most likely that he or she is fully qualified to identify personality disorders and treat appropriately. Personality disorders are very difficult to treat and psychologists usually have to proceed slowly to keep such patients in treatment. Being on the outside, as you are, is difficult but unfortunately there is not much you can do other than support your husband's efforts to receive treatment. |
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Q - What is the cost per hour or per session for Dr Swingle's treatments . The stroke was caused by a freak accident, namely a blow to the forehead from a tree branch which resulted in the inside lining of the artery in the left side of the neck seperating from the outside lining of the artery causing inside lining to colapse and block blood to the brain.. Patient suffered very little physical damage but lost ability to speak. Stroke occured eight months ago and patient has been getting speech therapy. Speech improvement is progressing very slowly. Patient is 52 years old, is very healthy and does not receive any medication.
A - After the initial assessment, the treatments vary from $105 to $150 per session depending on the level of service required. Generally, you can plan on most sessions at $105 and about 25 percent of the sessions at the higher rates. |
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Q - I have a binge eating disorder, how would therapy at Swingle and Associates help me?
A - Binge eating can be associated with several brain inefficiencies in addition to some psychological enablers. One form of brain inefficiency, for example, is similar to what we find with various addictions such as alcoholism. The psychological component likewise can differ substantially but often includes a history of emotional trauma. Neurotherapy addresses both of these areas. We first do a brain assessment to determine the neurological condition associated with the disorder and then do neurotherapy to correct these brain function anomalies. The psychological component can be addressed in many ways including cognitive behavior therapy, hypnosis, EMDR, and other forms of therapy. Our success rate with these disorders is very good. |
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Q - Hi, my 23 year old son is in his 9th month of recovery from alcohol and cocaine addiction. He has managed to stay sober, but is having a lot of head stuff going on including "using nightmares". Just wondering if this procedure could help him clear his mind some. If so how many sessions would he need?, and are the costs around $100 except for first assessment? Thanks
A - Neurotherapy can be exceptionally helpful for addicts in recovery. The first step of our Neurotherapy treatment is to have an intake brain assessment to determine the exact nature of the brain inefficiencies related to his self-medicating behavior. Usual findings include a severe deficiency at the back of the brain related to the inability to quiet the mind ("can't find peace in the head"). In addition it is not uncommon to find one of several predisposing factors toward depression. After we determine the exact nature of the brain anomalies we proceed with neurotherapy to normalize brain functioning. The treatments average about $110, most at $105 and a few at $130, depending on the level of service required. |
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Q - My question is about my mother who has reoccurring cysts and tumors-venous ones. She has had 4 surgeries and this last one 2 years ago was more serious as she waited too long to let her neurologist know she was having problems again. She had to have many surgeries and later gamma ray and physical therapy after awhile. Although she has never seemed to recover from the last one yet, she would get dizziness before and surgeries would help that go away, this time it hasn't gone away, making life difficult for her. Her neurologist says she could come to Seattle at Harborview (where her neurologist is-who does the surgeries-well many of them)for this treatment., which I do not know what it is...she says something about hanging in a box. Could you tell me what this is and tell me about a site where I could read up on it. Thank you again for your time.
A - There are many causes of vertigo and a number of very effective treatments. You should contact the neurologist for information on the specific treatment that is being recommended. Without knowing the details I cannot direct you to further information but I am sure your neurologist would be happy to provide the information you require. |
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