Q - Hi I am interested in finding out more about how neurotherapy can help. My husband was in a severe car accident 12 years ago. He has anger issues that may be related to the accident. As for myself, I have a learning disability and have a feeling that my head and body are very tight. It’s a feeling of too much pressure. Please let me know if this treatment is covered by medical or Blue Cross extended care.
A - We do treat many clients with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) long past the time of trauma. Our treatments are covered by most extended medical plans up to your cap for a registered psychologist. |
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Q - I am working with a client who suffers from brain damage. Which of your treatment products would you most recommend for my client who continues to have frequent TIA’s and infrequent grand mal.
A - The Attention™ CD is most appropriate for TBI patients and for use in conjunction with EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). |
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Q - Wondering about the chance of treatment being helpful to senior (81) who has suffered slight strokes. She had carotid artery surgery to remove blockage - suffered additional slight stroke. She is very bothered by the lack of short-term memory, and inability to think clearly. Can you help?
A - We have had very good success with improving short-term memory for elderly clients and those that have had stroke or head injury. The major issue in memory is the frequency of a particular waveform that starts to decline normally as a function of age. That decline is accelerated by stoke, head injury and many medications. The age related declines can be mitigated with neurotherapy and we have many clients on our brain brightening program in which they come in about three times per year to have the critical waveform kept functioning efficiently. For those clients who are medicated with sleep, anxiety or depression medication that decline is accelerated and we first have to help them off the medication and normalize any problematic brain functioning. Similarly with stoke, we normalize any inefficiencies and then keep the critical waveform functioning appropriately. |
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Q - My husband has had a right sided severe stroke. His faculties are all there, he has learned to walk with a cane, but his left arm is still completely paralyzed. The doctors have given him no chance for his arm. The circulation in it is still very good, he wears a brace on his wrist and hand. We are considering doing acupuncture as this is what helped him when he had frozen shoulder in that arm. I would like your opinion please if you think there could possibly be other alternatives to help him regain his arm.
A - There are several options that are worth exploring. You mention acupuncture; as with all therapies the success of acupuncture depends on the practitioner's skill. Many stroke patients have found considerable benefit. A related treatment is Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) This procedure uses acupuncture needles but they are used on the muscle itself (not on acupuncture points). IMS is designed to help with short muscle difficulties and again many stoke patients have found IMS useful. The procedure that we use in cases such as your husbands is to arouse the areas of the brain that have been damaged and to try to facilitate the establishment of substitute neural pathways. In addition to the neurotherapy we use peripheral methods such as muscle biofeedback to re-educate the neural system to facilitate recovery of function. There are related techniques such as restraint to force the reestablishment of new neural pathways. The latter technique involves restraining the functioning arm or leg and forcing the client to focus on use of the poorly functioning limb. Brief breaks from restraint are allowed but the restraints are worn for most of the time. It is, as you would imagine, very demanding and frustrating in the early phases of treatment. |
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Q - Have you ever treated people with vestibular disorder from brain injury. difficulties with visual eye movement, reading, driving, etc. would this show up in a scan?
A - Yes, we have treated many people with vestibular complications from TBI. In addition to the symptoms you describe, many of these clients experience severe vertigo, nausea, dizziness and difficulty walking particularly at night and on uneven surfaces. With TBI clients we go immediately to the full brain map with statistical comparisons with normative data bases. This procedure identifies not only areas of brain inefficiencies but also difficulties with brain site to brain site interactions. The latter is where one usually sees the major effects of TBI. In addition to neurofeedback we use braindriving procedures while the client is involved in a task such as eye movement or reading. This procedure is particularly effective for treating these sequella of TBI. |
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Q - I have had two brain surgeries that have left me with proprioception difficulties, especially with walking and balance. As well, my left side is considerably weaker with the residual impairments of a frozen left shoulder. Could this therapy help rewire my brain? How many sessions would it require?
A - We have had considerable success in helping people recover some function after brain injury and brain surgeries. The first step is to have a brainmap (QEEG) done to determine the precise problematic areas. There are several therapies that we use including neurotherapy but it is not possible to estimate the number of sessions that might be required. The range is very large from 15 to over 100. People continue to receive treatment as long as they continue to experience improvements in their condition. Typically, clients notice improvements after the fist few sessions. |
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Q - My husband , who had a stroke two years ago, has aphasia as well as seizures. Can you help him with these conditions?
A - There have been significant advances in the neurotherapeutic treatment of these conditions. We have had considerable success in the treatment of seizure disorders. As you may know, the treatment of drug resistant epilepsy was one of the first applications of neurotherapy. Since then, there have been improvements and refinements in our treatment methods and we treat many seizure disorders and other non-voluntary movement disorders. The symptoms of aphasia vary considerable from patient to patient. Some find mild difficulty in finding words, others cannot speak at all, and others may lack the capability to understand other's speech. The treatment of these conditions are guided by data obtained from a full brain quantitative EEG. This assessment procedure allows neurotherapists to see in detail how the brain is malfunctioning. Aphasia usually is associated with problems in brain site to brain site interactions (coherence) that can be corrected or improved with neurotherapy. Thus, the first step is to obtain a full brain assessment to determine the exact nature of the disorder. In general, neurotherapy has been very successful in helping with these conditions. |
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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 - 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 - 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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