Practitioner Directory

Carol Shifflett, B.S., CMTPT

Therapy for pain syndromes and dysfunctions due to myofascial trauma and head injury.

ADD/ADHD, fatigue, confusion, depression, and fibromyalgia are not merely "lack of willpower" — they are often symptoms of brain injury. This is especially likely when symptoms appear within a year after high fever, upper body injury, and physical or emotional trauma.

Neurofeedback (once known as "EEG Biofeedback") is a form of biofeedback specifically for the brain. It is a painless and drug-free way of helping the brain return to a normal healthy state, to better regulate itself and the body it controls.

Different Types of Neurofeedback

Currently Neurofeedback is very roughly separated into two approaches: "Traditional Neurofeedback" and "LENS."

• Traditional Neurofeedback is a training process, standard operant conditioning. Meeting a goal earns a reward: a light, a sound, a display.
  This traditional approach teaches you how to drive your own brain, to recognize changing brainstates, to control and interact with your own brainwaves.
  Sessions: 2-3 per week.
  Course of treatment: Usually estimated at 20-30 sessions.
  
  
  
  
• LENS ("Low Energy Neurofeedback System") is treatment only, not training. It does not teach you how to drive your brain. Like AAA, it is a rescue service, intended to pull you out of the ditch and speed you on your way.
  Sessions: Once per week or even once every two weeks; LENS usually produces observable results faster and with fewer sessions than does Traditional Neurofeedback. We specialize in LENS Neurofeedback because of its speed and effectiveness.
  Course of treatment: Generally estimated at 12-20 sessions, but positive improvement should appear within a 3-6 session window. If not, there may be an underlying medical condition which must be addressed.

Both systems are extremely valuable in treating a multitude of symptoms.

What are Brainwaves?

Like other computers, the brain gives off tiny electrical impulses that appear as waves of varying frequency and strength. Different brainwave frequencies are identified as delta (4-7 Hz), theta (4-7 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), and beta (13-30 Hz). Each of these plays different roles and produces different effects on brain and body.

• High beta relative to alpha is associated with stress and anxiety.
• High alpha relative to beta gives a feeling of confusion, brain fog, and depression.
• High theta relative to beta is strongly associated with ADD.
• Delta, the slowest brainwave, should not appear in normal healthy adults during waking hours. A strong delta presence (especially in the frontal lobes) is considered strong evidence of brain injury.

In general, brainwaves should be:

• Faster at front, slower at back
• Faster at left, slower at right.

Reverse this and there will be problems.

• Slow at left and front > depression and fogginess
• Fast at right and back > anxiety and sleep disturbances

Combine a slowed left and front with fast right and back and you have the "Backwards Brain," confused, anxious, unable to sleep, caught in a cycle of fatigue and depression. And yes, “depression hurts.” The frontal slowing of this pattern is typical of fibromyalgia and "fibro fog." Drugs may be unable to help a "Backwards Brain" simply because they cannot be hemispherically specific. For example,

• Anti-depressants designed to speed up a slowed left brain will also speed up a too-fast right brain causing anxiety or panic attacks.
• Anti-anxiety meds designed to calm a fast right brain will also drop a slowed left brain back down into depression

What is Brainwave Slowing?

Due to illness, physical trauma, nutritional deficits, high fever, drugs (both illegal and legal), blood and oxygen supply to the brain may be interrupted or decreased. Unfortunately, the faster brainwaves required for focused attention, organization, and quick wits require high levels of oxygen and nutrients; slower, dreamier brainwaves require less.

Brainwave slowing is roughly equivalent to hibernation, an excellent survival strategy, but a poor way to live. The slower the brainwaves, the foggier and more depressed a person is apt to be. For example, frontal alpha of 12 Hz may produce a “functional” depression; you feel terrible but still manage to get up and go to work. At 8 Hz or slower, you may be completely unable to drag out of bed at all. “Hibernating” human brain cells don’t necessarily know when it is safe to wake up again or even how to do it.

Neurofeedback can reawaken the brain and help it—and the body it controls—on the way to recovery. It can also can avoid the roller-coaster ride of side effects by treating the problem directly and helping to restore proper balance.

Nneurofeedback does not replace appropriate medical or psychiatric care. Neurofeedback is notorious for reducing the need for various medications, including anti-depressants, anti-seizure and anti-anxiety medications, insulin, thyroid hormone, sleeping pills, ADD/ADHD and hypertension medications. When the body's need for a medication decreases, excess medication becomes an overdose. Side effects specific to the drug may appear and the drug must be adjusted downwards. To do so you must stay in close contact with your physician and/or pharmacist.

What Happens in a Neurofeedback Session?

• Brain Map and Intake Evaluation. Discussion of symptoms and detailed history, followed by brain mapping to determine what the brain is doing and its overall level of function. For pain patients, intake may include a myofascial evaluation of pain patterns, muscle function and flexibility.
  
• Treatment. Following review of response to mapping / symptoms since the last session, treatment involves a few seconds of feedback via a small electrode at one to several sites, depending on the patient. Feedback involves an extremely low-power radio wave with a field strength of about 1x10-18 (or 0.0000000000000000001) watts. This is far lower than even the tiny field produced by a digital watch. For pain patients, contributing myofascial issues may also be addressed as appropriate.

What Can I Expect From Treatment?

If neurofeedback is appropriate for you, you can expect improvement of symptoms in conditions as diverse as traumatic head injury (TBI), ADD/ADHD, anxiety, depression, migraines, PMS, and fibromyalgia. Clients report greatly reduced pain and anxiety with improved clarity, organization, mood, focus, emotional self-control and even hand-writing.

Detecting and working with vanishingly small brainwave signals requires a clean scalp. Sensor sites are cleaned with a mild abrasive; electrode connections are secured with a dab of conductive paste. After treatment, therefore, you might also expect a bit of residual paste in your hair which will wash out easily in your shower. Nevertheless, please come to appointments with clean hair; many personal and haircare products block feedback signals.

For appointments, contact; Carol Shifflett (412) 741-7286

For more information on Neurofeedback, see:

• aboutneurofeedback.com. This extensive site includes information on the famous Yonkers Project. There is also a short-list bibliography of neurofeedback publications in medical and technical journals many with links to the actual articles. A more extensive bibliography is available from the International Society for Neurofeedback & Research (ISNR).
  
• EEGInfo.com An excellent information site on traditional neurofeedback.
  
• The Healing power of Neurofeedback by Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. Those with fibromyalgia may be particularly interested in the section by Dr. Mary Lee Esty in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Esty ran the first double-blind neurofeedback study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• For information on head injury and neurofeedback, see our brochure which includes a short self test.