Mental health has become a top priority for many Americans across the country in recent years. Stigmas around mental health are crumbling and more people are realizing they have a need for mental health support. If you are looking for mental health services in Highlands Ranch, it might be worth considering neurofeedback therapy.
Neurofeedback is a type of mind-body therapy that relies on the principles of biofeedback. This therapy basically utilizes sensors to detect and encourage desirable physiological changes through biological data, often in the form of audio or visual responses. Neurofeedback is a noninvasive treatment that could be a terrific complementary therapy to round out your mental health treatment plan.
How Neurofeedback Works
Neurofeedback works through specific neuropsychological mechanisms that are still being studied today. Brainwave patterns are associated with certain types of cognitive operations and encouraging optimal patterns may result in increased performance of those operations.
Neurofeedback first emerged in the ’60s and has been studied by clinical researchers for decades. Neurofeedback is an assistive technology that helps people to gain better control over their own brains’ electrical activity and effectively mitigate symptoms in the short and long-term.
The process begins by recording electroencephalograms (EEG) during an initial brain mapping session. The gathered information provides insight into underperforming brainwaves and helps guide the development of your personalized treatment plan. From there, you’ll begin neurofeedback treatment sessions during which you’ll work through a series of cognitive exercises or simulations and your technician will receive real-time data on your brainwave activity.
During treatment, you’ll be able re-train your brain through iterative exposure to stimuli and positive or negative reinforcements. During this overall treatment, you’ll become aware of the changes occurring in your brain and will see gradual real-world improvements in your symptoms or condition.
Components of Brainwave Frequency
The human brain produces electric signals called brainwaves which reflect the activity of different parts of the brain. These signals are detected by electrodes placed on the scalp and differences in your brainwave frequencies compared to control measurements will give insights into how your brainwaves are contributing to your symptoms or condition.
Brainwaves are rhythmic fluctuations in voltage across the surface of the brain. There are three main types of brainwaves: delta, alpha, and beta. Delta waves occur during deep sleep and are characterized as being slower. Alpha waves are present when we are relaxed and alert. Beta waves are associated with attention, concentration, and learning. These different brainwave frequencies can be identified by measuring them in real-time via EEG technology.
How Neurofeedback Can Benefit You
When looking for mental health services in Highlands Ranch, you may be wondering how adding neurofeedback into your plan can benefit you. Neurofeedback is a simple, medication-free method that allows people to learn how to better regulate their brains. Many of your symptoms are likely partiallycaused of abnormal brainwave patterns and neurofeedback works to correct imbalances in your brainwave activities.
In addition to helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, insomnia, migraines, pain, addiction, and even autism, neurofeedback has been shown to help people lose weight, improve focus, increase memory, reduce blood pressure, and lower cortisol levels.
A growing number of studies show that neurofeedback works better than traditional treatments like antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). For example, one of the studies found that CBT didn’t provide the desired results as well as neurofeedback for treating depression. Another showed that neurofeedback worked better than drugs for reducing symptoms of PTSD.
Ready to Get Started with Our Mental Health Services in Highlands Ranch?
Finding the right kind of mental health services is difficult but not impossible at Braincode Centers. Neurofeedback could be an extremely effective addition to your current treatment plan to mitigate symptoms, control your condition, and treat the root of the problem.
If you’re interested in finding out more about this non-invasive treatment or want to schedule your first session, please contact us today.
