What is neuroplasticity and how does it work?
Neuroplasticity is the term scientists use to talk about the brain’s innate ability to form new neural connections in response to learning or experience or following injury. Specifically, neuroplasticity allows the nerve cells in the brain (neurons) to compensate for injury and/or disease and to adjust their response to new situations or to changes in their environment.
So, just as the muscles and bones in your body can heal after trauma, your brain can too, no matter your age.
How?
Research has shown that there is an accepted normal pattern of brainwave activity for just about any circumstance we experience, from sleeping to driving, learning something new, to repeating a motion we have performed a hundred times.
When this normal brain wave pattern becomes dysregulated (through physical or emotional trauma), our brainwaves re-track how they connect. Frequently, this re-tracking or dysregulation takes the form of memory loss or sensory or behavioral change. We may develop symptoms that compromise our daily lives, sometimes requiring medical support.
All too often, that medical support comes in the form of medication. For instance, we may be given an anti-anxiety medication to calm sudden irrational fears or inappropriate abrupt behavioral change such as intense anger.
Neurofeedback is a way to utilize the brain’s plasticity – or ability to change and heal – by engaging with those brainwaves. In other words, neurofeedback helps you harness the power of your own brain to help transform brainwave imbalances without (or alongside) medication.
It’s a non-invasive way to help children and adults get back to normal, healthy, organized brain function, operating optimally and efficiently.
Any adult or child can benefit from the brain’s inherent ability to “re-wire” or heal itself, through retraining using the brain’s natural neuroplastic abilities. Neurofeedback can help those suffering with:
- Anxiety
- ADHD
- Chronic pain
- Autism or Asperger’s syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
- Insomnia
- Memory loss
- Migraines
- Learning disorders
- Panic attacks
- Post-concussion syndrome
- PTSD
What if you or your child has a smaller, albeit troublesome issue such as stuttering, or an irrational fear getting in the way of life? Neurofeedback can help with that as well, helping your amazingly resilient brain re-train itself, whether that involves improving concentration, memory, enhancing problem-solving, reducing performance anxiety, or simply increasing self-confidence.
At INDY Neurofeedback, we know that everyone is unique. The amount of training your brain may need depends upon the severity of your symptoms and your overall health. We’re here for the big challenges and for the smaller ones, too.
We’re also good listeners. If you’ve got a question about something bothering you or your child, give us a call and let’s schedule an appointment to talk about it.
– the INDY Neurofeedback team
