Services

 In Counseling, a careful evaluation and history will be followed by a mutually agreed upon treatment plan and an explanation and rationale of the therapy process.       Behavioral Medicine involves utilizing complementary behavioral techniques to assist in the treatment of medical disorders. These techniques are not intended to replace medical care. Medical research has repeatedly documented that many common disorders are best treated with a combination of pharmacological and behavioral interventions. Stress, hostility, depression, anxiety, diet, exercise, sleep and other lifestyle factors dramatically affect the prognosis and quality of life for many individuals. Behavioral medicine approaches involve evaluation, education and mastery of skills to address these important factors. Eclectic techniques to improve success and long-term change are employed in a positive, respectful and accepting environment.

Biofeedback and Neurofeedback therapies involve utilizing computerized technology to display and facilitate learning control of physiologic and neurological states in the body. For example; muscle tension or dysfunction that contributes to headache or chronic pain can be picked up and displayed using painless sensors placed on the skin over the muscle. You can see and hear when you correct the dysfunction, remember what you did, and how it felt, and reproduce it at home. Stress is sneaky… Pain can cause us to brace or to use our muscles in an imbalanced way. We often do not feel habits at the computer or with our normal posture that produce objective dysfunction; but biofeedback can not only display, record and document this dysfunction, it helps us learn to correct it. Many clients are surprised to see the information because they were not aware of what was happening. This is an elusive part of many chronic syndromes. We as humans have an excellent ability to acclimate to how we carry ourselves, and simply do not notice the tension or dysfunction that in part maintains the pain. Learning to control anything is enhanced by feedback or information about your performance. Let’s say for example you came to me for basketball lessons, we go to the hoop, I ask you to shoot baskets, but I blindfold you. You probably would not learn very fast if at all. Biofeedback and neurofeedback allows you to take off the blindfold and see what’s going on, thus making learning occur where it might not otherwise.

Neurofeedback is the same as biofeedback except the feedback is displayed from the brain itself using sophisticated EEG equipment. Neurofeedback is used as an adjunct to treat ADHD in children and adults, fibromyalgia, substance abuse, depression and other CNS-related disorders. Please check the links page for more information.