Managing Childhood Anxiety With Neurofeedback

Anxiety can be a normal response to temporary stress in the short term. Childhood can have many challenges as kids learn and grow. Sometimes, this can lead to physiologic activation of our nervous system (such as increased heart rate, shallow breathing and heart palpitations). This is meant to help us get through events that may feel threatening and can even be helpful at times. However, if this response becomes chronic, the nervous system may get caught in a loop without sufficiently calming itself down. When this happens, a harmless short-term response can become a more chronic mental health concern, potentially impacting our thinking, feelings and behavior.

Childhood is when we are not only growing and developing with our physical body but also creating psychological and physiological habits.

Understanding Childhood Anxiety

Anxiety in childhood impacts a child’s ability to lead a confident, happy, healthy life. It may be triggered by a wide range of factors, including:

• Environmental Factors (parental discord/separation, witnessing violence)
• Losses Such as the Death of a Loved One
• Moving/Issues Adjusting
• School Related Issues such as Bullying or Trouble with Academics
• Physical or Sexual Abuse
• Emotional Trauma
• Influences of Social Media or Social Stressors
• Biological Influences

Anxiety can impact a child’s ability to live with confidence and engage in healthy behaviors that set them up for success in their life. In the long term, it can have a negative impact on development and compromise their ability to learn to navigate future challenges.

Parents and caregivers often feel helpless and want to do whatever they can to support their child’s well-being. Options such as therapy can often help children learn healthy ways of coping and responding to stressors.

Some may also consider medications as an option to help manage more severe symptoms. However, there is often concern about side effects and long-term impacts of medications for children. Medications are typically a short-term solution when they are utilized while the child learns how to better cope with life stressors in healthy ways.

Neurofeedback offers a non-medication solution to many types of anxiety in children. Neurofeedback is a safe and effective option that has been shown to reduce anxiety from multiple causes with long-term results.

What Is Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback improves how the brain functions, which can have broad implications for our mental health. The process is easy and passive. Using an EEG monitor and specialized software, your child sits in a comfy chair and receives audio and/or visual feedback based on their unique brainwaves. This allows their brain to learn how to improve their anxiety symptoms in a way that is like how we learn to ride a bike. When we learn to ride a bike, we get feedback about our balance through gravity. This feedback gradually leads to learning how to balance our body and engage the bike’s pedals and steering wheel to move us forward. There are distinct brain wave patterns associated with increased states of anxiety. When the brain learns how to balance states better, it can help us harness the ‘steering wheel’ and reduce our anxiety.

Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback’s Approach to Childhood Anxiety

Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback recognizes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There is nowhere that this is more true than for children. They are just starting in life and are setting patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that can have foundational implications for their development. If we can help children ease their anxiety now, this has many cascading positive impacts for their future. We know parents and caregivers want to help. We do, too!

How Neurofeedback Helps Reduce Childhood Anxiety

Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback utilizes evidence-based methods of assessing brain-based causes of anxiety in children (biological causes such as an under-aroused brain or an over-aroused brain, or environmental causes/reactions to life circumstances can cause the brain to get ‘stuck,’ replaying negative things that have happened or that we fear will happen). The feedback enables your child’s brain to learn to self-regulate and calm itself down, allowing them to respond to life with more confidence and engagement.

This can offer several potential effects for the individual, including:

• Emotional Regulation
• Resilience in Difficult Life Experiences
• Better Decision-Making
• Improved Overall Mental Health
• Confidence and Self-Esteem

The Process at Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback: What To Expect

Neurofeedback is noninvasive and can be used independently or in combination with therapy, medication or any other treatments for anxiety in children. The first step in the process is our initial evaluation, which is provided by a licensed therapist. When we work with children, we will want to meet with the parent or caregiver for the first portion of the evaluation. Parents tend to know all or most of the answers to our questions about their child. From here, we will develop measurable outcome goals specifically for your child. Our process is designed to track these goals each time they come in. This helps us to determine the progress that they are making by measuring improvements to their symptoms. After this portion of the evaluation, we will also run an EEG to customize the protocol for their unique brain. Depending on the child’s age, we will typically start with a shortened protocol and then work our way up to a full protocol over the first few sessions. We plan to see them at least 2 times a week for sessions that last about 45 minutes ( this includes symptom evaluations and putting on/taking off the sensors). After approximately 20-30 sessions, most children have made significant, lifelong improvements to their symptoms of anxiety. They are better able to engage in their life and create a good foundation for their future.

Long-Term Benefits of Neurofeedback for Childhood Anxiety

Neurofeedback is true brain learning. This means that their brain taught itself a new set of skills to improve how they process both internal and external information. It also means that these gains are lifelong upon completion of the process. In the same way, you don’t forget how to ride a bike (how to use balance to navigate gravity). You also don’t forget how to regulate your brain to improve responses to stressors or biological factors that used to cause heightened states of anxiousness.

Results from our evidence-based process can have a profound impact on possibilities for their future that span far beyond the symptoms experienced in childhood. Setting a strong foundation of mental health now can affect who they can be for the rest of their life.

Why Choose Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback for Your Child’s Anxiety?

Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback is the only option on the Gulf Coast for the most evidence-based process and research-validated protocols that are customizable to track what you really want to see—relief for your child. We have an experienced team of therapists and trained technicians working together towards one collective goal. Results. We will communicate clearly what we need from you and what you can expect from us for this process to be effective. We genuinely care, and we are here to help.

Learn more about our process and how it can help your child. Contact us to set up a free consultation with one of our two locations. Beginning this process today can help your child reduce their anxiety and set them on a path for better mental health and well-being.