Combining Neurofeedback with Traditional Therapy: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health

Awareness of mental health’s importance has gained momentum in recent years. Both children and adults may benefit from seeking traditional therapy when they find themselves struggling with mental health challenges. Without proper treatment, anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges can become more severe, potentially impacting not only our day-to-day functioning but also our relationships, health and life satisfaction.

Left untreated, mental health concerns can have serious long-term impacts. Research shows that experiencing one mental health disorder may make a person 2-3 times more vulnerable to experiencing a second disorder, making proper and comprehensive treatment vital.

While addressing mental health by working with a professionally trained therapist is often helpful, traditional talk therapy alone may not be enough to fully address some mental health concerns.

The Need for a Holistic Approach in Mental Health

As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and founder of Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback, Pamela Downey says this is one area where neurofeedback really shines. “Neurofeedback allows us to take a bottom-up approach to supporting mental health. While therapy is an excellent resource for understanding our experiences and making important changes, training the brain itself can provide a foundation to make traditional therapies more efficient and successful. If we can assess and improve how the brain is processing, we can often complement traditional therapy and improve therapeutic outcomes significantly”.

Understanding Neurofeedback and Traditional Methods

In traditional counseling or therapy, a trained professional works primarily at the level of the mind to understand what contributes to our symptoms from a psychological perspective. However, mental health concerns are complex and involve more than the mind. The brain also plays a key role in mental health; a healthy brain can support a healthy mind.

Many variables may compromise the brain’s ability to help us feel and function our best. We may be born with genetic predispositions to anxiety or depression or forms of neurodiversity such as Autism or ADHD. The brain’s ability to support mental health can also be impacted after things happen in life, such as head injuries, strokes, or reactions to medications such as those used to treat cancers for example, (commonly referred to as ‘chemo-brain’). Other common examples include hormonal changes from pregnancy/postpartum, puberty or menopause that may impact mental health directly and indirectly.

Traumatic experiences were previously thought of as a psychological issue and addressed at the level of the mind. However, as our understanding of trauma has advanced in the last decades, we now recognize trauma’s profound impact at the level of the brain. Trauma can cause the brain to become stuck in a state of over-arousal (leading to PTSD or other stressor-related disorders).

Emerald Coast Neurofeedback’s Integrated Approach

Whatever the cause, at ECNF, we specialize in training the brain to support mental health. We start with a comprehensive research-driven evaluation process with a licensed therapist. The therapist will use specialized software to assess symptom clusters and determine a plan for training your brain to improve mental health.

While neurofeedback can be highly effective without additional therapies for some, it is also excellent in combination before, during or after traditional therapy. ECNF works with each client to determine their unique mental health goals and life needs and develop a plan that best supports their overall mental health.

Sometimes medication for certain conditions can be an option. However, it is important to recognize that for many symptoms and conditions, medication is meant to be a temporary aid vs a permanent solution. The effects of medication for mental health are typically only effective while continuing to take the drug. This means that most medications do not teach your brain how to do anything, and if you stop taking them, your symptoms typically return. Medications can also come with complications and potential side effects and are not right for everyone.

Benefits of Combining Neurofeedback With Traditional Methods

Many people who have mental health conditions, no matter the cause, have problems with the brain’s arousal system. They are either over- or under-aroused, leading to mental health conditions. Through Neurofeedback, we can train the brain to regulate itself again, leading to overall improvements in mental wellness. By adding neurofeedback to talk therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy or advanced modalities, such as EMDR, we see significant improvement in our clients.

Combining proper medical care, therapy and Neurofeedback is a trifecta on the frontier of a paradigm shift in mental health care. With neurofeedback, we show the brain its current functioning using real-time EEG data and then teach the brain how to autocorrect its own patterns to alleviate symptoms caused by those patterns.

“Neurofeedback has a staying power that supersedes medication in many cases and is supportive to positive therapeutic outcomes of counseling.”

Pamela Downey, MS, LMHC.

Long-Term Benefits of a Combined Approach

Unlike medication, Neurofeedback works by using information within the brain’s electrical vs chemical system. EEG data is used as an instrument that acts as a mirror for the brain. Changes made by training the brain to self-correct maladaptive electrical patterns then have a trickle-down effect on brain chemistry and psychology. The brain is known as a complex adaptive system. If you can give it real-time information about what it’s doing and how to improve, it will use that information to improve itself.

Therapy trains the mind, and medication tames the chemistry. However, neurofeedback trains the brain, which can have a positive and lasting impact on both. It does all of this while being completely safe and delivering lasting results. This is because we teach the brain how to do something, and once it learns, it knows how to do it. After a full course of feedback ( reaching a plateau), your results are lasting.

Pamela Downey and the team at Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback are committed to a holistic approach to mental health and wellness. To help her clients achieve significant gains, she integrates neurofeedback with traditional therapy methods. Using this holistic, integrated approach, our team creates individualized training plans that address a wide range of mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma responses and PTSD.

While our team strongly supports traditional therapy methods (Pamela is happily still a teaching and practicing clinician herself,) we know that combining traditional methods with neurofeedback often improves client outcomes dramatically in ways that therapy alone often cannot achieve.

The Process: How Integration Works at Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback

When a new client comes to Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback, a licensed therapist provides a comprehensive neurofeedback evaluation This includes questions from the therapist and data from the EEG system. The goal is to identify the most problematic symptoms and areas where growth is needed and create measurable ways of tracking progress across sessions.

From this initial evaluation, Pamela Downey and team determine what training approach is best for you. We will also collaborate with each client to design a training plan specific to your unique needs and goals. We see some clients as few as 2 times a week for about 3 months, while others benefit from/or prefer a more intensive training plan (clients who come from a long distance or on a holiday break may wish to train 2 times a day for 2-3 weeks to complete the feedback and return home). We work with each client to customize a plan that works for you.

Most clients see growth in assessed areas quickly, with growth continuing as they progress through sessions. Ideally, training is complete when a client’s brain learning reaches a plateau, telling us that that learning will be lasting. This is typically when we see less than 10% growth across all growth areas over five or more sessions. For some clients who may benefit from multiple protocols for different areas of concern, we also provide a re-evaluation to assess the need for a new protocol at this time.

Why Choose Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback for Holistic Mental Health Support?

Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback’s integrated approach stands out by working with the brain’s natural capacity to improve its functioning by helping the brain retrain its electrical patterns. In addition to traditional therapy methods, such as learning coping mechanisms to deal with stress, anxiety, and depression, clients who combine neurofeedback with therapy can change their brain functioning to make the work of therapy easier and more effective. For some, neurofeedback is so effective that therapy is no longer needed. At ECNF, we understand the brain has a profound and significant role in mental health. We were founded on this understanding, and it is our passion to help our clients improve their mental health and live a life they can enjoy!

Schedule a Consultation Today

The brain has a remarkable capacity to learn and improve, but sometimes, it needs help determining where and how to change. Neurofeedback can provide that help. Combining neurofeedback with traditional therapies can lead to greater, lasting mental health and wellness gains. Whether for yourself or your child, contact Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback today to schedule a consultation.

Call our Pensacola office at 850-779-8712 or our Fort Walton Beach office at 850-761-0170 to get started.