Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain (10th Anniversary Edition)

The well-regulated brain gives rise to a self unafraid to love. In this way, neurofeedback is a relational technology and intervention.

In most cases, as neurofeedback training quiets fear, the symptoms of these disorders significantly diminish.

The optimal performance brain is the same brain (physically, not functionally) as the traumatized brain, just regulated.

Fear is the core emotion and the primary dysrhythmia in developmental trauma. Without addressing the brain’s fear circuitry directly, developmental

These patients are so chronically hyperaroused or shut down, and unable to filter out irrelevant information, that they have trouble engaging in whatever they are doing in a focused manner (except when they are involved in re-enacting their traumas).

(You can read more about the fascinating history of neurofeedback in the Jim Robbins [2000] book, A Symphony in the Brain.)

It helps to stabilize and focus attentional systems in the brain.

often teach meditation practices to my patients that focus on occupying “the present moment.” I repeat the teaching I received from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen master, who said, “We fall back into the past and we leap ahead into the future and in that we lose our entire lives.” Living in the present moment isn’t easy

(Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which a behavior is strengthened—meaning, it will occur more frequently—when it is followed by reinforcement/reward, and the behavior is weakened—it will happen less frequently—when followed by punishment.)