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

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

reconfigure electrical communication patterns in the brain in order to help people feel more fully alive in the present.

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

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

state. He could then solve the problem that had perplexed his fully awake mind. Theta is the state induced by most hypnosis, and it also relates to some of the deepest states of meditation.

Alpha–theta training is done in a reclining position with eyes closed. Body position affects brain wave production.

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

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