Photo Credit: Margaret Bellafiore

Sebern Fisher & Neurofeedback for Developmental Trauma: Part 2 of THIS WOMAN GETS IT!

(This was Part 1)

Fisher believes a “well-regulated brain” is a healthier and happier brain. Unfortunately, those of us with the peanut butter and jelly of developmental trauma, abuse and neglect, are unlikely to have one. Instead, we have what she calls a “fear-driven brain.”

We’re saying this to the brain – chill – not to the person. If the person could (chill or not be afraid) they wouldn’t do or need neurofeedback. 

The person can’t just chill and that’s the issue.

That’s me paraphrasing this down-to-earth clinician who I love listening to. So, even though I’ve never done neurofeedback, I signed up for a webinar geared mostly towards clinicians who treat people who’ve been traumatized to hear her.

These are my notes but please know this isn’t a clinical review but my personal understanding.

Unlike many approaches,

which try to reach the brain through the training of the mind,

neurofeedback reaches the mind first

and subsequently improves the mind too.

What neurofeedback does, Fisher says, is give “the brain’s owner” a mirror to watch their own brain is producing. “It really is a mirror for the brain to be looking at its own activity.”

In practical terms this is done with a “real time EEG” she said. For a demo, go here:

The person “can see what their brain in producing” she said and by seeing the way the brain fires – things can be changed. The “thing” Fisher is most interested in helping change is the horrible fear, anxiety and grueling other “affect regulation” issues common for survivors of developmental trauma.

I think of the brain after developmental trauma like a car without a working brake, gas or any seatbelts. It’s got issues stopping, starting and keeping passengers and the driver safe.

This is not the most reliable car to take on a trip to the grocery store and definitely not the first choice for a cross country adventure.

You want seatbelts and airbags in a car without brakes. But for that car, or the body with shitty affect regulation, that’s usually not available. 

No matter who and how an adult is in present life – and how wonderful that present life might be – traumatic childhoods leave scars. The scars are not just personality problems but in the body feeling safe or unsafe.

This faulty regulation system fuels many self-soothing behaviorsand not all of them are healthy. It’s like trying to push the car from behind when it’s stuck in snow or crashing it into a bush to slow it when the brakes fail. Addictions, eating disorders, self-mutilation – these are all similar attempts and  just as inelegant as trying to make a car without working parts run. Is it possible? Yes. Is it optimal or safe or going to look fabulous? Not usually and not for long.

Fisher believes that calming a “fear-driven brain” through neurofeedback is a game changer for those with developmental trauma

A “different person arises out of a regulated brain,” said Fisher. By different, she’s not talking changing political affiliation or s-exual orientation, she’s talking a person that feels safe  – as opposed to a person who is scared shitless.    SIGN ME UP!

Losing the fear means improving the quality of life and by a lot.

For those without the low-grade fever of fear, numbness or angst, this might sound scary but for those with trauma, it means the birth of the truest and deepest self – just not terrified. 

I wonder how it feels to end these sessions? Is it similar to how I feel after yoga, a massage, guided imagery or a free-writing session with a best friend?

Or after bent-at-the waist belly laugh with a lover?

Or after a long walk on the beach with a puppy?

Or the first game of cribbage my daughter beats me at?

What would it have been like to live a life where I felt safe in my skin and the world most of the time decade after decade?

Safety – I feel it now – and embodied and able to stay in the present.

But I’m in my 40’s and it’s been a long-ass journey. 

If there are faster, better and more efficient ways – I’m in.

In other words, if all your best efforts at talk therapy, feel-it-to heal it or mindfulness retreats still leave you feeling amped, jumpy and stalked by fear, consider neurofeedback. At minimum, you can take comfort in knowing it can and has helped others. I do.

Feeling fearful when you “know” you are safe is not fun. Apparently, better brain regulation can help one FEEL the KNOWING of SAFETY.

In other words, it’s not that you aren’t trying hard enough to heal trauma. This is something I discovered, for myself with yoga and free-writing. Me all calm and relaxed is much happier than me all fearful no matter the circumstances of my life.

I spend almost no time trying to figure out why I feel unsafe until I actually AM FEELING SAFE. Feeling safe is the priority not understanding fear.

I don’t want to be all one with my fear. I can work with it, understand the origins and delve into it dream analysis, talk therapy or whatever. But what actually works best is feeling safe and that’s often been in too short supply.

More detailed research by Sebern Fisher is in her Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma where she writes so convincingly, credibly and well about how developmental trauma feels that she is now one of my favorite authors as well as trauma experts. She’s not patronizing or hopeless which I consider as sort of crucial to allowing me to keep mind and heart open to new idea about tough and traumatic material.

In the past, drugs, EMDR, neurofeedback and all types of therapy that seemed to mess around with brain or body chemistry struck me as terrifying. I was diagnosed with PTSD in my 20’s and trying to tough it out, with running, baths, talk therapy and will power.

It was f’n hard. I got worn down. Managing symptoms was an unpaid second job I didn’t want or get much benefit out of having. I managed, in between getting a college degree, job, home and starting a family but traumatic stress was a life-grinding night biting which tore away the enamel of life – the part which protects joy, well-being, humor and intimacy with others and myself.

Honestly, I was so terrified of my feelings (pain, sadness, joy, lust) because my own lack of regulation makes any strong feeling  threatening.

Only numbness felt safe. Which was a problem because it also felt awful.

I was voting, tax-paying, lawn cutting and law abiding person. I had no vigor, flexibility or spontaneity and felt kind of dead.

I’m all set with white-knuckle willpower.

Photo Credit: Margaret Bellafiore

I no longer see my symptoms of trauma as my personality any more than I see sympoms of the flu as part of my personality. When I am vomiting I know what’s happening and hate it. But I give myself attention, compassion and sometimes need someone to get crackers or ginger ale.

‘m responsible for dealing with the cards I was dealt (trauma).

I’m also responsible for keeping as much energy for passion, learning, curiosity and helping others as I can.

Can Neurofeedback Help?

“We are saying we can help brain learn its own regulation,” Fisher said, and when that happens “pathology drops, attachment is enhanced, mindfulness enhanced.” 

In other words – more joy, less angst and a better night’s sleep. Fisher has convinced me that  fear/shame/rage or what she calls “limbically driven disorders” and that they are burdensome to the body as well as painful to the psyche.

For more on the physical ravages of developmental trauma which include disease and even significantly earlier than normal mortality for some, go to ACE study results on the CDC website.

If I can do anything to mitigate and flush some of that neural toxic stress, I will. If we can prevent suffering and damage for others – we must!

Getting brain regulated is first order of business, according to Fisher who also said, “a well oiled brain” is going to function better.

It sounds like a simple game, where using reward frequencies, a computer is hooked up to a video game which correlates to the frequencies of the brain. So, a patient is looking at computer screen on real time EEG and specifically at a single spot in brain.

Then, with game, the brain is generally being asked to make more of the frequency one feels would allow for a quieting of fear and to inhibit those frequencies that get in the way of clear thinking or functioning.

This is where it starts to sound like blah-blah-blah to me and where a visual demo is really much better. Here’s one that gives a visual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H276cfkL5Lo

WIth neurofeedback, the brain is basically being asked to do three things Fisher said.

1. Inhibit excess slow wave (only good at night/sleep)
2. Inhibit excess fast high wave (excess body tension)
3. Produce “make” targeted frequency (for feeling more safe and calm)

Fisher says the games, such as Space Race, aren’t really that fun or interesting, but that the motivational part for people is the “intrinsic reward of brain feeling better.”

“Mostly what I’m concerned about is quieting fear. We know fear circuits are in temperol lobe. Amygdyla is in right hemisphere. In developmental trauma part of brain overactive, disorganized, highly aroused.”

Generally this is a group (those with developmental trauma), almost by definition, come in highly aroused. Anxiety. Agitation. Fear. Depression. It’s incumbent upon me to find frequency for that brain that helps them feel less of all that which is why a clinical assessment with conversation and history is done to get a person’s specific arousal history and for the “initial frequencies” to be figured out, she said. It’s also why the person getting feedback provides feedback to the clinician and can’t go long periods of time between appointments.

When it “works” a person will tell her they’ve felt calm, been sleeping more/better, is less reactive and are making easier eye contact. Plus, Fisher says, The more objective measures you can get (sleep, decrease in nightmares, kind of sleep, bowel function, not twisting hair or biting nails, this suggests behind scenes – system regulating self.)

The good news is “it works 90% of the time,” she said. The bad news? It’s expensive and not always covered by insurance. Plus, it’s not usually a quick fix so this means parting with some money if paying out-of-pocket.

When I complained about the cost of neurofeedback during a phone interview over the summer, she said,  “It’s your life. You’re going to do orthodontia. Do neurofeedback.”

It’s a good point. How much do you value feeling safe and clear? I’m still saving up my pennies to cover the cost because while I’m sold on the concept I get good results from yoga, free-writing and guided imagery. However, if I get post-traumatically stressed again next time a big life event happens, I’m doing this.

Like many others I have paid enough for a therapist to get a car with my out-of-pocket fees for therapy.

Therapy, for me, was virtually paying for a parent – someone to listen and care and who gets their own needs met elsewhere most of the time.

I’d much prefer to pay to learn how to get my own brain more regulated so I can just enjoy the relationships I have with people who don’t charge me a hundred dollars an hour to talk.

I like the idea of a process that improves my own brain’s operating system, makes it more efficient and helps it get what it might have got if I had attuned and attentive parents, good attachment and no trauma.A girl can dream 🙂

Many of us have treated our brains and bodies with medications with awful side effects that are hell to come off of. Fisher says medications can help but don’t teach the brain to organize better. Once the medications are withdrawn, the brain goes back to how it was before their use.whereas, with neurofeedback the brain is taught to regulate itself.

Generally speaking, once people achieve capacity for self-regulation the brain is invested in regulation. Yay.

I think of neurofeedback as the expensive  a/c unit installed and talk-therapy as waving a fan at the face when one is hot.

In the long run, the a/c unit is cheaper and better even though at first the paper fan seems free. It just doesn’t really work.

It’s not that neurofeedback is a cure. Just like a power outage can take out the a/c unit, Fisher says the brain can be impacted by a virus, physical events like puberty, pregnancy and menopause (major changes of hormones). But for many people a short round of neurofeedback can get the brain back to optimal functioning if it reverts to an older default setting.

People with developmental trauma, she said, are identified with what they feel = the brain has no real control over constant feelings that lead to all sorts of cognitions that aren’t positive.

This is where those of us with developmental trauma and those with single-incident trauma or a clear before/after trauma identity differ. Many with developmental trauma have never known an attached and secure and calm-driven brain. We often have family members who are also pretty anxious, agitated and “just deal” or cope with food, drugs, exercise, etc. and suffer with health and emotional issues. We think of this as our normal.

Fisher says for those of us with developmental trauma in childhood when it has been an entire surround sound of environment, no mother or regulating other, those are brains in a lot of trouble. Those brains (and their owners) need primary organization, building a competent right hemisphere. That’s the goal of that population she treats and sees most.

Again, to feel a difference, with and without fear, makes us know we are not just destined to be miserable, or forever plugged into fear outlets. This is the awesome, fun and liberating part of healing which we deserve.

First Blog Post on Sebern Fisher: https://healwritenow.com/sebern-fisher-neurofeedback-developmental-trauma/

Note About Neurofeedback Cost: Some therapists offer neurofeedback as part of therapy but not all insurance providers allow this. Therefore not all therapists find a way to make this work – legally – ethically – and financially and plenty of us go without this kind of treatment. I have to think there are things which can produce similar results for free and at home but I don’t know what they are (besides guided imagery, free-writing and yoga). Also, some free neurofeedback is available by being a study participant Fisher advised.  For example, right now there is one for kids at the Trauma Center but if you’re an adult they charge $165.00 an hour.