Quality of Life

This qualitative, practice based study explores individuals’ processes of change through the lived experience of a comprehensive approach to Neurofeedback Training (NFT) received in the context of psychotherapy. The specific focus of this research examines the reported effects clients attributed to Neurofeedback Training during the course of the training and beyond. The NFT system operates through an applied nonlinear dynamical systems approach, representing a paradigm shift of significant advance beyond the operant conditioning models. User friendly and client guided, the system’s operation requires no pre-assessment or diagnostic protocols. This approach to NFT and psychotherapy presents a unique and unexamined process of change based on our human ability to selforganize and self-regulate provided needed information. Some leading historical, theoretical and philosophical antecedent idea strands contributing to the development of nonlinear dynamical systems and its application to psychotherapy and NFT receive coverage.

This case study demonstrates how neurofeedback 2 can be used to assist people in their efforts to decrease chronic anxiety and to better operationalize differentiation of self. Unlike more traditional consultation using Bowen theory, the consultation process described below involved the use of neurofeedback, which can potentially enhance a person’s ability to resolve chronic anxiety. In essence, neurofeedback refl ects patterns in the individual brain that have developed in the family of origin in preceding generations. This multigenerational process simply lives in one’s being, becoming a part of “self ”—from synapses to sentences. Given the way this process shapes every aspect of a person’s development and organization, it comes as no surprise that the effort to manage one’s reactivity is indeed challenging.

NeurOptimal® neurofeedback is designed to interface with the nervous system as a Non-Linear Complex Dynamical System, whereas traditional ‘evidence based’ research tends to measure linearly. Therefore, it seems reasonable to measure outcomes because that’s what prospective clients and referral sources really want to know. Since NeurOptimal® is training at the source of complaints, the nervous system’s turbulence, rather than treating diagnostic categories, it also seemed reasonable to look at outcomes across diagnostic categories rather than try to compare medically defined groups where fallible diagnostic judgments create more issues.