Trauma and Neuromodulation

In the prologue of the book Neurofeedback in the treatment of developmental trauma: Calming the fear-driven brain by Sebern F. Fisher, Bessel A. Van der Kolk tells us how he met S. Fisher in 2007 at a conference on attachment and how he was confronted at that meeting with a new paradigm, a new way of understanding the mind, the brain and the body. He tells us how she interviewed patients treated with Neurofeedback at the S. Fisher center, and how surprised he was by her statements. One of them collects and summarizes the evolutions that these patients described:

“Yes, I slowly became an attached person. When you are not afraid or confused you can meet people in a different way.”

The professionals at Vitaliza have been intervening with neurofeedback since 1999 and we count on the enthusiasm of Bessel A. Van der Kolk, one of the leading trauma specialists, when evaluating neurofeedbck. This leads us to subscribe to his words: “Probably the biggest challenge in mental health is how we can help patients with severe affective regulation problems, like those I interviewed in Sebern’s office.

This is often the result of severe abuse and neglect during childhood – also known as developmental trauma – in which lack of synchronicity in early relationships with the caregiver leads to abnormal rhythms of the brain, mind and body. ” “In neurofeedback, we seem to encourage the brain to establish new oscillatory patterns that enhance its natural complexity and its inherent and necessary bias toward self-regulation.”

At Vitaliza Health Psychology, neurofeedback is part of our therapeutic intervention, to help and facilitate the regulation of the central nervous system.

Early abandonment trauma therapy

Two years ago we began research with children who have suffered early abandonment; We had been intervening for years with adopted children and their families, and we set out to investigate what we had observed at a clinical level until then.

One in four internationally adopted minors between the ages of 8 and 12 in Spain presents school adaptation problems, while more than a quarter of parents report externalized and internalized problems, in addition to poor adaptive skills, which require attention. specialized. When they reach adolescence, internationally adopted children are referred to mental health services more frequently than non-adopted children.

In our Vitaliza psychology office, we frequently encounter families with internationally adopted children who come seeking psychological support, especially in ages prior to adolescence. The evaluation and treatment of these cases requires an approach that takes into consideration both the difficulties in school adaptation and deficits in cognitive functions, as well as the behavioral problems and the skills and abilities that children and their families have to cope with them.

The empirical evidence available on the effectiveness of treatments focused on trauma in the child and adolescent population is limited and usually focuses on treating traumatic symptoms, while other psychological symptoms that very frequently derive from exposure to trauma tend to be relegated to the background. and cause more disability.

For this reason, at Vitaliza we wanted to empirically demonstrate that neurofeedback training can serve as an emotional stabilizer combined with other therapies such as eye movement reprocessing therapy or EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), improving emotional regulation and providing experiences of achievement and emotional connection.

Conferences on Trauma and Neuromodulation

The experienced Neurofeedback professional Sebern Fisher, with whom we will have the opportunity to learn in Conferences on Trauma and Neuromodulation expresses in his book Neurofeedback in the treatment of developmental traumathat thanks to brain training, we can alleviate the consequences of abandonment in early childhood.

This study will be presented at the first Conference on Trauma and Neuromodulation, which will take place in Madrid from April 16 to 19, organized by the Spanish Biofeedbck and Neurofeedback Society, SEBINE. In these sessions we will present our research, which aimed to evaluate the emotional, cognitive and behavioral changes associated with combined neurofeedback and EMDR treatment in internationally adopted children aged 8 to 11 years

These Conferences are an opportunity to learn how Neurofeedback works and what it can contribute to Developmental trauma. The Conference will feature, as we have already said, the presence of the renowned trauma expert S. Fisher. In that space we will have the opportunity to share the results obtained after applying the combined treatment of neurofeedback and EMDR.

These results support the hypotheses raised, finding statistically significant results reported by both children and families, in all areas evaluated. As relevant information, it should be noted that the area in which most evidence of improvement from various sources of information is concentrated is in cognitive functioning. Parents observed statistically significant reductions in attention problems, somatic complaints, hyperactivity-impulsivity, anger, and withdrawal. The children reported an improvement in family relationships and self-esteem, both statistically significant.

This shows a greater adaptation to various contexts, in which both parents and children see important signs of improvement that seem to confirm each other All of this leads us to confirm that the combined intervention of neurofeedback training and EMDR improves emotional regulation in children with abandonment trauma, in addition to other cognitive areas. Quoting again the prestigious therapist Sebern Fisher “Just as emotional regulation is the first task of good parenting, it is also the first task of effective therapy.”

Authors: Anabel de la Cruz, neuropsychologist. Cristina Cortés, psychologist specializing in trauma.