by
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
How does
your brain work? Understanding came only over time and through
multiple disciplines.
Inquiries
included a yogi sealed in an air tight box with air enough for 90
minutes. After 8 hours the ancient yogi asked to be released,
providing a flash of insight on how much we do not know.
Sometimes a
story based in science reads like a novel. This was the case with
Jim Robbin's “A Symphony in
the Brain,” published in
2000. Symphony
tells the saga of Neurofeedback's origins and growing success against
a medical establishment viewing it with both skepticism and
hostility. Skeptic because the results are so much better than is
being delivered with drugs. Hostility from the lower cost for
treatment, which is, in many cases, life changing.
After my
interview of Dr. Granoff on his practice as a clinical psychologist
who has integrated NeurOptimal into his practice, I ordered the book
he had recommended online.
Author Jim
Robbins writes regularly for the science section of the New York
Times and his work has also appeared in Smithsonian, Audubon, and
Discover, among others.
The book
tells the stories of people, skeptical professionals, parents,
desperate for solutions, and people who understand the problems of
alcoholism and drug addiction because they have, themselves, escaped.
Bill Scott
craved alcohol after a childhood of trauma. An alcoholic at age 14,
his older brother died, smashed in an auto accident, when Scott was
19. A choice confronted him. Accept the daily panic attacks which
drove his drinking or change his choices. He did, enduring these
every day.
As a
professional overseeing a program for alcoholism for Native Americans
in Minnesota he referred one severe case for Neurofeedback. At a
visit after two weeks the change was stunning. Alcoholism was
rampant on the reservation, 60% of residents being so categorized.
Next, Bill
sent his hardest cases. Within weeks the changes were obvious.
Then, Bill, still suffering from daily panic attacks, went himself.
After 20 sessions his own disorder had vanished entirely. Bill was
finally free of a childhood filled with abuse and fear.
Since the
book was published the technology of Neurofeedback has matured and
diverged. Today, one approach allows the brain to find its own
optimal function using the explosion of technology made available
through computerization.
NeurOptimal's
Val Brown chose this path.
It is a
riveting story, still playing out in clinical settings around the
country.
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