During my twenty-one years of providing Neurofeedback Therapy, I became certified in Neurofeedback, and then Licensed as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) in North Carolina. I accept insurance for Medicaid, Medicare, and major insurance carriers.
My motivation to explore brain plasticity was to assist our Russian adopted children. They manifested cognitive, physical and social emotional challenges and fit criteria for Attachment Disorder. The medicines they were on stimulants and a “mood stabilizer”, had nasty side effects. As a therapeutic/adoptive parent for fourteen years, I practiced attachment therapy and participated in multiple therapies including a two-week attachment intensive. Neurofeedback improved the children’s other therapies including OT, PT and speech language therapy. Learning, friendships, trust and self-regulation all increased and meds were decreased or not needed.
After teaching Elementary school for eleven years, I became credentialed as a Guidance Counselor. For two years I provided neurofeedback and mentored another therapist under a psychiatrist. She respected my high skills, and prior to hiring me had worked with me as a client. She referred medication resistant issues and traumatized cases. I also collaborated with her on potential medicine options, based on the electrical activity seen in the client’s brains. Over the years, some common issues clients suffer from include: depression, Anxiety, Mindfulness, Compassionate Communication, Stress Reduction, Attachment adaptations, Trauma, ADHD, Grief and Loss, Anger and Emotional Self Management, Relationship Conflicts, Shame, Self-Criticism, Trust, Parenting, Men’s issues, Adoption, Neurodiversity, Depression, Anxiety, and Sleep. I’ve recently had success in reversing dementia symptoms of older brains building better skills of memory and attention/focus.
The combination of heart rate variability and breath work teaches self-regulation. Heart Math Heart Rate Variability (HRV) research shows increases in the ability to Respond not React to stress flexibly. Breath work and deep states of Alpha Theta training can increase insight, hope & optimism. Andrew Weil states Breathing is more powerful than any medicine or herb. I teach breathing techniques to improve mental, physical, and spiritual health. Initial assessment includes a quantitative brain map showing areas of abnormality combined with symptoms to craft a customized treatment plan.
Mindfulness is not meditation but the ability to be present in the body increases self-regulation skills. Mindfulness impacts the stress reaction and shifts clients to a relaxation response. Mindfulness skills increase awareness which stops automatic thought patterns triggering anxiety and depression. Use present-moment awareness and deep breathing practices to manage physiological and emotional anger responses. Employ grounding techniques and breathing exercises to increase feelings of safety in traumatized clients. I’ve completed the mindfulness-based stress reduction course, the mindful self-compassion course, and advanced insight dialogue training taught by licensed therapists.
My current fascination with Somatic psychology led me to begin studying EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Forty years of rigorous research proves the effectiveness of EMDR with many mental health symptoms especially Complex and single-incident PTSD. Body wisdom and somatic therapy clarify deeper patterns for long-term vitality and self-compassion. Both EM truth DR and somatic work can be very effective online.
Carl Theodore, LCMHC treats each client as unique. Your bio/psycho/social profile, brain map and physiological issues craft the training plan. Many clients completely get off meds stopping side effects. I have tirelessly trained for over 2500 hours in hands on with MDs and PhD’s in all specialty areas including Neuro, breath work, mindfulness and became certified In Heart Math HRV. Clients included surgeons to reduce OCD and a psychiatrist to overcome her autoimmune conditions, anxiety, headache, pain, fatigue and she was able to become pregnant. Since my daughter diagnosed as neurodivergent, I have taken low frequency NFB classes and parents marvel at their child’s social and communication skills growth. ADHD children, youth and adults and retested their cognitive abilities as normal. Sleep/wake cycle has concerned many clients which has been remediated. There is no substitute for thousands of hours of observing the raw brainwaves and observing patterns which can only be seen with experience. Many Neurofeedback clinics use a BA level technician to do the training so they don’t see the issues. It is as if the machine does all the work. My most difficult clients have been the older adults with cognitive memory, attention, dementia symptoms which have been greatly reduced. I have returned their brain to normal speed for younger person and they feel the vitality and clarity of a faster brain. I recently completed a 60-hour Somatic EMDR Therapy Certificated program with Embody Lab
It’s easy to think that the symptoms can be healed by working with thought patterns and emotions alone. The truth is we live and dream in the body. Symptoms are of the body, yet we rarely consider the body as the source and inspiration for healing. We perceive the world around us through our
body responses. Not sleeping well, ruminating thoughts, worries about the family or the
future, grief and trauma all have painful medical results. The body is under attack and
we can’t heal the body with the mind alone.
Somatic awareness includes patterns of sensations, breathing, skin changes, eye
movements, posture and subtle movements and gestures that express moods and
feelings we can notice and work with. Enhancing a client’s body awareness is a
powerful tool for transformation.
Mindfulness is made a big impact in our society and psychological field in the past
years. Many clinicians have incorporated mindfulness into their modalities. When
mindfulness is used the client is referencing their somatic awareness have a “feel”
inside. Often there is a lack of follow-up on how to facilitate the somatic feelings into a
coherent experience. In short clients learn to get mindful but not how to journey into
the somatic experience safely. This is critical in working with trauma and stress. We are
sitting with the greatest asset of healing and well-being: the client’s innate body
wisdom.
Western psychology as a bias toward mind over body rather than a trust of the body’s
intelligence. Feelings and sensations have been marginalized when connected with body
awareness. This may rate play a role in why somatic techniques have not yet been
widely integrated into mainstream psychotherapy. The recognition that emotions are
intelligent opens the first door that healing is more than thinking. The decade of the
brain has bought the awareness of how thinking patterns influence the body. The
recognition is now that our experiences are interconnected with her brain states,
emotional patterns, what we believe and how we inhabit our bodies.
We have discovered the power of now.
The only time in the past present future
continuing we can actually create change is in the now. We need to integrate the
decade of the brain and the discovery of mindfulness into our lived experience of the
body.
Trauma truncates the client away from the body, their healthy mind and heart and
corrupts the awareness of the body. When the reasons that somatic techniques have
been so successful trauma clients is that the trauma client sees how far they have
gotten away from their innate health. There is a deep desire to come back to holistic
sense of self.
The therapist can’t successfully facilitate somatic work without having done it
themselves. The embodied therapist will know how to guide the client back to their
body wisdom. The therapist toolkit needs to be eclectic enough to offer somatic
techniques for the client in the moment. Being in one owns body wisdom will attune
you to be open and receptive for what is right to offer to your client. That is when true
and lasting transformation can occur.
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