Where does your stress live?

Neurofeedback can help

We all have stress. But the last year of pressures around the pandemic, as well as political, financial, and civil unrest have escalated that stress for many people. Escalated stress can make it difficult to get through school, work, family, and social demands, and can cause additional physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. Is there a way to naturally address stress and its accompanying symptoms? Neurofeedback may be the answer!

Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback. Biofeedback uses instruments to measure body systems we don’t normally think about. In this case, biofeedback measures brain waves. Brain waves are the electrical rhythms in your noggin, and just as the heart’s electrical rhythms can cause issues, so can the brain’s electrical rhythms. Neurofeedback sessions start with a qEEG/brain “map” that can identify patterns in the brain that align with symptoms of stress.

For example, if your brain has way too many high frequencies, you are likely quicker to anger, quicker to startle, and may have difficulty sleeping and managing stress.

The good news is that Neurofeedback can also help you to gently re-train your brain to make frequencies that can help you regulate stress, emotions and sleep better! The process is safe, as we only train what is helpful to you and your symptoms. It is well-endorsed by the Mayo Clinic, leading trauma experts, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Barbara, a retired Corrections Officer, had unrelenting stress from her job, and prior traumas. Her experiences had created a pattern in her brain that kept her locked in her stress, and unable to enjoy life. After several sessions of Neurofeedback, she came in and said, “I was able to sit and just ‘be’ for 3-4 hours, one day! I’ll never forget that experience. This is working! I have hope for the first time!”

Neurofeedback is one of the only healing modalities that gives you the chance to both see how your brain may be holding onto stress, and also to be an active participant in safely changing your brain and nervous system’s response to stress. It can also be helpful for many other emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms.

Gretchen Morse, DMA, is Board Certified in Neurofeedback and serves on the Board of the Midwest Society for Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback. For information, call her at 517/290-4965, visit her website at www.mmneuro. com