Promote Recovery from Trauma
NeuroAdvantage™ offers programs designed to decrease sensitization to stressful and/or traumatic memories. Anxiety, worry, tension, startle response, intrusive imagery (“flashbacks”), helplessness, and avoidance behaviors may all be significantly reduced when using NeuroAdvantage’s “Letting Go of Trauma” program in either an individual or group-therapy format.
The trauma program uses alternating right/left bilateral light and sound stimulation for 20 minutes while the coaching CD directs the client to first think of a traumatic event and then focus on the alternating stimulation that is occurring in their “eyes and ears”. This program takes advantage of research showing that slow, alternating stimulation of the right and left hemispheres with back-and-forth eye movements reduces psychophysiological measures of arousal while decreasing the vividness of traumatic memories and their associated negative emotions that are common in PTSD (e.g., Lee & Drummond, 2008; Barrowcliff, et al, 2003; Van den Hout, et al, 2001).
The Letting Go of Trauma program’s final 15 minutes uses alpha/theta (8-Hertz) stimulation (a brainwave pattern associated with deep relaxation and sense of personal wellbeing) combined with positive affirmations to minimize any lingering anxiety clients might be experiencing while fostering inner serenity. The combination of alternating bilateral stimulation followed by alpha/theta training often results in powerful healing benefits that include clients’ decreased sensitization to traumatic memories and their associated anxiety, worry, feelings of helplessness, and avoidance behaviors.
Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches (BHOPB) evaluated NeuroAdvantage’s trauma program’s effectiveness for clients with co-morbid PTSD (Weiner et al, 2008). Ten clients were administered the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) before and after BHOPB’s two-week program for PTSD clients. BHOPB’s PTSD track also includes a psychodrama group and two individual sessions of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
BHOPB’s PTSD clients had six 30-minute sessions using NeuroAdvantage’s “Mood Lifter” program (click here to learn about this program) with audio coaching as well as four 35-minute group sessions using the Letting Go of Trauma program over the course of two weeks.
As seen in the figure below, BHOPB clients made substantial improvement on each of the outcome measures. Clients’ PTSD symptoms decreased by an average of 36.4% on PDS Symptom Severity scale and 10.3 points the on MCMI’s PTSD scale after only two weeks. Clients also decreased by an average of 24.2 points on MCMI’s Major Depression scale demonstrating dramatic improvement on this measure. Clients’ improvements on the MCMI scales are particularly noteworthy since scale scores below 60 are considered in the normal range.
Due to the twice weekly Letting Go of Trauma groups, most PTSD clients had one or two of these groups prior to their first individual EMDR session. BHOPB’s EMDR therapist has noted dramatically lower levels of arousal during EMDR sessions for these clients compared to those who have not had a NeuroAdvantage trauma group before their first EMDR session.
BHOPB and NeuroAdvantage are now designing a follow-up study to directly compare the relative effectiveness of EMDR and the Letting Go of Trauma groups in reducing clients’ over-arousal in response to traumatic memories. This research is important due to its potential in enhancing the efficiency and clinical effectiveness of care for substance abuse clients with co-morbid PTSD.
References:
Barrowcliff, et al. (2003). Horizontal rhythmical eye-movements consistently diminish the arousal provoked by auditory stimuli. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 42, 289-302.
Lee, C.W. & Drummond, P.D. (2008). Effects of eye movement versus therapist instructions on the processing of distressing memories. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(5): 801-808.
Van den Hout, M., et al. (2001). Autobiographical memories become less vivid and emotional after eye movements. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40: 121-130.
Weiner, M., Abrams, M., MciLveen, J. & Pigott, E. (July 2008). Neurotherapy as an adjunctive treatment for substance abuse Disorders: Research & Practice. Labor Assistance Professionals Conference, Las Vegas.
