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As a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist, Karen Cochrane says her approach is grounded in her firm belief “in the extraordinary healing potential of the human mind, body and spirit.” So, when she learned several years ago about a neurofeedback training system that puts the client’s brain, rather than the clinician, in charge, she has immediately embraced the opportunity of offering neurofeedback training to her clients.
A counselor with more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field, Cochrane has been interested in neurofeedback training since it was first introduced in the 1970s. “I didn’t want to be involved because it required the clinician playing God. I never felt comfortable playing God with someone’s brain,” she says.
That changed when she learned about the Zengar NeuroCARE system, because the clinician is only a facilitator and the brain chooses what it needs, she says. Cochrane has been offering NFT for five years, and is currently exploring, as part of her doctorate degree studies, the process of changes that occur while a person goes through NFT.
Neurofeedback training, which is not considered a treatment but rather an alternative approach to using medication, is “the process of the brain giving itself the information to change its patterns, to self-correct and self-regulate with maximum efficiency,” according to Cochrane, who has been practicing at her current Poulsbo location since 2000. “NFT trains the entire central nervous system and allows the brain for the first time to observe a large spectrum of its own activity in real time.” She says it’s similar to the brain watching itself in the mirror and being able to self-correct, and compares the training to physical exercise for the body muscles.
“Mental health disorders are more like ‘stuckness.’ Neurofeedback training breaks up the stuckness and allows the person to respond with resilience,” she says.
During an NFT session, the client relaxes in a chair while listening to music and watching a video on a screen (which resembles random drawings similar to a computer screen saver). Sensors placed on each side of the scalp read brain waves, and the information is transmitted to a computer. When “less than optimal brainwave activity” emerges, a skip registers in the music and video; the skip is then transmitted back to the brain in a feedback loop. “The brain takes the skip and uses it to train you,” Cochrane says. “The clinician is not putting anything into the brain, only facilitating how quickly you get the information.”
Cochrane’s clients have the option of simultaneously having a psychotherapy session. Her daughter, Caitlin, also provides neurofeedback training but does not offer any counseling services. The number of sessions is up to each individual, but Cochrane says clients usually have an average of 20 sessions. The response is different for each person, and some feel changes after a handful of sessions while others come back for “tune-ups.” Cochrane says there is no guarantee about the effects of the training, and that it has no known negative side effects.
Cochrane decided to study psychology since she was 11 years old, after reading a book about child development. “I was fascinated they could generalize the information,” she says. Her career has included working as a mental health therapist for Jefferson Mental Health Services and director of Northwest branch of the National Academy for Child Development, in addition to private practice.
She says she has observed many positive changes in people who utilize NFT, from memory improvements and better organizational skills to no longer needing to take medication for disorders like ADHD and depression. The clients range in age from young children to the elderly, and some draw a parallel between the results of their sessions and computer improvements after a harddrive is defragmented.
“It is great for people who want to improve their optimal performance in everyday life and feel a sense of well-being,” she says — similar to tuning up a car so it has a smoother ride. She cautions, however, that it is only training, not a cure, and not a replacement for psychotherapy — she uses NFT “as a tool” that is part of the therapy treatments.
“The training breaks up patterns of behaviors that are dysfunctional or disruptive by showing the central nervous system there is another way,” she says. “Given the information it needs, the brain will heal itself.”
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