In June, Neurointegra staff attended the Annual Conference for Applied Neurofeedback held at a lovely country hotel near Coventry. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet and network with neurofeedback practitioners who had travelled from many different countries to be there. The last few years of remote meetings and social distancing has only highlighted what a privilege it is to be able to meet, mingle and network with colleagues face to face in pleasant surroundings.
The conference kicked off with a clinical update, with colleagues from Europe and the USA sharing their experience with newer frequencies and electrode placements. A lively question and answer session with participants was an opportunity to reflect on how many different approaches can be used and be effective, and how much there is still to discover about the best protocols for different symptoms. One of the exciting aspects of being a neurofeedback practitioner is knowing that you are part of the ongoing development of the body of knowledge and evidence which will, we believe, revolutionise healthcare in the future.
The next presentation dealt with the hot topic of not just this year, but sadly many years to come – Long Covid. Otherwise known as Post Acute Sequalae of Covid19 (PASC) this is a still poorly understood syndrome which nonetheless causes immense personal suffering as well as being a big ongoing pressure on healthcare services and economies worldwide. Whilst the exact cause of long covid (and whether it is one syndrome or several) remains undetermined, many of its symptoms are such that we would normally expect neurofeedback to be of help. Several symptoms like migraine, dyautonomia, POTS, difficulty maintaining sleep, etc, are ones that we would see in the neurofeedback paradigm as indicating a need for CNS training for stabilisation. Other symptoms like brain fog, chronic fatigue, chronic pain and anxiety/depression are often responsive to neurofeedback training as well. Horst Schneider presented some preliminary published literature and also a review of cases shared by colleagues who have used neurofeedback training for long covid. The conclusion from these case studies was that all clients noticed a reduction in overall symptom burden but certain symptoms in some clients remained less affected than others. Further research, as always, is needed to further understand how best to help long covid patients with NFB training.
On Friday evening we were privileged to have Siegfried Othmer join us via live stream from Los Angeles, and he gave an engaging and moving tribute to the life and work of his late wife, Sue Othmer, who passed away this year. Sue was one of the central pioneers in the development of NFB as a whole and in particular the Othmer method of ILF NFB which is what we use at Neurointegra.
There were many good presentations over both days of the conference but one speaker that we particularly appreciated was Dawn Harris, extremely experienced Consultant Clinical Psychologist and NFB practitioner, who recently founded Kedras Clinic in Scotland which aims to provided a truly holistic integrative approach to patients with mental health difficulties. Dawn spoke eloquently on the treatment of trauma with neurofeedback, and the importance of being trauma informed in our work. She shared some of her most complex cases with us, and how combining NFB with other therapeutic approaches can be beneficial in these cases. She also emphasised the importance of a supportive therapeutic relationship between the NFB practitioner and the client.
A final highlight was the attendance and participation of Sebern Fisher, another titan of the NFB landscape. Sebern is the author of the book “Neurofeedback in the treatment of developmental trauma: calming the fear driven brain”, which is essential reading for anyone interested in the topic. Sebern has also worked with some of the most traumatised and disturbed clients during her career, with great success, although her approach and technique of NFB is different to the Othmer method. In conversation with Meike Widerman, a leader of NFB education in Europe, Sebern and Mieke explored the similarities and differences between their approaches, and the new concepts Sebern has been investigating recently, with her enduring mission being to address the very roots of toxic fear in the brain. This has led her to explore the involvement of the cerebellum, and new electrode placements to target that. She also shared her interest in a complementary technique called deep brain reorienting (DBR). We hope that Sebern’s attendance is the start of some closer working between proponents of different styles of neurofeedback which can only be beneficial for the field as a whole and we have much to learn from each other.
The conference ended with some great news – that we will do it all again next year! Roll on ACAN 2024 – we’re excited already.
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