This Saturday night, I’m going to the Brain Wellness Gala at the Army/Navy Club in DC. The organization raises money for funding veterans with TBI (traumatic brain injury) to get treatment with an effective but completely non-invasive treatment involving micro current stimulation. It’s a form of Neurofeedback.

Here is info about the event.
http://www.brainwellnessfund.org/

Neurofeedback for therapeutic or lifestyle purposes isn’t new. But these folks have are using the technique on TBI’ed vets with some dramatic results. Sounds a little out there maybe, but, I actually have experience with the technique.

One of the best parts of my job is seeing all the cutting edge therapies and new health related technologies. Every case I work on I learn something new, and every health conference I go to I pick up something to incorporate into my health/wellness/fitness regime.

A dozen years ago, I had a case in Maryland involving therapeutic brain biofeedback or Neurofeedback. The practitioner was a highly regarded neuro feedback specialist. The case was straightforward. The practitioner had a PhD in psychology, but she was licensed as a clinical social worker. The Maryland Medical Board thought that Neurofeedback should only be done by a medical doctor, and certainly not by a social worker even one with the highest level of state social work credentials and a PhD in psychology. After enlisting the support of some heavy duty professional organizations, I got the medical board to drop the case. Later, the psychology board tried the same thing, and fortunately, we achieved the same result.

When I flew up for the initial interview for the practitioner with the board, I asked if I could try her treatment to see what it could do for me. Like I said, I’m into this stuff. She said no. She was afraid that it might interfere with my representation of her at the interview.

Several years later, when I was back in DC on another case, I asked again. This time she agreed. The first thing that happened was that she did a brain map of my electrical wave activity. When she looked at my brain map, she was shocked. She told me that my brain waves were all jumbled up. (Maybe she used a more technical term). She couldn’t believe the high level of functioning I had achieved, and she surmised that it had to take more energy for me to focus and stay on task than most other people. Something about all the noise and cacophony inside my head.

Next came the treatment. She hooked up some electrodes to my head, based on the results of the brain mapping. I didn’t feel anything as it was just micro currents. The treatment only lasted five minutes, so she told me. I couldn’t tell because I fell asleep. But maybe I wasn’t completely asleep. I felt my body, but it felt much lighter. After I woke up and the treatment ended, I felt refreshed. I don’t ever recall having as restful or peaceful sleep or whatever state I was in.

I thanked her and went on to my next appointment which was lunch with the Executive Director of a prominent health advocacy group. I’ve known her for some time and during the course of the lunch she commented that I seemed different, more animated and had better energy. I reflected on that, and in fact I did feel an unusual sense of calm, focus, and a level of positiveness, that a crotchety guy like me doesn’t get to very often.

The clarity and well-being lasted for days. Eventually, it wore off and I returned to my regular self, for some better but mostly worse.

Over the next couple years I didn’t have occasion to get back to the DC area, but I wanted to get back to that place, so I tried a few other brain biofeedback practitioners in Texas. They all used different techniques and devices. Your eyes tracked or try to control a rocket ship or race car. None of the other stuff got me back to my happy space. Some actually gave me severe and persistent headaches.

Last year I got back to DC area and had another couple treatments. It was great. The only other time I felt almost as good, brain and mood wise was when I was following a strict Paleo diet and became mildly ketogenic, but that was hard work and ultimately I couldn’t sustain the strict Paleo diet, and I lost most of the benefit. I’m hoping one of these days she can sell a portable unit so I can permanently reside in my happy place.

But back to the TBI vets. The practitioner has results from a study she did on the TBI vets, and they seem dramatic if not amazing. She’s continuing to treat TBI vets, but on a very small scale. I hope she and her team can take it to the next level. It’s been slower progress than she and her support group, Brainwellness.org had hoped. But maybe someone big will step forward and make it happen.

If you’re in the DC, come to the Gala this Saturday night November 11th. It should be fun and rewarding to hear some of the stories and meet some of the vets being helped by this treatment.

Info again about the Gala:

http://www.brainwellnessfund.org/

And if you’ve got jumbled brain waves and/or too much internal chatter, have Mary Lee Esty, PhD quiet things down and tell her Galileo’s Lawyer sent you.

http://www.brainwellnessandbiofeedback.com/

See you Saturday night!

Rick Jaffe, Esq.
rickjaffeesquire@gmail.com
www.rickjaffe.com