Why brain balancing with Brain State Technologies

Beginning August 30th, The Garden Counseling Center, in conjunction with Cere-Balance, will offer real time brain balancing powered by Brain State Technologies. You may be responding to this news with curiosity, confusion, or skepticism, as many others have. Some enthusiastically ask "What is brain balancing?" while many others simply look at us with a twisted eyebrow of confusion and skepticism.

Gina and I both love counseling and seeing our clients excel. There is very little like the experience when a person is able to step out of their misery. Within that is the reality that for some pain there is little that can be done. We do the best we can to give relief and tools for future and hope for the best. Knowing that trauma is a part of everyone of out lives and that it is the driving factor in what we call pathologies or disorders, we wanted more. So when Gina was introduced to Brain State (BST) it was a logical partnering.

Many have asked what is this thing. Is it Bio-feedback, neuro-feedback, too good to be true, and the answer is yes to all of these, in some degree. And to a great extent it is none of them. Simply stated, BST is the next logical step in in the Bio-feedback and Neuro-feedback generations. It takes EEG information from your brain, converts that electrical signal to sound (heard through head phones and similar to a xylophone) that your brain understands as the same frequency it just fired in the neuron. As your brain hears itself, the computer sends a tonal image of the brain and the brain gets to see itself as it currently is, with imbalances and with trauma scars in the neuro network. Then the computer sends a tonal image that represents what balance and harmony would look like. Unlike the other methods that shape your brain by pulling it to a predetermined state, BST presents an image of optimal balance and allows your brain to find its balance. Based on the idea that anything that is observed will change, the brain will begin changing once it sees its own self. Is it too good to be true? Only to the point that it is unknown what it can fully do and some folks are not fully ready to engage the process with the open mind needed to let the brain work. What BST has shown over and again is that Brain Wave Optimization has the capacity to help the brain release held traumas and memories in such a way that new neuro pathways are developed and lives are enhanced. ADD/ADHD, learning struggles, tremors, PTSD, anxiety, depression, addictions, and more have all been eliminated, while sports performance and business/educational performance have been enhanced in people who complete the experience.

While in AZ, I was determined to get on the machine personally as much as I could. I wanted to know for my self what it could do. I was able to complete 5 good sessions, 1 aggressive session, and a couple of relaxation experiences that were truly changing for me. It is recommended that you do 10 sessions together to get the brain changing and then anchor it. Here is what I experienced.

Session 1 was very relaxing. We worked to establish an overall base line and see how my brain would react to the changes presented to it. That night, I slept more sound then I can ever recall and fell asleep easily. I dreampt and had vivid color and clarity. When I woke I was refreshed and active straight out of bed. These things have not been part of my life. The focus of these sessions is to get the brain to balance left and right hemisphere so one is not dominant over the other, and to bring a sense of harmony through out the whole brain.

Session 2 was more to the balancing work. We focused on quieting the constant "chatter" and pressure that I have felt in my frontal lobe (right behind the forehead). I have often considered the idea that I had mild ADD because I am forever scattered and unfocused. This is where I felt it, the change in my brain. We started with the temporal lobes and then the occipital. These were so very relaxing. I could feel my brain quieting down and becoming settled. In the parietal lobes I felt this amazing lightening in my body. This lobe is associated with our body/mind connection and awareness of our physical self. At one point I felt as if my whole body, starting at my legs and moving up, was being lifted and as I felt this, there was an obvious disappearance of joint pain I always feel. Since then, the constant pain in my knees, thumbs and hands has dramatically diminished to the point that I rode my motorcycle from Utah home and did not have pain in my joints during or after.

While this was great, the real change happened in the frontal pole area. Right above the eye. During this session I became acutely aware of the constant pressure and racing thoughts that I had always had. About halfway through this protocol, I felt a releasing of pressure like a balloon being slowly deflated. With that feeling also went the pervasive thoughts that scattered my focus and also brought a fair amount of anxiety. It has been over a week and the pain and the thoughts are still gone. I am much more relaxed about life. That night, I again slept deep and was well rested when I awoke.

Session 3 was more of the same protocols as session 2. This time I began to experience emotions in a very new way during the session. Peter Levine discusses trauma as repressed flight response in humans. He states in his writing that unlike any other animal, human refuse to allow the natural expression of trauma through the releasing of the adrenaline. This time, I began to have varied and vivid emotions and I would spontaneously laugh, grin, tear, and my legs began to involuntarily move as if they were running. Never once did I feel afraid, but felt as if I was letting go of a lot of repressed emotion and memory. I do not know what they were but felt the peace come after words. I felt this experience in every lobe we worked on.

I finished session 4 with a protocol designed to encourage your brain to release the pains and memories it has stored. This was my desire and I hoped I would get the balance and harmony in my brain that would allow this. Finally the alpha levels were showing strong enough to help me do this. Alpha is associated with emotional well being in the brain functioning. We had worked on getting my brain to increase its alpha over theta ratios. During this procedure I felt an amazing array of emotions. From hurt and loss, sadness, to indescribable joy. After words I felt great. I felt light and as if years of heaviness were taken from me.

In session 5 I wanted to try an aggressive series of protocols to see what I would experience. I was feeling great and thought I would be able to do it. In general I was, but the releasing protocol was too much and I had a very depressed and moody night. It strange in that I had no idea what I was feeling the depression from, I just new I was feeling it. It was a long night. I woke tired. Things were stirred up and I felt it. I know now that I needed to have followed with a balancing and an alpha up protocol. The best way that I have been able to describe this day was running a marathon when the brain was only ready for a 5K. I had really stirred things but failed to finish the sessions with a cool down like you should in exercise. I was metaphorically cramping with mental shin splints.

The next couple of times in the chair I focused on getting balance back and increasing the alpha. I felt instantly different then the night before when I was done with just 2 quick balancing protocols. The depression was gone and so was the memory that I had even been having it.

The outcome.

One week later and not even getting a full course of the 10 session intensive I had intended, the last sessions would have begun locking in the new neuro pathways.

I feel lighter emotionally and mentally. There is a little thought pressure returning, but very little.

After 2 sessions with occipital work, I began to be frustrated by my glasses and often left them off. Gina also experienced increased visual acuity.

My tremor, that every one who knows me in recent years has witnessed, was down by about 1/2. More work in the parietal would have fully removed this I am sure. It was wonderful to feel steadiness comeing to my hands.

I do not have the pains I used to on a regular basis.

My daily desire for (addiction to) Dr. Pepper has all but disappeared. I love the taste but I do not crave it and feel I need to have one. When I have had one, I have a hard time finishing it and often get an instant headache.

I am very excited for Aug 30 when the equipment will all be here and I can finish my intensive, and see this same type of change come to others.

Let us know if you are interested in information. We will be holding open houses with a free "Brain Massage" being demonstrated for an attendee on the 1st Saturday of each month. See us at 819 N. 12th in Pocatello. 232-2263 www.cerebalance.com

For more information now, look at the videos and "how we help" atwww.brainstatetech.com

The ever shifting 5, by Brett M. Judd LMSW

A standard assessment technique in the counseling field is that of the scaling. Simply stated it is "0-5 where would rate x?" It is a fast and simple way to getfeed back and have your client do some self reflection.

I was using this technique one session to help a couple see how far they had come. I asked them to write down what they thought they were at the time we started and then to rate where they though they were now. I suppose you could argue that this is either risky in that they may rate a negative, or arrogant that you are assuming you have done something for them. I was fairly certain with this couple that when I asked the question I was going to receive a positive response. It was a risk I felt good about taking at that time.

I framed the question like this. "0 - 5, where would you rate your relationship when we started, if 0 meant 'why are we coming here and not to a lawyer' and 5 meant 'why are we coming here still or at all?" Each rated the first answer at a 1 teetering on 0. The second response was much different. Beaming, she reported a 4 -4.5. She was excited to report that they were doing better than she had remember. At this point I was having to hold back the self congratulatory self talk. It was not hard when I turned to him and asked his response to the question. He sheepishly showed his reply that he had marked a 3-3.5. She and I each felt deflated. I asked him to explain the low score hoping to see where things had gone poorly. He responded something like this. "As we have worked on the issues and learned new skills, I have at times felt the 5 of which you spoke. It is wonderful and from time to time I still feel it. What I have learned and the reason I rated us at the 3.5, is that the 5 is always shifting. When you reach it and linger for a while, you realize that it has become the new 4. There is always a new horizon to achieve. As long as you are progressing forward and moving toward that 5, you will always have it." She and I sat there, stunned in the wisdom he had taught us. He truly understood the essence of a 5 relationship and had gained a powerful perspective for life.

I thought of this tonight in reflection of the power that is in the reading of self help and awareness books. One that I particularly love for couples is Hold Me Tight, by Sue Johnson. Sue is the creator Emotional Focused Therapy for couples and has, in my opinion, put her finger on the whole relationship business. The problem with her book and other, is that when we read them we gain a perspective of a 5 that we may or may not have achieved. If we are not careful we will walk away from a book like these feeling as if what we felt was a 3-4 was now a 0-1. By keeping our eye trained on the ever shifting 5 of perfection, we are able to revel in our 3.5's and 4's along our journey. I have come to find joy in the 4 and teach this idea to couples and individuals as a standard launching point when ever I do a scaling or have then read a book in conjunction with our sessions.

I once learned that when you are on a wire 40 feet above the ground, you will surely fall if you look at your feet to see where you are. It is when you look with your head up at the destination, that makes it easy to let your feet do what they do every day and you walk easily to the other side. When we look at our short comings, it is like looking at your feet standing on a thin wire with nothing but space between you and the ground. By keeping you eye on the 5 you will find it much easier to do the work you need to do today.

Live for the 4, enjoy the 5.