ADHD/ADD
ADHD can be a hot topic—is it real? Is it not real? Is medication the best thing? Are medications harming our children in the long-run? While there are many pieces to the discussion, ADHD typically presents as difficulty concentrating, impulsivity, fidgeting, and distractibility. The other lesser talked about issues with ADHD is the impact it has on peer relationships, stress in the home, impacts on self-esteem, and how often it presents with anxiety and depression. Kids and teens with ADHD need support, and you have options around what that support looks like.
Adoption and Foster Care
Adoption and foster care is one of the most beautiful, loving, and generous things people can do. Adoption and foster care can also come with intense pain. There is pain for the caregivers who see their child struggling with school, friends, their emotions, and behaviors. It is often also painful for the individual who was adopted or placed in foster care. Emotions are often close to the surface, often confusing, and can result in either explosive behaviors or completely shutting down. Those who have experienced trauma early in life do not have the typical brain. They experience the world and relationships differently than other people, but that doesn’t mean these individuals (kids or adults) can heal from these early wounds.
Anxiety
Anxiety can look like and feel like many different things. Kids, teens, and adults all experience anxiety. Some experience an excess of worry, while others feel paralyzed by fear. Many feel the symptoms of anxiety in a physical way: tightness in the chest, increased pulse rate, high blood pressure, stomach issues, and panic attacks. Some feel incredibly disconnected from their body and shut down. They feel nothing because feeling detached feels a lot safer than feeling absolutely everything.
Our Approach
Anxiety can stem from past trauma, persistent stress, injuries, or it could run in your family. When working with anxiety, we want to understand the person as a whole because learning your story impacts how we respond with therapy. If your anxiety started after having a traumatic birthing experience when you thought something might happen to you or your baby, then we’ll likely start there. We’ll reprocess the memory through EMDR. If your anxiety stems from a chronic state of stress due to the demands of work and family, then we might look at mindfulness strategies and self-care. And if you can’t remember the last time you didn’t feel anxious, we might look at neurofeedback, which can calm the electrical activity in the brain—calm the brain, calm yourself.
Our Approach
Anxiety can stem from past trauma, persistent stress, injuries, or it could run in your family. When working with anxiety, we want to understand the person as a whole because learning your story impacts how we respond with therapy. If your anxiety started after having a traumatic birthing experience when you thought something might happen to you or your baby, then we’ll likely start there. We’ll reprocess the memory through EMDR. If your anxiety stems from a chronic state of stress due to the demands of work and family, then we might look at mindfulness strategies and self-care. And if you can’t remember the last time you didn’t feel anxious, we might look at neurofeedback, which can calm the electrical activity in the brain—calm the brain, calm yourself.
Attachment
Disrupted attachment is never about placing blame. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. Disrupted attachments happen, but people can heal from attachment trauma. People can feel safe, bonded, and at-home within a relationship even if they started their life with an insecure attachment style. There are 4 styles of attachment: secure, anxious, ambivalent, and disorganized. Find more information on each attachment style and what it looks like below.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
For those with ASD, we often use a two-pronged approach: calm the brain and work on skills. Neurofeedback is helpful for calming the brain. NFB training can reduce the intensity of the symptoms an individual experiences. This intervention will never change the diagnosis but may help individuals function within their optimal range. Neurofeedback can help reduce the number and intensity of meltdowns, decrease sensory sensitivity, and calming down the brain in general will help them engage more with the world.
Brain Fog
Even healthy brains need a little boost every now and then. Performance enhancement is often a reason people seek neurofeedback, so while you may not be experiencing mental health symptoms, you might find yourself struggling with word retrieval, memory, and concentration. We all have a combination of slow wave and fast wave in our brains and sometimes things can get out of balance. Once things are back in balance, you’ll likely start feeling like yourself again.
Concussions/TBI
Concussions can be a game changer. The list of post-concussive symptoms is long and can range from mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression to changes in personality and risk-taking behavior. Remember with old box TVs when we used to hit the side thinking it would fix that weird line going across the screen? Hitting our head throws off the electrical activity in our brains too. It can lead to “hot spots” in our brain and depending on where that happens, the consequence varies. With neurofeedback, if we quiet the brain, we quiet the symptoms. And because we start with a qEEG, we can see exactly where the hotspot is.
Depression
Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability in those ages 15-44. Depression can be paralyzing, preventing you from your normal life and relationships. Depression effects young children, teens, adults, and seniors and the rates continue to get worse. Many find themselves taking psychotropic drugs or putting their children on psychotropic drugs. Suicide is the leading cause of death in teens in Colorado. Depression is both painful and powerful. There are several different options for addressing depression. We offer various approaches to talk therapy, EMDR, and Neurofeedback. You have options and you don’t need to feel stuck.
Early Childhood Trauma
Early childhood trauma comes with a lot of challenges for the individual and the family. Individuals with early trauma may struggle in school, particularly with math and reading, they often have an ADHD diagnosis, they may struggle with making and keeping friends, often show either explosive reactions or they shut down completely. Mood instability is common, as is going into a fear response (fight, flight, freeze) at unexpected times and for unexpected reasons. Intense daydreams, lying, making up stories, fits, food hoarding, and much more are all related to childhood trauma.
Fits and Tantrums
Do you find that there’s nothing you can say to help them calm down? Is it like a flip of a switch and getting it to turn off can feel like a never ending process. If your child is having meltdowns that last more than 15 minutes, if it has become an expected part of your day, if it goes beyond your child being hungry or tired, then counseling may be beneficial. Whether we use counseling or neurofeedback depends on what’s going on in your child’s life. With more information, we can direct you to the best place to start.
Impulsivity
Our brains are not done developing until our mid-twenties, and impulse control is one of the last things to develop. Some impulsivity is normal, but if impulsivity in your child or teen is impacting their life in a negative way: consistently getting in trouble at school, increasingly risky behaviors, or your worried it’s going to change the trajectory of their lives, then it’s time for an intervention. Whether we use counseling or neurofeedback depends on what’s going on in your child’s life. With more information, we can direct you to the best place to start.
Parent Support
And sometimes Mom and Dad are at a loss. How many hours of sleep have you lost? Do you feel like you’re failing your child? Do you day-dream about going on vacation and leaving one of the kids at home? Or maybe you want to leave the entire crew at home. Do you ever regret your decision to adopt your child? Are you the mom who no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to have the same relationship with your child that he or she has with your spouse? Have you ever considered an out-of-home placement? You are not alone.
You do not need to feel shame over any of the emotions, thoughts, or words that have escaped in front of your child – what you need is support. Sometimes other parents don’t get it, especially if their child is typically developing and yours isn’t. Sometimes your other kids won’t get it either, or maybe your spouse doesn’t seem to get it.
We’re here to help, either with parenting strategies, understanding your child and the impact of their trauma, or simply giving you safe space to be honest with your struggle.
You do not need to feel shame over any of the emotions, thoughts, or words that have escaped in front of your child – what you need is support. Sometimes other parents don’t get it, especially if their child is typically developing and yours isn’t. Sometimes your other kids won’t get it either, or maybe your spouse doesn’t seem to get it.
We’re here to help, either with parenting strategies, understanding your child and the impact of their trauma, or simply giving you safe space to be honest with your struggle.
Life Transitions
Life’s tough. There is no argument there. And life seems to get tougher when we’re in the midst of transition. Maybe that means transitioning careers, or going from living at home to living on your own, or transitioning from being the daughter to suddenly being the caregiver. Transitions are the times in life that can really challenge our resilience. It’s like when you’re trying to get a cake out of the pan—please don’t break, please don’t break. Transitions are either the moments that break you or they’re the moments followed by deep relief that it’s over. Counseling can be helpful during those stages of life. Being able to process the impacts of change, the losses, the fear, and the excitement that can come with change empowers people to make the most of their transition, increase resiliency, and to heal from a difficult time of life.
Grief and Loss
Grief and loss are one of the few guarantees in life. What’s difficult is that grief can take much longer than what American culture typically thinks. People stop checking in, they stop asking how you are, so it because difficult to heal when the world thinks you already have. Grief is also not as sequential as we once thought it was. The truth is that grief can reappear long after we thought we had come to “acceptance”. Major life events like graduating, getting married, or your nieces first steps can also come with a reminder of what you’ve lost or maybe what you never had. Counseling is intended to be a space to hold that pain. Even if you feel like you “should” be over it, grief is complex and it runs deep. The work done in counseling doesn’t stop the grief, but it can help you move through the grief.
Relationship Challenges
Humans are social creatures—we seek connection. So, when that connection feels damaged, is at risk of being lost, or is highly conflictual, it can be a scary and emotional thing. When it comes to relationship challenges, whether it is a parent/child relationship, a romantic relationship, or friendship, we often look at attachment theory, work on identifying emotional triggers, and learning how to communicate in an effective way. Understanding ourselves is just as important as understanding the other. We often take a counseling route when it comes to relationships, whether that is with an individual or a couple. Sometimes we will also recommend neurofeedback. When there is a history of childhood trauma, or when there is a visceral level fear response triggered by relationships (either the fear of abandonment or the feeling of needing to flee), sometimes there is a brain mechanism that is creating additional problems. No matter how many times you practice an “I feel…” statement, if your brain is dysregulated, it’s going to be hard to remain calm and to feel safe during conflict.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder is a complex mental health diagnosis. It is hard for the individual as well as the loved ones. It is unpredictable and a disorder that must be managed forever. When it comes to bipolar, a multipronged approach is most effective. Counseling is helpful because it gives space to work on identifying indications of a mood change, practicing skills to help with mood regulation, and it also gives a place to process the frustrations that can come with the diagnosis. Nutrition can be helpful because there is a direct connection between our gut and our brain and the more we can do to support brain health, the better. Lastly, neurofeedback is also an option. Neurofeedback can increase the flexibility and stability in the brain, which can help with emotional stability and resiliency.
Behavioral Challenges
Behaviors can be complex, sometimes it’s an indication that there’s an unmet need, or that the child is in distress, or that the brain is dysregulated. When it comes to challenging behaviors, we want to take a multipronged approach. We typically start with counseling. Kids and adolescents often speak through their actions rather than through their words, so behaviors can offer a great deal of information. Through counseling, we work to decode the behaviors so parents can more effectively show up for their child. As needs are met, often the behaviors decrease. That is not always the case, though. Some parents will give a long list of interventions or parenting techniques they have tried—reward systems, relational intervention, increasing one-on-one time, ignoring negative behaviors, praising positive behaviors, and the list goes on. Sometimes, when other interventions do not seem to be working, we will recommend neurofeedback. Even defiance and opposition are brain reactions. Lastly, we also want to look at gut health and nutrition. Research has found that certain food additives or inflammatory causing foods affect some children more severely. Many parents see a significant change in behavior after changing their child’s diet.