Catonsville Nonprofit Can Help Train Brains

Ever wanted to see an image of how your brain works? Are you curious about how your brainwaves respond to certain situations or stress?

At , the family counseling non-profit  in Catonsville, you might be able to find out--through a brain monitoring process called neurofeedback.

Neurofeedback is a growing area in psychology, according to clinicians who say it can be helpful in treating attention deficit disorders, autism and insomnia.

Lighthouse Executive Director Linda Lombardo said "brain training" has been offered at Lighthouse for the past several years and has lately become the fastest growing service, accounting for 15 percent of the non-profit’s clients.

“It’s just incredible how much we’re learning about the brain and how much more we know now than 10 years ago,” she said. She said neurofeedback is unlocking some of the brain’s secrets.

She said it operates similarly to biofeedback, which monitors the body's physiological response to stimuli. Neurofeedback focuses on monitoring brain waves instead.

The Center for Brain Training in Florida, which specializes in neurofeedback, identifies it as a treatment for depression, anxiety, insomnia and autism. Olympic athletes have also started using neurofeedback to train their brains for competition, according to the Neurofeedback Wellness Center of Texas.

Lombardo said she has seen neurofeedback at work, helping parents, for example, see how a teen's brain reacts to stress, such as during a family argument.

During neurofeedback, leeds or sensors are attached to a client’s head and then hooked up to an amplifier that feeds into a computer. A client could have a conversation during the session, listen to music, watch a movie or undertake any activity to stimulate the brain.

The brain waves then appear on a screen and Lombardo is able to see how the four different types of brain waves are working in different scenarios.

Through multiple sessions of neurofeedback, clients can see how their brain reacts and then train it to react differently.

Experts sometimes compare the benefits to those of meditation, but results typically appear in less time.

“It’s not a risky thing to do,” said Lombardo. “It’s not taking anything out of your brain.”

Catonsville resident Lisa Sansone, a member of Lighthouse’s board of directors, said she turned to neurofeedback a few years ago when she was having trouble sleeping.

After a few sessions, she said she found that she was no longer waking up in the middle of the night. At the end of the sessions, she was falling asleep in 15 minutes.

“I also noticed another surprising benefit:  I was much more focused at work," she wrote in an email. "This was most noticeable when I was doing the more mundane or boring tasks.  I can recommend neurofeedback as a positive, non-pharmacetical way to help with sleep and focus.”

Lombardo recommends between 10 and 20 sessions in neurofeedback. Each session lasts about an hour. For more information, email lighthouse60@verizon.net or call 410-788-5483.