Sebern Fisher on Neurofeedback & ACEs: Quotes

It is safe to say that few people on the planet know more than Sebern Fisher about neurofeedback for developmental trauma. We were thrilled she joined us live last week for the Parenting with ACEs Community chat series.

Fisher is the author of Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the fear-driven Brain. Fisher uses neurofeedback in clinical practice (where she specializes in attachment issues) as well as with her own brain. She trains and consults in the implementation of neurofeedback and on the integration of psychotherapy and neurofeedback nationally and internationally. Also, she is the 2017 recipient of the International Society for Neurofeedback (ISNR) and Research (ISNR), the M. B. Sterman Award for Career Achievement in the field of Neurofeedback and the 2013 recipient of ISNR's Joel Lubar Award for contribution to the field of neurofeedback.

Her chat comments are extracted below. The fuller context can be found in the complete chat transcript with wonderful questions, comments, and contributions of chat participants.

Neurofeedback (NF) for Developmental Trauma (ACEs)

“Evidence with neurofeedback suggests that trauma-informed treatment should also be brain-informed treatment- and not just to know that the brain is an issue, but to work with it directly.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“Trauma informed is finally getting its due and there is reference to the brain in most discussions. some even mention brain circuits. NF works directs, through feedback, to stabilize and regulate brain circuits.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“The amygdala which is devoted to our survival is not all that intelligent. It is just reactive to stimuli that it considers dangerous. It can be hard to update it. trauma memory is held in the amygdala, unlike all other memory which is held in the hippocampus. Look at van der Kolk too on Executive Function in those with chronic developmental trauma. He reports a 40% increase in executive function after 24 sessions. which reminds me to say that you will be seeing and feeling changes usually quite soon after beginning training. it just takes a while to get the amygdala to recognize it's safe now.”Sebern Fisher (chat)
“Self-regulation is the goal of the brain. These terrible childhoods disrupt the brain's cortical capacity to inhibit the sub cortical forces that manifest as fear, shame and rage. NF was first discovered to help people control epileptic seizures!” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“Any way that you end up living in fear means a loss of quality of life. It's just difficult to address this only through therapy.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“A different person arises out of a regulated brain.” Sebern Fisher (interview)
“The greatest volume of literature-PubMed- is on ADHD and on seizures. I would say however that I too think that a great deal of what is being diagnosed as ADHD is trauma. Bessel once said if you stripped trauma out of the DSM you'd have a pamphlet.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“As some wag said, science advances one funeral at a time. This science is less and less resisted, which is not the same as saying it's accepted. but it's getting there. Even in the popular press you hear more and more about circuits and less about chemistry. Changing the way these circuits fire - their bad habits as it were- is what NF does.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“Traumatized people have a deep distrust of the arousal cycle, usually for a good reason. This is because to a trauma victim; arousal has become coupled with the overwhelming experience of being immobilized by fear.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“Most of my trauma stories are in the book. the brain is plastic. It is devoted to its own optimal function. It has to be. These symptoms in the mind or body are indications of miscuing in the brain. But NF isn't a miracle. It's just better than anything else I know of.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“In the course of my work with neurofeedback, I have seen changes in eyesight, hearing, smell, taste, thyroid functional, stability of blood sugar, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), blood pressure, motion sickness, migraine, neuropathy and other chronic pain problems and skin rashes, among other physical, complains, while training the brain to quiet anxiety or depression.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“Read the paper on Alpha Suppression, Nicholson et al. for imagery. There is no one NF (neurofeedback) approach for dt (developmental trauma).” Sebern Fisher (chat)

Childhood, Parents & Parenting with ACEs

“The good-enough mother naturally protects her child. When traumatic events occur that are beyond her control, she validates them and helps her child recover from them. This can mean the difference between experiencing a traumatic event and becoming traumatized.” Sebern Fisher (book)
"It is difficult to imagine that a child whose biological mother is present, attuned and attentive, would be subjected to the physical, sexual or emotional assaults that can, and usually do, lead to a diagnosis of PTSD.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“Our parents are our universe as children. To develop a well regulated brain requires well regulated parents. Without them, we are likely to be overtaken by the primitive areas of brain function, the amygdala and fear circuits. Without a good enough mother and father we are prone to live in fear.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“Intergenerational trauma is very real, as is cultural trauma such as genocide. Our brains carry this information since we are built to serve our survival.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“And kids are by their nature triggering. they can also offer a new experience of connection. It is a two way street with the parent laying the road map.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“The unbonded, motherless child lives in the CNS (central nervous system) of a prey animal, with predators all around her, both real and imagined, and always anticipated. Empathy cannot develop, much less flower, in a being terrified of its imminent extinction.” Sebern Fisher (book)
“Parenting is a new opportunity. Mothers who have access to doulas during delivery seem to have better attachment to their children. They are being, finally, cared for during a time of extreme fragility and openness. There's a case study in the book of training a high ACEs mom and the effects it had on fetal movement and regulation in utero.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“ACEs are built in my assessment. It's still a crude measure. It doesn't address the epigenetics of race, for one, or the effects of bullying etc. but it is of course very important.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
Other Interventions(if NF Isn't Affordable-Accessible)
"Any other interventions? Not readily available. People can train their brains through fMRI feedback but there is no reason to given that we have nf. It's just, to me, a proof of concept. We can change our brains with feedback." Sebern Fisher (chat)

Medication & Meditation

"Medication can add a blanket and this can be helpful. It doesn't however teach the brain its own regulation and too many of these medications are pretty poisonous to the body.”Sebern Fisher (chat)
“A blanket is palliative but the fear is right under it. Regulation is the movement toward no fear.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“Neurofeedback usually helps people get off meds. The brain learns to quiet its own reactivity-fear, shame and rage.” Sebern Fisher (chat)
“I am a long time meditator. I think it can be hard to use the mind to get out of the way of the mind. Therapy and meditation are very helpful, but helpfully really to the extent that they quiet these limbic pulses.”Sebern FIsher (chat)
“Meditation is just hard to do when you feel the constant amygdala activation. There is increasing lit. that it too changes brain function. It easier to change the mind through working with the brain- not always easy- than it is to change the brain thru the mind.” Sebern Fisher (chat)

Neurofeedback Research & Resources

Sebern Fisher's website http://www.sebernfisher.com/
- Resources available on Sebern Fisher's website:
A Randomized Controlled Study of Neurofeedback for Chronic PTSD/
Article by Sebern Fisher in Psychotherapy Networker
Kathy Brous, Neurofeedback: Healing the Fear-Driven Brain

Other Resources Mentioned on Chat

Maury BrooksI am actually just launching today a series of 'Feel Good Moments' to help people learn techniques for resilience.
Rosemary Frazer I've been using Theraplay, a therapy method for children and their caregiver(s) interestingly, I find that the most dramatic change happens as the parent gets a different experience of the attachment connection to their child.
Shrink Rap Radio: Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma, Sebern Fisher (thanks Kathy Brous)
Neurofeedback Works: van der Kolk
Seminar with van der Kolk about neurofeedback with Sebern Fisher and woman who used it.

Sample of Rich Conversations found in Full Chat Transcript

Kathy Brous: Please also see video of Ms. Fisher with a client who had no parenting, the last 30 or so minutes of Bessel van der Kolk video "Neurofeedback Works!" here: http://attachmentdisorderheali...edback-van-der-kolk/
Sebern Ferry Fisher:
not only did that patient have no parenting she was actively assaulted and pimped by her mother. this seems to have the absolutely worst prognosis for recovery, if recovery is even an adequate word
Kathy:
Yes, she had no "there" there as you said. But what a change you made

More chats in the 2017 Series:

Previous Parenting with ACEs Chat Transcripts