The Healing Power of Neurofeedback: The Revolutionary LENS Technique for Restoring Optimal Brain Function

458 Pages·2006·3.84 MB·English

by  Stephen Larsen

The
Healing Power
of
neurofeedback
The revolutionary lenS Technique
for restoring
optimal brain function
STePHen larSen, Ph.d.
foreword by THom HarTmann
with contributions by carla adinaro, a.r.i.a. cert.
wendy behary, l.c.S.w. • lynn brayton, Psy.d.
curtis cripe, Ph.d. • mary lee esty, l.c.S.w., Ph.d.
Thomas e. fink, Ph.d. • Sarah franek, m.T.P. • beth Hanna, r.n.
kristen Harrington, m.a., l.m.f.T., a.i.b.T. • Sloan Johnson, m.a.
robin larsen, Ph.d. • Joan Piper mader, m.a. len ochs, Ph.d.
karen Schultheis, Ph.d. • evelyn Soehner, m.a.
Theresa yonker, m.d.
Healing Arts Press
Rochester, Vermont
Healing Arts Press
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.HealingArtsPress.com
Healing Arts Press is a division of Inner Traditions International
Copyright © 2006 by Stephen Larsen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Note to the reader: This book is intended as an informational guide. The remedies,
approaches, and techniques described herein are meant to supplement, and not to
be a substitute for, professional medical care or treatment. They should not be used
to treat a serious ailment without prior consultation with a qualified health care
professional.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Larsen, Stephen.
The healing power of neurofeedback : the revolutionary LENS
technique for restoring optimal brain function / Stephen Larsen ; with
contributions by Carla Adinaro . . . [et al.].
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “An introduction to the innovative therapy that restores
optimal functioning of the brain after physical or emotional trauma”
—Provided by publisher.
ebook ISBN 978-1-62055-091-5
print ISBN 1-59477-084-0 (pbk.)
1. Biofeedback training. 2. Brain damage—Treatment. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Biofeedback (Psychology)—methods. 2. Brain Injuries
—therapy. WL 103 L334h 2006]
RC489.B53L37 2006
615.8’51--dc22
2005036393
Printed and bound in the United States by Lake Book Manufacturing
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text design and layout by Priscilla Baker
This book was typeset in Sabon, with Agenda and Stone Sans used as display
typefaces
All illustrations in this book are courtesy of the Stone Mountain Center unless oth-
erwise noted.
Photograph of William James on page iv courtesy of the Swedenborgian House of
Studies, Pacifica School of Religion.
This book is dedicated to Dr. Len Ochs:
Inventor, Mentor, Healer, and Friend, and to a
whole emerging generation of biofeedback
clinician/technicians, of which he is an exemplar.
Len Ochs, clinical psychologist trained
in biofeedback who originally developed
LENS, the Low Energy Neurofeedback
System
“I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions
and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible, loving human
forces that work from individual to individual, creeping
through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like
the capillaries. . . .”
William James, a leading nineteenth-century
American philosopher and psychologist
“The greatest thing, then, is to make the nervous system our ally
instead of our enemy.”
William James
C
ontents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword by Thom Hartmann x
Preface by Len Ochs, Ph.D. xiii
Introduction: Flexible Brain, Quiet Mind 1
1. The Lens in Clinical Practice • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. 20
2. A Brief History of eeG neurofeedback • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. 44
3. The Development of the Lens Approach • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D.,
and Kristen Harrington, M.A., M.F.T., A.I.B.T. 66
4. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and spinal Injury and the Lens
• Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Mary Lee Esty, L.C.S.W., Ph.D., and
Len Ochs, Ph.D. 97
5. Healing the Mind of Childhood: Cerebral Palsy,
Reactive Attachment Disorder, Autism, Asperger’s syndrome,
ADD/ADHD, and Learning Disabilities • Sarah Franek, M.T.P.,
Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Theresa Yonker, M.D., Curtis Cripe, Ph.D.,
Mary Lee Esty, L.C.S.W., Ph.D., and Len Ochs, Ph.D. 125
6. The Twilight Zone: Fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, and Chronic
Fatigue syndrome • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Len Ochs, Ph.D.,
and Mary Lee Esty, L.C.S.W., Ph.D. 167
7. High Anxiety, Deep Depression: Panic, Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder, Anxiety, Phobia, Depression, and Bipolar Disorder
• Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Len Ochs, Ph.D., Karen Schultheis, Ph.D.,
Evelyn Soehner, M.A., Thomas E. Fink, Ph.D.,
and Lynn Brayton, Psy.D. 190
8. The Divine Madness: epilepsy, explosive Disorders, Tourette’s
syndrome, and Tics • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Karen
Schultheis, Ph.D., and Len Ochs, Ph.D. 223
9. Life Hurts: Post-Traumatic stress Disorder, Pain, and
Bereavement • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. 244
10. Brain Attack: Aneurysm, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease,
Parkinson’s Disease, and Headache • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D.,
Joan Piper Mader, M.A., and Beth Hanna, R.N. 259
11. Alternative Approaches to evaluation and Treatment Using
the Lens Perspective • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Len Ochs, Ph.D.,
Karen Schultheis, Ph.D., and Mary Lee Esty, L.C.S.W., Ph.D. 284
12. The Lens and Other Modalities: Psychotherapy, Conventional
Biofeedback/neurofeedback, HeartMath, Photonic
stimulation, Interactive Metronome, Deep Vascular Relaxation,
nutritional support, sudarshan Kriya Yoga, Qi Gong, and
Open Focus • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Wendy Behary, L.C.S.W.,
and Len Ochs, Ph.D. 299
13. speculations on Physics, energy Psychology, Chaos Theory,
and Magnetite in the Brain • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D.,
and Evelyn Soehner, M.A. 332
14. The Lens with Animals: Improving the Behavior,
Temperament, and Flexibility of Horses, Dogs, and Cats
• Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Sloan Johnson M.A., Robin Larsen, Ph.D.,
and Carla Adinaro, A.R.I.A. 360
15. Postscript: The Tao of Lens—Positive Psychology and
Optimal Performance • Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. 375
notes 391
Bibliography 400
Glossary of Acronyms 409
Glossary of Diseases/Conditions 412
Glossary of Healing Modalities 415
Resources 417
About the Contributors 419
Index 422
A
Cknowledgments
This is a book about a “revolutionary” healing modality: the LENS type
of neurofeedback, a gentle, noninvasive approach to healing that is, as
of yet, unknown to most professionals and to the public. It is truly the
most exciting development I have seen come down the pike in thirty-five
years of practice as a biofeedback clinician, but it is far from a mono-
lithic technology. During the second half of the twentieth century, as
electronics grew in sophistication and power, so did biofeedback. As
new equipment developed, new generations of clinicians sprang up who
made better use of it to help people suffering from a myriad of problems.
The best of this equipment, such as the hardware and software used in
applying the LENS treatments, emerged and continues to emerge from
the minds and hearts of skilled biofeedback therapists. The field has
thus evolved under our fingers, as it were, as we continue our quest to
find newer and better ways of helping people with neurologically based
problems, or people who are simply in need of better ways to cope with
living in a stressed-out culture.
I wish therefore to acknowledge people from both the clinical and
technical domains, who made our journey possible. First Dr. Hans
Berger, who died without seeing the flowering from his original discov-
ery of brain waves, and Barbara Brown, who brought this whole new
exciting field to the public in the 1970s. Next I would like to acknowl-
edge the great early pioneers and visionaries, many of whom have been
both mentors and friends: Elmer and Alyce Green, Steve Fahrion and
Patricia Norris, Dale Walters, Matthew Kelly, Barry Sterman, Joel and
Judith Lubar, Nancy White, Susan and Siegfried Othmer, Les Fehmi, Joe
vii
viii  Acknowledgments
Kamiya, Tom Budzynski, Ken Tachiki, Erik Peper, Gary Schwartz, Jean
Houston, Liana Mattulich, and Lynda and Randy Kirk.
Many peers and associates enriched my development as a biofeed-
back clinician in one way or another: Mary Jo Sabo, Jim Giorgi, Adam
Crane, Jay Gunkelman, Rob Kall, Sebern and John Fischer, Margaret
Ayers, Val Brown, Tom Collura, Joe and Ann-Marie Horvath, Darlene
Nelson, Cory Hammond, Jim Robbins, Lynda and Michael Thompson,
Tom Brownback and Linda Mason, and Carol Schneider.
I thank my wonderful Stone Mountain staff of “power pixies” and
neurofeedback clinicians (I won’t tell you who’s who) including Carrie
Chapman and Alexandra Linardakis, and Beth Stewart; and I also thank
Pat Boyer; and Dr. Willie Yee, for his ongoing clinical wisdom in help-
ing us to understand the medical implications of biofeedback treatment,
and his wife Elizabeth Lee for advice and counsel on research methods
and statistics. I also thank Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg for a
never-ending flow of interesting cases, and much professional advice and
warm friendship.
The Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback
(AAPB) and the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research
(ISNR), as well as FutureHealth’s “Winter Brain” conferences, have
provided us with a forum for our research and clinical presentations
and peer-collaboration in our developing field. The HeartMath Institute,
Rollin McCraty, and Carol Thompson, in particular, have helped my
training as a licensed HeartMath provider, and helped me to formulate
my knowledge of how HeartMath and neurofeedback intersect.
Much of the technical knowledge for the development of the systems
used in treatment emerged from Len Ochs’s dialogues with Jan Hoover
and Bob Grove of J&J Technologies, the manufacturers of some of the
best biofeedback equipment in use today.
Many experienced clinicians have joined us for long hours of clinical
dialogue and case-conferencing, whether or not they contributed essays
or case studies to this book: Mary Lee Esty, Karen Schultheis, Kristen
Harrington, Theresa Yonker, Anton Bluman, Carla Adinaro, with her
wonderful way with our four-legged relatives, Catherine Wills, Bob
DeVinney, J. Lawrence Thomas, David Yourman, and Katherine Led-
dick, Phyllis Goltra, and Ann Lee. Susan Hicks was enormously help-
ful with number crunching our clinical outcomes study, as were Jodie
Acknowledgments  ix
Schultz and Tara Johannesen. I also thank Elsa Baehr, Marvin Berman,
Rodney Linquist, Evelyn Soehner, Tom Fink, Curtis Cripe, Sloan John-
son, Lynn Brayton, Robert Boddington, Beth Hanna, David Alexander,
Sarah Franek, and Corey Snook.
Mike Quick has been remarkably openhearted about sharing his
experience, and helping in many other ways, as have Alan Carey, Joe
“Rock,” Susan Moran, Walter and Shirley Lechnowski, Joe, Samantha
and Nancy Michaels, Gabby Kearns, Craig Linet, Dan McMillan, and
Cindy Lambo,
I profoundly apologize to anyone I have failed to acknowledge (due
to ADD, or ARCD, age-related-cognitive-decline), who has contributed
to this book or the development of the LENS.
Last but not least, I want to acknowledge my wonderful partner and
friend, Robin Larsen, who has followed me every step of the way from
mythological studies to scientific ones; “through the looking glass” from
archetypes to computers and back again. In her management of edito-
rial details, overseeing the art for this book and securing the requisite
permissions, she has been nothing less than awesome.