Dr. Patricia Jo Ryan, a licensed Psychologist in Venice, FL who utilizes a blend of traditional (REBT) talk therapy, and Neurotherapy/Biofeedback to provide a more robust benefit to counseling. Pay your Bill Online fbbanner140

Evaluation

    Sharon Begley, a journalist for Newsweek, asked the question, “Can We Build A Better Brain”. Dr. Doige, a psychiatrist and author, writes about “ How The Brain changes Itself”. So what do these authors have in common? “The quest for ways to improve our brain”.

    Brain wave activity can now be measured in real time by computers, therefore, we can now reward brain wave patterns by providing, what I call “brain food” in the form of visual and auditory feedback. So we need good assessment tools and this process has moved swiftly into the 21st century. 

    We use clinical interview techniques, paper-and-pencil tests, computerized tests now to provide a thorough evaluation before any type of treatment is offered at this facility. All types of evaluations are offered here, such as personality and cognitive testing as well as providing “brain maps, using QEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalogram) to help us detect and assess current brain functioning.

    QEEG’s or Brain Maps offer us a painless, non-invasive way to detect and assess brain functioning of real-time connections in the brain. Many people have had EEG’s done by a neurologist and brain mapping is a similar process. For a fuller explanation of this process, visit the QEEG (Brain Map) page on this site.

Neurotherapy and Brain Mapping

qeegbrain    Neurofeedback is a computer assisted process that enables us to help the brain stabilize it’s own functioning. Just as an engine gets out of tune, and is analyzed by a computer display, so is the brain in real-time. We now know that the brain can develop new neural pathways and can stabilize itself if given the correct feedback. We call it “brain food”.

    Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, gentle process that happens quickly at the ear liest level of conscious recognition. There are no known side effects and it is not an addictive process. There are positive side effects of neurotherapy (also known as EEG Biofeedback) that come with the benefits such as a quieting and calmness in the body. People are often surprised by this outcome.

    A new type of feedback has been added to what we offer. It is called NeuroField. This is an experimental process that is based on very weak electro-mangetic signals that the body can use to stimulate and correct itself. We see this as the wave of the future.
 

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

    Nothing is more basic than dealing with one’s own personal ideas about how they believe life should be for themselves and others. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is a real-time active-directive problem-solving method that helps us understand how our disturbances occur and what we can do to develop a better way to think about the actions of others on us and our actions upon others. This type of counseling is an exciting, active, life enhancing process that anyone can learn to use themselves over time.

    At one time, it was thought that only by going back deeply into one’s childhood could we find the source of our psychological problems. We now know that we can access those past processes through current investigation into how we talk to ourselves and then interpret what we think. This can bring about new insights and result in less upsetting feeling states.

    Epictitus, the philosopher, said, we are not so much disturbed by what we see, but by what we think about what we see and then interpret those events to ourselves. Learning to untangle thoughts and feelings is a pro-active, on-going process that is relatively easy to learn and apply in our everyday life and leads to thinking better, feeling better, and staying better.