Understanding QEEG Brain Mapping in Denver
QEEG (Quantitative electroencephalography) Brain mapping therapy collects data through measuring electrical activity in that brain that is correlated with behavioral functioning. The patterns that are learned from a brain map help mental health care providers understand client behaviors they are aiming to change, including barriers to behavioral change. This assessment also helps validate clients in understanding where behaviors stem from.
Whether patterns are associated with trauma, poor sleep quality, hormonal disruptions, etc, QEEG Brain Maps are a tool growing in popularity for their comprehensive nature. As a source of information (not a diagnostic tool) to help supplement counseling, brain mapping supplements therapeutic work effortlessly.
Why is QEEG Brain Mapping Important?
Most therapists distribute assessments like interviews or written tests to help diagnosis or conceptualize a client’s concern. It is important to understand that diagnoses were created to give to insurance companies and determine coverage for mental health disorders - not always to help in behavioral treatment. Though diagnoses have grown to be useful for providers in other ways, brain maps are much more comprehensive and data driven viewpoints of mental health concerns that eliminate the bias of insurance providers altogether.
QEEG Brain Mapping Therapy challenges this notion by creating a practice of looking at the brain prior to assuming function. Every medical professional looks at the organ being treated prior to treating it. If someone suffers from GI distress, we look at the intestines. If you experience chest pains, we take a scan of the heart. If you have crippling anxiety…we give you a formalized test and ignore what activity the brain shows. Why should mental health be any different than physical health assessments?
Common diagnoses like anxiety or depression can show up in vastly different patterns that beg for differing treatments, including differing medications. Data gathered from brain maps can point professionals in the right direction of treatment without the exhausting trial and error practice of jumping therapists, medications and programs.
How does Brain Mapping Work?
Data collection is non invasive, painless and much simpler than most clients assume. At Connected Brain Counseling, a tightly fitted hat is place on the head of the client that has 19 electrodes on the inside lining. These electrodes are filled with electro-gel in order to measure electrical activity on the surface of the skull.
During data collection, clients will sit for 10 minutes with their eyes open and 10 minutes with their eyes closed. These time allocations are determined by neurological standards. During measurement, clients are asking to sit still without movement and minimizing blinks in the eyes. The data is then processed and a second appointment will be scheduled for you and your clinician to review in a lengthy report together.
If you are interested in learning more about brain mapping and how it can supplement your neurofeedback therapy program in denver or therapy program in denver, reach out to Connected Brain Counseling here.