As a long-time documentary film maker, Stacy Heatherly approached her current project about neurotherapy like the many others that she had produced before: She was looking for two sides to the story.
First, she interviewed a doctor in Arizona who treats patients for such conditions as autism, Attention Deficient Disorder and depression by using a form of neurotherapy. Heatherly, of Omaha, interviewed 15 patients selected at random and with their permission. What she discovered next stunned her. “During the interviews, not one of those 15 patients said that neurotherapy hadn’t worked for them,” she noted. “For most, this treatment had been their last hope. One of the most powerful stories was that of an autistic child who had refused to initiate conversations. Neurotherapy treatments changed all of that.”
Heatherly became interested in neurotherapy after helping a family member suffering from depression and anxiety find an alternative treatment to traditional medicine. She was intrigued enough to turn it into a film project.
The practice of neurotherapy features several different protocols including neurofeedback, a treatment method practiced at Alternatives: A Center for Conscious Health. Alternatives’ NeuroIntegration System strives to normalize and manage the complex and varied waves in an individual’s brain when they go awry.
The system works by incorporating photic stimulation and music to help normalize brain activity. “Since the procedure was introduced at Alternatives, a number of patients, in particular children, have been able to decrease ADHD medication, lessen anxiety, improve insomnia and even better their grades,” noted Dr. Patricia Ryan, Alternatives’ founder. A German study, published last year, added scientific credibility to these results when it found that neurofeedback improved attention and reduced impulsivity and hyperactivity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19712709.
Heatherly, who has taken a comprehensive look at the several different types of neurotheraphy for her film Rewired, has seen the same impressive results. “One of the things I discovered in my research, really the wave of the future, is this idea of integrated, comprehensive medicine. And that’s what I’ve seen Dr. Ryan practice. It’s the idea of treating the individual as a whole.”
Her film features two cases studies, one of an individual with a traumatic brain injury and another of a child with learning disabilities. In addition to neurofeedback, Heatherly features in her film another type of neurotherapy called QEEG (quantitative electroencephalogram). This procedure is often referred to as brain mapping, which also is offered at Alternatives. Brain data is collected and processed, and a detailed analysis is generated that is used to develop very specific and targeted protocols for patients. "We use brain mapping to gather data on multiple states of brain activity, during both active and relaxed states," according to Jamie Moore, RN and Neurotherapist at Alternatives. A study of QEEG revealed that in five cases of patients suffering from brain injuries or conditions, memory improvements ranged from 68 percent to 181 percent http://chp-neurotherapy.com/pdfs/JHTR15-6-07001-013.pdf.
Production work will soon wrap on Rewired; the film will be made available for a public screening as well as licensed and offered for sale to PBS and other network television stations. Neurotherapy is just one of many of the topics that this enterprising filmmaker has been involved with through her company Digg Site Productions www.thediggsite.org.
Heatherly began the nonprofit organization after reading about a similar program in New York, which offers accreditation to high school students who write and produce films. Purchasing and adapting the curriculum to fit The Digg Site Productions model, the Board of Directors created a summer workshop that allows students the opportunity to earn credits toward graduation. The students learn how to create a documentary film, showcase that 15-minute film at a film festival where they can win awards such as scholarships toward college and return after graduation to intern on a full-length documentary.
All profits from the documentary films produced and directed by The Digg Site Production go back into the company to fulfill its mission as a self-sustaining nonprofit. Heatherly has a film career spanning 20 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Minor in Psychology from Bellevue University.
No comments:
Post a Comment