Why Is a Chiropractor Doing Brain Training?

There is a question almost nobody asks me out loud, and I know a lot of people are thinking it.

"I didn't know chiropractors did brain stuff."

It is a fair thing to wonder. Our office has offered chiropractic care in Elizabethton since 1996, and BrainCore Neurofeedback is part of the same office now. So here is my answer, the same one I give at the front desk.

Is this chiropractic?

No.

What we do in BrainCore is neurofeedback, and it starts with a qEEG. That stands for Quantitative Electroencephalogram. In plain words, it is a brain map.

Sensors sit on the scalp and read the brain's electrical activity. They only read. Nothing is sent into the brain. The map shows how different areas of your brain are communicating, and that information is used to build a training plan for your brain specifically.

Then comes the training. You watch a movie or listen to audio while sensors keep reading. When your brain moves toward the pattern being trained, the feedback rewards it. The picture gets clearer or the sound changes. Over many repetitions, the brain practices holding that pattern by itself.

You do not have to figure anything out consciously. Nobody sits in the chair trying to make a brainwave. The feedback does the teaching, and repetition does the rest.

Why the forest matters

When somebody asks me why we map a brain before we train it, I use a forest.

You have a tree that talks to one other tree. You have groups of trees that talk to groups of trees. And you have a forest that talks to itself as a whole. That is how the brain communicates with its different parts.

The map measures that out. It shows where things sit in normal ranges, where they run low, where they run high, and what needs to be worked on first. Every brain is its own forest, which is why we look before we train.

Why I added it to the practice

Chiropractors are masters at the nerve system. When we go through chiropractic school, the nerve system is our forte. It is the thing the whole education is built around.

I graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, in February 1996. I have practiced in Elizabethton ever since. And I have believed the whole time that the body knows how to heal and regulate itself.

BrainCore fit that belief. It is drug-free, one hundred percent. It works with the brain's own ability to regulate, through training. To me, that's amazing.

I also use neurofeedback on my own brain.

I am trained in it, and I am not doing it alone

I am trained and certified in BrainCore Neurofeedback. BrainCore is a national system with over 350 providers, and neurofeedback has over 60 years of research behind it.

Here is the part most people never hear. When someone's maps are not showing what we hoped for, I get on a call with the BrainCore clinical team, the people who own BrainCore nationally. We build a revised plan together, and then I bring it back and talk it through with the patient.

So a person training here has a local doctor they know, with a national clinical team behind him. That is worth knowing before you start.

Where it sits next to your doctor

Your doctor stays your doctor. Neurofeedback is a different approach, and it works alongside your medical care.

The map does not diagnose anything. It reads patterns of brain activity and shows where they sit. Diagnosis belongs to your medical doctor. Any decision about your medical care belongs between you and your doctor too.

Neurofeedback is also not right for everyone. That is exactly why the first step is finding out whether it is right for you.

Where to start, if you want to

You can start at home with a short assessment. It asks about what you are noticing, and it points you to what fits. Take the free assessment here.

Or call 423.542.3337 for a consultation and see if you qualify.

One note for this week. We are closed this Thursday and Friday, October 22nd and 23rd. I will be on Hilton Head Island at a BrainCore neurofeedback symposium, learning the newest settings to bring home to Elizabethton.

Individual results vary. Nothing here is a diagnosis and nothing here promises an outcome.

Yours In Health,
Dr. Dennis & Your BrainCore of Elizabethton Team

208 Rogosin Dr, Elizabethton, TN 37643
Call 423.542.3337 | Text 423.380.0877

Office Hours

Mon & Thu: 7:30am-Noon and 1:30-5pm
Tue & Fri: 7:30am-Noon
Wed: 8:30am-Noon and 2-6pm