Guest post by Marvin H. Berman PhD. Bioenergetic Therapist, President, Quietmind Foundation, Co-Founder Neuronic Devices Ltd.
BACKGROUND
I am working with folks with movement disorders to explore the use of neurofeedback and photobiomodulation* to aid them in their recovery. In this article, I cover my background, and how I arrived at these as a solution.
I know you've raised the issue of emotional and other trauma as a core element in the development of movement disorders and I want to amplify that idea and provide some science and historical context for how the ways in which we learn to process our emotions is a key driver in the types of disorders we then find ourselves confronting in later life.
Character armouring
The core concept of ‘character armor’ is one expressed by Wilhelm Reich MD in the early 1920s when he was working with Sigmund Freud in Vienna. Character armor was a way of understanding how the emotional traumas that we experience as we develop influence the form and functioning of our body and our mind. These early negative and positive experiences cause us to react with either movements that are relaxed or contracted. Those are the only responses our muscles can have, i.e., to contract or not. When something traumatic happens we contract specific muscle groups that are under our conscious control at the time.
These response patterns become habituated in circumstances where the traumatizing stimuli are repeated and our response pattern then becomes almost reflexive. The limits on full and free movement is then directly associated with suppressed emotional responses and this is pattern of habitual responses to external stimulation is what we come to call our personality. It is better understood as the cage of our own making in which we live and die without realizing there is no lock on the cage door.
If we then look at the habituated pattern or armor as a structured set of constraints we can then see how this would evolve into the movement challenges faced by people with PD. You’ve outlined this very well so I won’t bother elucidating it here. The point I want to make is that in my practice as a Bioenergetic Therapist which is a form of body-centered psychodynamic psychotherapy, I paid close attention to the structure and function of people’s character armor. My role was to point out these limitations and support the person in feeling the emotions that were being held captive under the chronic tension of which they were almost always completely unaware. The therapy would involve first noticing the patterns of chronic restriction in movement and self expression and then exploring ways to release the tension and recognize the unconscious traumas and subsequent psychological conflicts the patterns actually represented.
insight from eeg
In the process of doing this work, I came to understand how the armoring process manifests in the central nervous system which is how I could begin to directly connect character defenses with neurological symptoms, e.g., tremors and motor dysregulation. I saw the patterns of brain activity from EEG readings displayed as a bar graph with sets of colors delimiting the standard frequency bands and a large white bar bouncing up and down the histogram. There began to appear a pattern in the movement of the dominant frequency bar (DF) such that it was obvious this clearly not random. I also saw the DF range was also constrained, i.e., not including the entire range of frequencies (1-50hz). After seeing these elements repeat in each person’s displayed EEG, I began to consider that these were potential neuromarkers that could be used to discriminate specific psychophysiological manifestation of their character structure.
Current and future work
I’ve now worked with this idea for many years and it has been born out in clinical practice and hope to document it more empirically in future research trials related to the closed-loop neurofeedback and photobiomodulation technology being developed at Neuronic Devices Ltd.
What I saw that directly bears on Parkinson’s symptoms was both a restriction in the absolute range and variability, but also a clear tremor frequency that we could measure with a cell phone’s accelerometer. Therapeutic models could now be developed that would be directed at disrupting tremor frequencies and operantly renormalizing EEG network activity. I used transcranial alternating current stimulation both on the scalp and on the proximal and distal parts of the more affected hand. This often produced immediate reductions in the tremor frequency and amplitude but we didn’t have a chance to put these to the test in a wider sample of subjects due to the COVID pandemic.
These are the trials we need to mount now and are looking for funding from donors and organizations that are seeking to find treatments that will help reduce PD symptoms. I hope that we can stimulate a dialogue among your readers that will lead us to better protocols and possibly funding sources.
*What is Photobiomodulation?
Photobiomodulation (PBM) is the effective absorption of light at a cellular level to stimulate the production of ATP, an energy source necessary for cellular repair and viability. PBM also enhances nitric oxide synthesis, resulting in vasodilation thereby improving blood flow to the brain.
PBM directed to the brain is rapidly gaining interest among neuroscience researchers and the public for safe, reliable, noninvasive means of enhancing brain health and optimizing performance. Research has shown it helpful in treating Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, COVID-related brain fog, and traumatic brain injury.
Neuronic uses light emitting diodes (LEDs) to deliver the specific near-infrared wavelength of 1070nm, which is invisible to the human eye. Recent studies have shown 1070nm to effectively produce positive biological effects that promote health and injury recovery while also enabling deeper penetration into the brain.
Stimulate cellular growth and regeneration Increase cellular energy, survival and lifespan.
Improve brain blood flow and oxygenation.
Decrease oxidative stress and inflammation.
Protect brain cells against future injury.
Enhance whole brain network efficiency.