Matt was four and one-half years old when his pediatrician referred his parents to Dr. Esty for Neurofeedback treatment. His mother wrote the following description of his history and the course of twenty Neurofeedback treatments.

“The act of writing a testimonial for Dr. Mary Esty and the Bethesda Brain and Wellness Center is really like writing the story of Matt. Matt came home from Russia at 11.5 months old. He was not physically delayed at all on the outside, but emotionally bruised and traumatized on the inside. He was scared, erratic, and unsettled most days. He wouldn't sit and cuddle in our laps and would ignore any proper nurturance from primarily me. He clinged to his Dad and displayed very typical attachment disordered behaviors. The women in his early life had failed him, I was to be no different. He was rigid and scared and controlling which led into an extremely anxious child on a daily basis, we lived on edge. We didn't deal with just attachment and anxiety, he exhibited various behaviors, poor speech and poor processing, he operated in a fog. Four years of countless adoption specialist, therapist and renowned neuropsychologists left us with a long list of labels and no treatments plans; ADD Spectrum tendencies, Processing Delays, or just labeling him "tricky" - or my favorite, "a typical Eastern European Adoptee".

After three full months of Neurofeedback, we can finally exhale. Our son tried to live life but was suffocated by this blanket of fear, confusion and lack of trust that filtered into everyday living. Thanks to Dr. Esty's knowledge we learned his hemispheres were hardly communicating. The blanket has been removed, and every single facet of his life has improved even the cuddling. He cuddles and hugs without hesitation, he has organized thoughts, knowing when he is hungry or needing to rest. His speech has skyrocketed and we enjoy conversations and jokes, he laughs so much now. Our former life was marked by typical series of 'what' and 'why' and demands for things. Thanks to the benefits of Neurofeedback we are basically getting the chance to fall in love with our son without walls or boundaries.

Matt has a large memory of his days in the orphanage, now that his speech and processing are ahead of the game he can listen to his story and process his feelings. His feelings were too big before, overwhelming him and causing him to disassociate. He now asks questions that would paralyze him before, yet he can learn his story and begin to heal. His thoughts flow sweetly into conversations, his body can start to rest and settle.

Illness used to cause great distress, emotionally on him. However he was able to process being sick without causing regression. But antibiotics create a problem. Towards to the end of three full months of Neurofeedback Matt got an ear infection. We did have a setback when was put on oral antibiotics. Whenever Matt has been on antibiotics he has had very difficult reactions and, for whatever reason, difficulty clearing them from his system. This has caused problems in processing and organizing his thoughts and actions. He is really hard to 'reach'. With this infection we saw a return of some old behaviors and did need to increase our appointments. Fortunately he is making ground once again and we are grateful for that. Neurofeedback has benefited the entire family unit. How do we say thank you? Thank you will never be enough for allowing our son to enjoy life to its fullest and to allow him and our family to heal. We are grateful."

BWB © 2010