Once admitted to our residential treatment program, our patients undergo a complete neuro-psychological evaluation so that we can determine what the most effective treatment plan for them will be. Our evaluation takes into account functionality of specific regions of the brain that are affected by drug and alcohol usage. This includes a quantitative Electroencephalogram (qEEG), which maps your brain and allows our team of specialists to track your progress over during your stay with us. The Florida House Experience has worked tirelessly with leaders in the field of applied neuroscience, and has developed a comprehensive strategy for using advanced neurological information-gathering and therapies in order to treat alcoholism and drug addiction.

Our patients undergo a rigorous assessment upon admission to our treatment program, which takes into account normal psychiatric and psychological factors, such as symptoms and clinical history, as well as the unique information gathered from our neurological testing and brain mapping. Dysregulation in the brain and severity of symptoms are all taken into account during a patient’s admissions assessment in order to pinpoint the treatment plan that will be right for you. The symptoms that are taken into account include, but are not limited to:

• Anxiety
• Attention span
• Depression
• compulsiveness
• Memory

At The Florida House Experience, we understand that addiction is a disease that centers in the brain, but it also impacts the body as well. Therefore, we take a holistic approach to treating addiction that involves our Neuro-Rehabilitation suite of services, which assist in treating neurological issues that are affecting the entire body.

Our Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Biosound/Biofeedback treatments monitor pulse, blood pressure, and breathing rates during each session to gauge efficacy. Using specially produced binaural sounds and vibrational stimulation, Biosound patients are brought to a state of brainwave activity, which replicates the first stage of sleep. In this meditative state, our patients are provided with a variety of different audio selections designed to produce positive affirmations and increase feelings of self-worth which they will be able to carry throughout their stay with us.

Quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) uses a head cap covered in 19 sensitive electrodes to “read” and record the electrical activity the brain is producing. After selecting the best portions of the recording, an analysis is run to look for areas of dysregulation, which are areas of the brain that are acting the furthest away from a “normal” brain. The analyses determine whether those areas produce too much or too little activity, the quality of communication between different areas of the brain, and the efficiency of the brain to “shout out” for resources.

qEEG uses several “normative” databases of hundreds of healthy brains, which are brains without neurological and/or psychological dysfunction, in order to compare the individual’s dysregulated brain activity with that of a brain with regular activity. We not only look at the 19 broad areas of the brain, but “drill down” and investigate 47 separate areas in each hemisphere of the brain (left and right sides).

A quantitative Electroencephalogram, or qEEG for short, is central to our Neuro-Rehabilitative services at The Florida House Experience, and uses brain-imaging technology to provide a complete picture of dysregulated brain activity due to substance abuse and co-occurring mental disorders. We are one of the industry leaders in brain mapping and qEEG-guided addiction treatment; our qEEG brain mapping techniques record activity in the main hubs of the brain that control memories and emotions, and these readings are analyzed and interpreted by our clinical team in order to determine the best course of treatment to combat specific addiction related dysfunction in each of our patients.

After recording the initial qEEG, the analysis will reveal areas of interest that are significantly more dysregulated than the comparative normal brain. These areas are the focus of the Neurofeedback training.

Neurofeedback is tailored to each individual and retrains the brain to regulate the areas of greatest dysfunction. For example, because of an immense amount of research that has been conducted on the brain, we can target symptoms such as addiction, anxiety, mood dysregulation, attention, and executive functioning (focus, planning, judgment, multi-tasking, etc.). After targeting the affected areas of the brain, the neurofeedback training can then guide these dysregulated areas to behave more like the normal brain.

“Training” means that we encourage the brain to regulate itself and correct its “errors.” The brain is taught to correct the errors through feedback (what it’s doing “right” and “wrong”) and rewards. The reward works through a movie or other stimulus which fully appears on a screen when the brain is functioning correctly. When the brain is not functioning correctly (i.e. when it’s activity is dysregulated), the movie or visual stimulus will not play full on the screen. The brain learns to get feedback on its performance through the performance of the movie. The better the movie plays, the better the brain is doing.

As the sessions progress and screen remains full for longer periods of time, the threshold is lowered, and the difficulty rises, thus shaping the brain towards more stable, efficient functioning. As the sessions continue, the threshold is set lower and lower, until the person’s activity “matches” the activity of a normal brain and has enough practice to make these changes permanent. Evidence suggests that 20 Neurofeedback sessions are required to make significant, permanent changes.

At The Florida House Experience, our goal to not only give you the information about your addiction and an understanding of your disorder, but to also teach you how to overcome it. Our Neurofeedback Training (NFT) is designed to teach you how to self-regulate the areas in your brain that have been dysregulated by drugs and alcohol, which display symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and rage disorders. With our Neurofeedback Training, we help you train your brain to reach a predetermined target state of function, using the data collected during your qEEG to generate different exercises that will help return your brain to a normative state.

Here at The Florida House Experience, as part of our holistic methodology we utilize neuro-stimulation therapies. These therapies include Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation therapy (TENS), which deliver safe, low-level, and high-frequency electrical current pulses to parasympathetic nerves in the face and neck, in order to produce a relaxing feeling. These therapies have been proven to help in the treatment of brain injuries and many psychiatric conditions, as well as provide cognitive enhancement. Our neuro-stimulation treatments employ state-of-the-art technology developed by Thync, a type of neurotransmitter relaxation technology, in order to regulate stress responses by using alternate pulse stimulation.

Much like our electrical neuro-stimulation therapy, the high frequency pulsed electromagnetic stimulation therapy used here at The Florida House Experience utilizes Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) to promote optimal brain activity. By applying continuous electromagnetic pulses to the scalp, neuronal activity is increased in the cortical and subcortical regions, which is right beneath where the pulses occur, in order to increase the likelihood of neuron depolarization (i.e. neurons firing, or “talking”). Improved neuronal function using tDCS and tACS can help counteract dysregulation in the brain caused by substance abuse.

The Florida House Experience’s deep brain stimulation therapy includes Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which uses an electromagnetic coil that sends safe magnetic pulses to the patient’s brain. This cutting-edge technique improves the moods of patients with major depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as other conditions that are characterized by neurological dysfunction. Our Deep Brain Stimulator also uses electrical currents which are sent to subcortical regions of the brain at a rate that is different for every neurological condition.

Using the software programs Meditainment-CogMed or BrainTrain, cognitive brain training at The Florida House Experience works in tandem with a patient’s qEEG brain mapping. Our specialized computer programs are designed to stimulate a patient’s brain in a variety of ways and through a multitude of cognitive tasks. Combined with the qEEG, these programs can help bring a patient’s brain activity back to the normative state it was in prior to drug or alcohol induced dysregulation.