Neuroplasticity Therapies may be useful for people diagnosed with epilepsy.
Below you will see a description of the outward symptoms of epilepsy, however, it is really important to note that a professional using neuroplasticity therapies will decide upon a treatment plan using much more than just symptoms. This is because neuroplasticity therapies aim to target a particular part/s of the brain, based on an individual assessment.
Symptoms are simply not enough information to guide a treatment plan, and a professional working with neuroplasticity therapies will be guided by an individual assessment on a person. Although some general therapies and activities can help with Epilepsy, the more personalised a treatment plan is, the better.
Treat the patient not the diagnosis
To understand this better, it is really recommended that you read this article from ‘Treat the patient, not the diagnosis :
Epilepsy Symptoms
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes epilepsy as when a person has seizure episodes. These are “a result of excessive electrical discharges in a group of brain cells. Different parts of the brain can be the site of such discharges. Seizures can vary from the briefest lapses of attention or muscle jerks to severe and prolonged convulsions. Seizures can also vary in frequency, from less than 1 per year to several per day….Characteristics of seizures vary and depend on where in the brain the disturbance first starts, and how far it spreads. Temporary symptoms occur, such as loss of awareness or consciousness, and disturbances of movement, sensation (including vision, hearing and taste), mood, or other cognitive functions.”
NB in Neuro plasticity therapies, typically, symptoms provide only a part of the information necessary to form a picture of how well a person’s brain is functioning, and where it might need some attention. Instead, further assessments provide a much fuller picture of brain function, where issues lie and indicate what treatments and protocols may be of help.
Neuroplasticity Therapies for Epilepsy
If you imagine the brain as like a house, there are several ways to get into a house:
- doors
- windows
- letterbox
- and, if you are Father Christmas, the chimney!
In a similar way there are many possible routes into the brain, or more accurately, routes to stimulate the brain. These can include movement, balance, vision, listening, taste, smell, and many more. The brain does not operate its regions in isolation (this is the concept of the connectome – some information about this is here: http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/about/), and hence ‘going into the brain via one route’ can often stimulate more than just the regions predominantly responsible for that task. For example, if you used vision to stimulate the brain, although there is a region of the brain with the primary responsibility for vision (the occipital lobe), it interacts with various other brain regions in order to generate clear sight. This means that using sight, we can stimulate (activate) various brain regions, and a skilled neuroplasticity therapies professional will be aiming to stimulate specific areas of the brain via using such a technique.
It is also crucial to understand that in order for neuroplasticity therapies to have their greatest potential effect in the brain, so the brain needs to be as healthy as possible. For this reason, a practitioner is likely to want to offer advice (or referrals to relevant colleagues) on factors such as diet and sleep.
Diet can be a very important element to treat epilepsy. There are many diets which have been purported to help epilepsy. Some are listed here
As a general starting point, you may like to look into the ANI Diet (Anti-Neuro-Inflammatory Diet). You can find a link to this here. Always work with a relevant professional before making dietary changes.
What to expect
Using various assessments, you should expect a professional using Neuroplasticity Therapies to always take into account much more than just the external symptoms which come with the diagnosis. They will usually achieve this via assessments to establish what is going on in the brain. Once they have an understanding of what regions need attention, they will carry out interventions with you and are likely to ask you to complete some interventions in your own time, for a set duration.
Further resources
To understand more about Neuroplasticity Therapies (including where to find a therapist), you can:
- Attend a Course
- Book a Consultation
- Visit our Resources
- Join the Community
- Attend one of our Events
Use one the Natural Methods to halt seizures (emergency seizure rescue methods)
Please find a link to a page on Emergency Seizure Rescue Methods. These are methods which may be useful in stopping a seizure once it has started.
Neuroplasticity Therapies.
Discover the wide range of sensory, balance, movement, lifestyle therapies incorporated under neuroplasticity therapies.
