Practical Applications for BrainSculpt by Health Setting Type
I’ve had the opportunity to work in the whole spectrum of the mental health system – wilderness therapy, residential treatment centers, the juvenile justice system (i.e. both proctor care and residential care), military settings, psychiatric inpatient, group private practice, and individual private practice. These experiences have allowed me to work with individuals of all age groups and from around the globe. Across this spectrum, I have found one fundamental truth – the stress response is at the core of the conflict, both for the clients and for the providers.
While BrainSculpt is not a type of treatment for any type of physical or mental health condition, it is designed to be supportive to the traditional treatment process. Because the stress response is an underlying and fundamental factor to nearly all mental and physical health conditions, BrainSculpt has a unique capacity to be tailor-fitted to your client’s needs. Below are some potential uses for BrainSculpt in both mental and physical health settings:
Mental Health Setting
For the client:
Manage stress/improve calm during daily living tasks (personal care routines, recreational, academic)
Session prep (getting ready for the session)
In session use to decrease flooding (individual, group, family)
Post session (decrease stress following sessions)
In-between sessions to improve stress management skills
For the provider/staff:
Before high stress moments (session prep, etc.)
During high stress moments (intense sessions, client escalation, crisis moments, etc.)
After high stress moments (session aftermath, de-stressing, self-care)
Provider types: therapists, school counselors, psychiatrists, life coaches, family educators, pre-school educators, academic counselors, mental health inpatient settings, mental health outpatient settings
Physical Health Setting
For the patient:
Enhance motivation to work towards health goals
Stress management tools to improve overall health
Enhance ability to stress related to chronic pain, other physical ailments
Decrease stress during treatment sessions
Supportive resource for in-between treatment scenarios (wait lists, etc.)
For the provider/staff:
Before high stress moments (session prep, etc.)
During high stress moments (intense sessions, client escalation, crisis moments, etc.)
After high stress moments (session aftermath, de-stressing, self-care)
Provider types: Family Practice, OBYNs, Functional Neurologists, Nurse Practitioners, Dentists, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Dieticians, personal trainers, etc.
Gaps in the Mental Health System
BrainSculpt is aware of the many gaps in the mental health system. I developed BrainSculpt because I was blown away at the ability of tactile bilateral stimulation or TBS to consistently calm down the fight or flight response, independent of individual circumstances or characteristics. In all my years doing therapy, I had never seen a resource be so consistently calming that required no skill and that provided an near immediate effect. Yet the tappers available were bulky, wired, and not designed for either autonomous or on the go use. There was also no automated way to help people build coping skills utilizing the power of TBS.
Another gap I consistently ran into as a mental health provider was that while teaching coping skills to manage stress is helpful, the reality is that when the stress response is high, most people struggle in utilizing those skills. The higher level thinking required to engage in the majority of traditional coping skills is simply offline when the stress response is strong. In addition, those copings are often not enough as a stand alone to completely calm the stress response down. The brain needs a primer to get it ready to engage in more traditional coping skills, as well as additional supports to help the brain get to a deeper level of calm and build an arsenal of stress management tools to support traditional treatment.
BrainSculpt as a Bridge
In this way, BrainSculpt Calm is a bridge, a wearable tool that helps calm the brain automatically, autonomously, and without the need of any type of skill. It has the capacity to provide a noticeable sense of calm within less than a minute. The length of use can range from just a few minutes to throughout most of the day, depending on the user’s unique needs and preferences.
BrainSculpt MindSpa helps the user get to a deeper level of calm and relaxation. Using narrative prompts that are synched with the TBS, the user is guided through a series of mental exercises that are aimed at enhancing positive experiences and positive mental imagery to help manage stress. BrainSculpt MindSpa has a unique capacity to help the user access and highlight and create positive mental material because of the scientifically proven ability of TBS to enhance positive memory recall. Further, the narrative programs incorporate neuroscience-based principles that have been validated to intensify positive mental material. MindSpa has programs that are focused on general stress management, as well as stress management techniques for specific stress types, including parenting, partnering, focus/performance, negative/anxious thinking, and chronic pain. The narrative programs incorporate concepts from evidence-based practices and from thought leaders in each field.
BrainSculpt MindSweep (coming soon) is focused on helping the user to neutralize negative experiences so they are less dominant in the mental landscape. Working to balance out the negativity bias of the brain, MindSweep has a unique ability to neutralize negative experience due to the scientifically proven ability of TBS to keep the brain calm while thinking about stressful experiences. This allows the brain to utilize the window of reconsolidation and the power of dual simultaneous awareness to neutralize, rewire, and change, specific negative memory associations. In turn, this helps the user to have different, more adaptive responses to historically stressful stimuli. Like MindSpa, MindSweep has narrative tracks for general stress management, as well as tracks for specific stress types, including parenting, partnering, focus/performance, negative/anxious thinking, and chronic pain. The narrative programs incorporate concepts from evidence-based practices and from thought leaders in each field.
My experience as a mental health provider is that there you never get the chance to cover all aspects of stress management in treatment. There is simply too much cover to be able to get to it all. While BrainSculpt is not a form of professional treatment for any type of condition, the goal is to provide stress management support so that individuals can continue to build skills when they are where they spend the majority of their time – outside of the treatment sessions. They can then use these stress management skills (in the form of enhancing an ongoing sense of calm, increasing positive memories, and neutralizing negative ones) to support whatever treatment goals are created by their professional treatment team.