Unlock the Power of Your Autistic Brain through Neurofeedback with Dr Andrew Hill

Is Neurofeedback Relevant for Autistic People? What is Neurofeedback you ask? In this video I ask Dr. Andrew Hill, founder of Peak Brain Institute, to break down what neurofeedback is, how it works, and how it can benefit autistic individuals. Plus, he takes us on a journey inside the machine that is our brain and helps us understand what makes autistic brains unique from the inside.

🎞️Timestamps:
0:45 Introduction
0:46 What is Neurofeedback?
1:57 What is Biofeedback?
3:05 Regional Mapping in the Brain
9:03 What are common things that people might use neurofeedback to help with?
15:15 Diagnosis or Modeling?
16:50 How is every strength is a weakness?
20:40 The International Society for Neurofeedback & Research
22:49 Our challenges are not like everyone else’s

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👋Welcome to Autism From The Inside!!!

If you're autistic or think you or someone you love might be on the autism spectrum, this channel is for you!
I'm Paul Micallef, and I discovered my own autism at age 30.

Yes, I know, I don't look autistic. That's exactly why I started this channel in the first place because if I didn't show you, you would never know.

Autism affects many (if not all!) aspects of our lives, so on this channel, I want to show you what Autism looks like in real people and give you some insight into what's happening for us on the inside. We'll break down myths and misconceptions, discuss how to embrace autism and live well, and share what it's like to be an autistic person.

Join me as I share what I've found along my journey, so you don't have to learn it the hard way.

Make sure to subscribe so you won’t miss my new video every Friday and some bonus content thrown in mid-week too.

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my channel!

Peace,

~ Paul

#autism #asd #autismawareness

[thesymphonyset]

“the goal is to reduce suffering, not to be average.” That moment tied with the mind mapping details for sheer gold.

[shaynaformity]

The biggest surprise when I got neurofeedback was that it was unconscious. I didn't have to do anything. Just sit there. It was a completely foreign concept that I could learn without doing anything, without trying. Even though it's technically classified as behavioral therapy, it's not reinforcement for the user outwardly behaving a particular way - it's not behavior in the plain usage of the word. I think it would be helpful to a lot of people to see a video of an actual neurofeedback session, including the collaborative conversation about creating a goal. So they could see that the user is just sitting, and see what the technician sees on their screen and they adjust the settings, and how the feedback is a colored dot on the user's screen and/or drumbeat or other sound that the user chooses. And maybe screenshots of "this is how the user's brain scan looked at the beginning of the session, and this is how it looked at the end of the session." And then the check-in at the beginning of the next session, when the technician asks "how did it go since our last session?"

[ruebdogg]

As a parent of a autistic child, thank you for this video!!!

[kensears]

Having come to the unshakeable conviction, at age 65, that I'm on the spectrum, with the support of several of these tests (AQ: 35/50, and others), but mostly on the overwhelmingly powerful anecdotal evidence from your videos and others, and how all this very simply explains...ME...and MY LIFE...I've proceeded to make sense of tics, habits, formerly inexplicable social discomforts and anxieties, visceral aversions, and, in general, perplexities concerning this "other planet" I have tried to cope with my whole life. It is so startlingly, and yet wonderfully, vivid and starkly plain to me, I feel no need of a formal diagnosis. It is enough for me to take the things I'm learning and let them bring me integration, healing, perspective. And, very importantly, prerogative, to make CHOICES where I didn't realize it was even a matter of choice. One small instance: I am painfully, excruciatingly hyper-vigilant, registering and coordinating, not far removed from choreographing, where everything and everybody is, what their trajectories are compared to mine, in a place like a supermarket. Which tends to mean a lot of looking at people, in front of, next to, and behind me. Along with a compelling sense that I am somehow supposed to be politely sociable, at least acknowledge them. Just like you do in a packed, buzzing party that's absolutely killing you yet you feel that persistent "onus" to interact. At the same time, and this is the astronomically ironic part, I am intensely introverted. Frankly, all the people I'm focusing so fixedly on in a crowded public space like a supermarket are precisely the "mass" I'm viscerally longing to get away from. And so I end up making tons of oblique contact with masses of people that another part of my mind recoils from gratuitious contact with. Talk about exhaustion.... So one thing this discovery has helped me make consciously can be expressed like this: I can choose one of the two modes, either the hyper-vigiliance or, if it's not too simplistic to put it this way, the introversion. In other words, give rein to my hyper-vigiliance or give rein to my private-space maintenance. Even simpler, look at people or don't. And what I am finding is, I can allow my introversion, my instinct NOT to look, NOT to broadly and gratuitously interact, to take charge and subdue my hyper-vigilance (which is the far more counterproductive and distressing of the two instincts). It always feels a bit like being rude, arrogant and reckless, not scanning everything/everybody around me (who knows, maybe I'll accidentally step into someone's way), but I remind myself very consciously and intently that it's NOT rude, NOT arrogant, NOBODY is expecting me to pay attention to them. And the outcome of "doing the supermarket" (and similar contexts) in Introvert Mode rather than Hyper-Vigilance Mode is a remarkably enhanced peace and sense of equilibrium as I leave the challenging context.

[bobbyv]

I'm almost 38 and was diagnosed with Asperger's (ASD) about two years ago. Your channel and videos are a godsend. Thank you for all that you've done and shared and are doing and sharing.

[LegendoftheGalacticHero]

I have a friend who has specialized in Neurofeedback and used it for more than a decade ( the one guided with a encephalography, not the "dynamic" one that apparently doesnt' do much according to professionals) and he has found greand results in a wide array of patients and with long lasting/permanent results. I defnitely want to try once there is availably near me.

[relentlessrhythm]

This is good for those of us with alexythymia. I often don't know I'm stressed until I start having bad gut issues.

[sustn]

That is super interesting. Would be great to give it a go. I like that it's about greater self awareness, self understanding and self control - not about others controlling you to be more 'normal'.

[HappyOddGirl]

I would just love to have my brain mapped! That sounds incredibly fascinating and awesome! 🙂

[MrKlorox]

Wow... i searched "Neurofeedback near me" and got a number of hits. 3 hours away seems like a drive I wouldn't hate. I can't wait til this technology is viable in-home.

[pipwhitefeather]

Fascinating! I'd love to get neural feedback about my own brain. Thanks for sharing your results Paul. x

[ventrust]

Interesting and thanks for presenting. He said no one’s normal, no one’s typical. I wonder if he would say that if he could not work in the field he went to school for because of differences. My brain is not optional. Be weird he said. He calls it weird like I could be something else like normal. He said no one’s typical is that like everyone is a little bit autistic, maybe. You can change it if you know about it he says. I am not sure you can change just cuz you know about it. I don’t think that’s how agency works. Goals for things you can’t achieve is very frustrating and he says to have goals but I am not sure neurofeedback would help figure out goals. He is selling something ultimately.

[kjamison]

Regardless of the trauma I suffered as a child, I’m still struggling to accept my ASD diagnosis. I’m caught in a loop that traps me in the past and cycles through my trauma. My therapist appears intent on ignoring my repeated requests to address the trauma and insists I relive my early life but without context as to why. I get a lot of fancy descriptions of conditions or syndromes or observations made by other professionals but it’s still not helping me in any way at all. I still feel the same way I did in spring 2020, and later when I started therapy.

[glenrisk]

Right off, you can feel and observe all of the things he say's you can't.
We just get in the habit of focusing our minds outwardly and not inwardly.
I learnt how to meditate effectively years ago.
It's hard to find a technique that works effectively to even get started but once you do it's pretty amazing how quickly you can learn to do all sorts of things that supposedly are not possible.

[Solipschism]

I love this perspective, can't wait to learn more about neurofeedback!

[ThroughTheLensOfAutism]

With the exception of a few people, I have trouble reading faces. Brain fog has been a problem in the past few years. I wish someone would try neurofeedback with me.

[Diverse_Interests]

Exciting topic! I was wondering if it would work. Thank you Paul for the work you do.

[linden]

There's strong evidence for neurofeedback assisting trauma recovery so it's a shame it isn't more widely funded and available for that. I tend to think the plasticity in autistic brains has more to do with trauma healing and stress reduction than an alteration of inherent traits.

[Techno-Universal]

This is something I’m sort of trying to do already with me associating specific sensations in my head with specific functions! This sort of treatment would seemingly confirm a lot of my existing knowledge while it would probably allow me to better optimise my mental functions since computers/programming is a special interest of mine! :)

[bjarnes.]

I love the way he approaches the brain