Sport Psychology Tactics - Neurofeedback, Athletes, Injury Rehabilitation & ADHD
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Introduction: Athletes, ADD / ADHD & Neurofeedback
When athletes are seeking sport psychology services, they are most likely going to encounter professionals that focus on utilizing techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, or psychological reframing to help them accomplish their mental performance goals. Before these techniques are administered, there is an initial assessment that takes place when the clinician investigates the client’s symptoms. This is done in order to help the clinician both better understand the individual client history as well as gathering information as to what the client’s needs are. Client feedback is incredibly important when trying to understand how to best help someone, and will need to continue to be collected as advancements are made within the field of sport psychology. But this approach by itself is incredibly outdated when we consider the new resources that are available within the sport psychology space.
One of these new resources is called Neurofeedback. Neurofeedback incorporates the use of computers and unique hardware-software applications that can measure brainwave activity. As opposed to traditional sport psychology interventions which only guess what is going on in an athlete’s brain, neurofeedback provides a direct window into how to help an athlete measurably enhance their individual psychological performance capabilities. Because Neurofeedback can be such an invaluable tool for athletes , I feel that it is critical that we discuss this approach in this issue of the Training Report. First I want to reexamine two issues that commonly affect athletes which are ADHD and sports injuries. Finally, I want to discuss how neurofeedback sessions can effectively treat these problems. First, let’s begin by going into a recap of the neuroscience of ADHD which I have previously discussed in older Training Reports.
Part I. Diagnostic Criteria For ADD / ADHD
I have previously discussed the neuroscience of ADHD in previous Training Reports which I encourage you to read. According to the DSM-V the diagnosis of ADHD falls under the category of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. In order to meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD, the following are some examples of symptoms that clients need to present with: often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in work; has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities; does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; does not follow through on instructions; has difficulty organizing tasks and activities; is often ‘on the go’ acting as if ‘driven by a motor’; often runs about or climbs in situations where it is inappropriate. While these are most certainly important features of having ADHD, this diagnostic criteria only tell part of the story. For instance, many people with ADHD also deal with the following symptoms: processing control, mental energy control, self-monitoring, temporal-sequential, transitional, prospective retrieval, language processing, and sensory issues.
Athletes with ADHD competing at the collegiate, professional, and even high school level have unique considerations that must be accounted for given their participation in high performance environments. First, athletes that have ADHD may present as if they do not have the hyperactive component of the diagnosis due to the fact that they are regularly engaged in physical activity and therefore could be unintentionally satisfying the urge to be moving (it’s also possible that individuals unknowingly became involved in sport because frequent physical movement provides a type of self-soothing for the urge to move). Another consideration that people need to be aware of is that athletes that exhibit difficulty listening or following instructions may in fact be presenting symptoms of ADHD and are not necessarily purposefully ignoring their coaches. This can be a sensitive point of discussion as often times coaches and even members of the athlete’s support system will misinterpret this behavior as if the athlete does not care, when in fact the athlete cares immensely and wants to improve at listening & focus. Now that we have reviewed the introductory concepts of ADHD, let’s also go into a review of the neuroscience of sports injuries (this has also been a topic I have covered in previous Training Reports as well).
Part II. Trauma & Athletes
When athletes go to see doctors and physical therapists to treat sport-related injuries or areas of chronic pain, healthcare professionals assess, diagnose, and prescribe physical treatment interventions to ameliorate the presenting problem (e.g. improve range of motion, stimulate blood flow to repair damaged tissue, reduce chronic pain, etc.). This is a necessary and fundamental process that must take place in order for the injured body part to regain optimal health and homeostasis. With that being said, this is only one half of the equation and in my professional opinion unless a licensed psychotherapist or a sport psychologist is a part of the treatment process, athletes will most likely continue to experience chronic pain and even worse risk re-injury. In the same way individuals who have experienced psychological trauma need to process their experiences in order to heal, rehabilitating injured body parts also need similar attention from mental health professionals. Why is this the case?
As previously mentioned, when an athlete sustains an injury or experiences chronic pain their brain creates a memory file associated with that experience. In the same way individuals with PTSD experience symptoms such as panic attacks when they are triggered with experiences that mimic their traumatic memories, our bodies have similar PTSD like reactions, but can come in the form of muscle guarding or extreme sensitivity to pain. The subcortical brain structures that were first in line to activate our internal alarm systems during traumatic events keep our autonomic nervous system responses active in order to ensure that we are safe and acting in accordance with our own survival needs. Many athletes who have undergone injuries have probably had the experience of completing physical therapy, but continue to experience weakness, chronic pain, feelings of fear associated with re-injury or even freeze responses. Unless mental health professionals or sport psychology experts are simultaneously involved with the treatment process, these alert systems and traumatic memories will remain in place and keep individuals in this negative crystalized state. Now that we have covered the basic neuroscience of sports injuries and ADHD, let’s discuss how neurofeedback is a perfect match for these issues in terms of selection of treatment interventions.
Part III. Neurofeedback & Sports Performance
Neurofeedback is an intervention where electrodes or sensors are attached to the top of an athlete’s head to analyze electrical activity in the brain. These electrical signals are then analyzed by a computer and transcribed to a simpler format so both the athlete and clinician can more easily interpret what is occurring in their brain. Through this process of simplifying brainwave data, different brainwaves can be identified which have been known to be associated with different mental states that can either help or hinder different psychological performance experiences. From there, the clinician and client can enhance & train the ideal mental states that are associated with peak mental performance through the neurofeedback hardware & software.
One of the main reasons this is such an effective tool when helping athletes deal with ADHD, sports injuries, and improving peak mental performance is because neurofeedback not only has the potential to provide quantifiable data about what is going on in someone’s brain, but it can also potentially prescribe what specific psychological states the athlete needs to train in order to effectively address their individual needs. Interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing try to ‘fit athletes into boxes’, whereas neurofeedback attempts to address the individual needs of clients. Furthermore, there are many high quality metanalyses that support the treatment efficacy of neurofeedback as it relates to these issues, especially ADHD, which is an exciting prospect for athletes whom are seeking to improve their overall performance and give them a training advantage, even over those athletes that are using sport psychology services!
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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