Unlocking Potential: Neurofeedback and Holistic Therapies for Children with Special Needs | Ep26

Discover the incredible potential of neurofeedback therapy with our special guest, Sheri Reichman, a seasoned neurotherapist. Together, we navigate the promising world of neurofeedback, offering hope to families seeking alternative therapies for children with special needs. This episode promises to unveil how training brainwaves can lead to remarkable transformations in behavior, cognitive function, and emotional regulation. Sheri and I share personal stories of how incorporating neurofeedback and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) into our children's routines has significantly reduced reliance on medication and brought about positive changes.

Explore the unique benefits of neurofeedback therapy for nonverbal children, especially those on the autism spectrum. We dive into the science of EEG monitoring, explaining how it allows children to engage without verbal communication, often resulting in breakthroughs in emotional connections and communication. With insights from reputable institutes, we highlight how neurofeedback addresses symptoms of ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression. Learn about the holistic approach involving HBOT and the importance of adaptability and healing through therapies offered by East Valley Naturopathic Doctors, which include specialty labs, genetic testing, and nutritional counseling. Join us for a transformative discussion that could just be the key to unlocking new possibilities for your child's growth and development.

Chapters

• 0:00 Neurofeedback Therapy for Special Needs
• 8:07 Neurofeedback Therapy Benefits for Children
• 21:42 Benefits of Holistic Pediatric Therapies

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Special Parent Podcast. I'm Dr Deanna Iverson, a proud mom of three boys and two incredible kids with special needs. I'm here to remind you that you're not alone on this journey. Whether you're navigating the highs, the lows or those moments in between, this podcast is your weekly dose of hope, help and heartfelt guidance. Together, we'll celebrate the victories, tackle the challenges and connect with a community that truly understands. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea, settle in and let's embark on this empowering journey together. You've got this. Have you ever wanted to explore new therapies instead of medication to help your child with any of their struggles, whether that be autism, adhd? Today we are talking about two therapies that you can try instead of medication to help you and your child improve, whether that be behavior, health factors, all of those good things out there. So welcome to the Special Parent Podcast. I'm Dr Deanna Iverson and I'm here with my special guest, sherry Sherry, welcome back.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Thank you for joining us again.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Thanks for having me back. Could you just real quickly, in case someone missed part one, which you can go to specialparentorg to catch up if you missed it? But if they missed part one, could you give them just a quick synopsis of what it is you do?

Speaker 2: 1:21

Right, I am a neurotherapist, and a neurotherapist is one who is a neurofeedback clinician, who teaches individuals how to regulate brainwave activity using EEG monitoring.

Speaker 1: 1:37

It's great. We're going to learn more about that. So if she just spoke German to you, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 1:43

I know you can't avoid it, right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Well, last time we talked about one of the first therapies, which we called HBOT hyperbaric oxygen therapy and how beneficial that is. But HBOT pairs very well with in fact, you used a great word last time pairs very well with neurofeedback, and there's a lot of research that supports both of these for autism, for ADHD, for children with disabilities of all different kinds, including cognitive functioning, behavioral modifications, all of those. So today we're going to talk a little bit more just about neuro therapy or neurofeedback.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, same thing, it's kind of the same thing. Thank you, I appreciate that. Therapizing the neurons, there we go.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Like it, I love it. I discovered your office from talking to another parent, so that's why I'm like, hey, parents, we've got to get together, we've got to be talking about it and networking. And so my older son has been through both HBOT and neurofeedback. In fact he did 40 sessions of neurofeedback over time and huge difference Changes in his behavior, changes in his ability to function in class. He is completely off all medications. He's on none, zero off all medications, and he was on a mood stabilizing medication and a medication for ADHD when we started this.

Speaker 1: 3:08

My other son, he's at the same time doing HBOT and neurofeedback and just from going through the little bit that we've done, we've already been able to take off one medication, that Adderall medication, that narcotic class drug that we don't like to give our kids because of the strong side effects. We've been able to get him off that. He's still on another one, but I have hope and I have just a lot of. I think it's going to work. In fact, I just kind of know it is. I've already seen it work and I'm so excited for what's to come. So, since we're talking about neurofeedback today, especially its impact on autism, adhd and children, we know it can help. Research supports anxiety. Research supports at helping even with depression. How, what are? What is it? First of all, what does this mean? We called it neurotherapy. That's my way of putting it.

Speaker 2: 4:02

What is this? So neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback. It is a way to train brainwaves to learn to function in a more organized or balanced functionality. So, as a result, you start to function better, you can think more clearly, you can shift your attention from work to play and from play to work, from awake to sleep. It increases sleep quality, so you're resting and regenerating and healing, as you need to do while you're sleeping and then waking up feeling better, and it improves your mood. But it can be healing on so many levels, from traumatic levels either emotional or physical trauma like a TBI or concussion, and then also it can help those with learning disabilities that are born with dysregulation and they just need a little nudge and a help toward learning to balance that function. And it's done with neurofeedback. We can talk more about how it works exactly.

Speaker 1: 5:14

And what I love about that is what we're talking about is neurons and their ability to make connections in the brain, and so my son, my middle son, has a rare genetic disorder and KBG syndrome. The shortening of the gene or any impact on the gene actually impacts neuroplasticity, as well as some other things, but that's what we're talking about today impacts neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is neuro neurons plasticity, flexibility, ability to change molds, so the ability of the brain neurons to change and therefore learned right. What I've noticed with him is we've had an increase of his just understanding of the world around him. We've had a huge increase of that just in this short little amount of time. What I also noticed with both of my kids so I want parents to expect this is that when you first start any therapy, including these therapies, sometimes you see an increase of behaviors and I talked about this the first time but, if you missed it, an increase of the negative side of things before you start to see that regulation start to play out.

Speaker 2: 6:20

There's a little aggravation. That happens when things are starting to change. Then it's a little aggravating to the system. However, I can tell what you're about to say. Those increase in aggravation or that results in increases in negative behaviors. Soon, really, quite quickly, in like six sessions or less, they start to become less intense and shorter lived. So they're getting over these triggering moments, they're stopping themselves, they're reflecting and they're using their words more appropriately to express how they feel when they're upset. It's really amazing and yeah, you're right, it is due to the increase in neuroplasticity that's happening that that brain that was once so rigid I had that did not have the ability to be flexible enough to be accepting of negative things that may happen to them that they don't like, or be challenged in a way where they have to figure it out and get through this project or problem.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Sure.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Yeah so.

Speaker 1: 7:25

And it just keeps getting better and better it does. It does keep getting better, and one of the things that I also noticed was, as Jar's behavior was is beginning to improve. He is having a lot more of the turnaround time, so he'll he. One of the things that he does is he gets. He gets mad whenever he's asked to do something, and now he still gets mad when he's asked to do something that he doesn't want to do in the moment. But I will say Trevor is at the right response and he'll. No, mom, it's not. Whereas before we had a battle for a while, yeah, and sometimes he never even came back around to it, it was just we had to move on, and now he's came back around to it. It was just we had to move on, and now he's coming back around to it.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Both of these therapies, unlike some other counseling type therapies, also can work with nonverbal children, and so I think that that's an important thing, because we have so many nonverbal children in the autism spectrum and and they don't have to be able to verbalize what's going on for these therapies to work. They can be watching well, trevor's, I think, in the middle of Spider-Man right now. Yep, he's watched a few of those. Yeah, so they're watching something and the therapy is happening, right, the therapy is happening, and so it's amazing to me that we have found something that doesn't have these negative side effects of medication and can work with children all over the spectrum, including nonverbal, because nonverbal children are some of the harder ones to work with in therapies because they can't communicate back to you in the same way. Right, and this therapy doesn't require that communication back.

Speaker 2: 8:59

Exactly. It's done automatically and instantly through EEG monitoring, which is kind of the beauty of it and why it's such a good fit for nonverbal autistic community. They don't need to communicate and, as a result, they many times gain the ability to start verbalizing. I've had that happen with several nonverbals they start communicating and it just it's magical, it really is, and it just changes their lives and their family's lives when they start answering a question and replying and using words, and that's amazing. Yeah, showing compassion too. That's another thing. That it's like how. What drug can produce compassion Right?

Speaker 1: 9:43

It can't. That's a, that's a connection in the brain.

Speaker 2: 9:45

They're asking how you're doing, how are you grandma? You know I've had that from a sweet little boy. He for the first time asked how grandma was doing and she was just in tears. She was just so happy, like wow, he's thinking outside of himself, he's aware he's connecting.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And that happened because of these brain connections that weren't able to be made before because of what was happening. And now, with neurofeedback, they're happening. These brain connections are being made and these children are developing in a way that they may not have developed otherwise. The Drake Institute I always do my research. The Drake Institute said that neurofeedback can treat and even may eliminate many symptoms and co-occurring symptoms of ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression. The National Institute of Health also included improved cognitive functioning, sleep and behavior, which are some of the ones you've mentioned.

Speaker 1: 10:45

I've noticed that my children, on days that we have neurofeedback, go to bed earlier. Nice, they're just tired, yeah, and I think, well, it's because the brain worked, but it worked in a good way, yeah, and they're not. Even if they do watch their electronics later after neurofeedback, they're not still. Their brain's not as fired up by the electronics, as much as you can tell. It's just trying to not still. Their brain's not as fired up by the electronics, as much as you can tell, it's just trying to rewire. It's really amazing. So what is it? You bring your child in for neurofeedback? What is it that they should expect, especially if they have to set their child up, because I know that they have to put a cap on and stuff.

Speaker 1: 11:17

So what is it that they should be expecting from this?

Speaker 2: 11:19

Well, first off, we start with a brain map. And a brain map, or QEED, is the initial appointment where we take a measure of the brainwave activity and get an assessment of the health of it. That enables us to create or find protocols that are unique to that individual, that are going to help them the most where they need that help and support the most. So with that information, then they can start the training, which is what you're kind of describing. Well, the brain mapping involves a cap on the head, so there's some sensory challenges to work around there, depending on their level of sensitivities, and we're very good at thinking outside the box, for working around.

Speaker 2: 12:04

If a child can't handle something on their head, we've handled that and we've been able to do workarounds where we don't have to use the cap. It takes longer, but we keep them entertained. And parents are fantastic with bringing in things and they help so much. I couldn't do it without you, special parents. You guys are awesome, you really are rock stars.

Speaker 2: 12:26

But yeah, so we'll get the brain map and then they come in for a session and that's when we place just individual leads in certain areas of the brain, their sensors, and they just rest on the scalp with a little EEG paste just holds it in place and allows us to monitor their brainwave activity. While that's being monitored, they watch a TV screen and ideally we'd love them to be listening through headphones. If they can handle that, that's great, because the feedback comes through to them through the visual and auditory process of watching the screen and listening to the sounds that are involved with the movie or cartoon or whatever it is they want to watch. It doesn't matter what they watch. It's not about the content, right, it's about the delivery of feedback to the brain, telling it when it's behaving optimally and not and that screen and the noise responds to get the brain to react again, yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:26

And then the screen and the noise responds to get the brain to react again. Yeah, there are cues given visually and auditorily by the screen getting bright when those brain waves are in that ideal range for optimal function. And the sound follows as well. The sound also gets a little louder, easier to hear and softer and not so easy to hear. So it's all happening kind of behind the scenes. The child watches and they notice, sometimes they go.

Speaker 2: 13:46

Why is the screen getting dim? And that's part of the process. It's a brain workout, we tell them. Your brain will figure it out and soon it won't fluctuate as much. And that's kind of magical too, because by the sixth session the brain is figuring it out and you'll notice that the screen does not go as dim as often as it once did in the first few sessions. Um, and that's about when you start to notice the symptoms getting better too.

Speaker 2: 14:11

It's around session six, maybe six to ten, everybody's different, but yeah. So they just sit in a cozy chair and watch a movie. It is a cozy chair, it's a recliner, yeah, they're in their own little little unit and they just get to watch what they want. And that's why it's so great, because it's like parents, you know, take that opportunity and go okay, well, you behave, you do X, y, z. Then you get your screen time and your neurofeedback session and then they really look forward to going to their appointment and some save their, you know, if they're watching a movie, we pause it and then we save it for next time.

Speaker 1: 14:49

And then we pick up where they left off and they just love that, yes, and then trevor has loved that. I mean, I can speak to that. Every time I got I said, oh, what'd you watch today? He tells me all about it. He doesn't even realize his brain got a workout. He's all talking about the movie and you guys have been awesome. So, like you said, you allow parents to bring in whatever's going to help their child be comfortable, of course, within reason, but most of us would not bring anything out of the ballpark. You've included, allowed. So we have a therapy dog in our house, not a service dog, it's a therapy dog. And you've allowed us to bring in the therapy dog and she sits with Trevor in the chair during his neurofeedback session and she just sits there and occasionally Trevor will be be like, oh, she wanted to get up, but I just, you know, held on to her and she sat back down, and so and it's 30 minutes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:31

So she just sits in the chair with him for 30 minutes and relaxes and it gives him that kind of that comfort. So if there's a blanket they want to have, or, especially, a toy they want to hold, or whatever is needed, you guys have been very flexible in allowing that. Yeah, and I think that that's key for parents too is to know that you know they have a, they have an office that's going to work with them.

Speaker 2: 15:52

Right, exactly, yeah, I mean, if it's a very young child, they can snuggle together, they can hold their child in their lap and they can have their snuggle time, or, once the child's comfortable and doing the session by themselves, and the parent can take that time to themselves and we have a nice quiet. We call it the meditation room. You've relaxed in there many times and it's just a nice little place where you can get some work done or take a nap. I mean, heck, take advantage. I did one day.

Speaker 1: 16:18

I took a nap one day. I remember it very clearly. I was like my eyes are pretty heavy, I'm just gonna lay my head down and all of a. My eyes are pretty heavy, I'm just going to lay my head down and all of a sudden Trevor was there. He's like I'm done, I'm asleep.

Speaker 1: 16:32

So, yeah, no, I also talk a lot about the importance of parental self-care. Yes, in a sense, this therapy provides a little bit of time, a couple days a week, for some parental self-care. Maybe you just want to play a game on your phone as a parent, maybe you want to watch your favorite show or binge watch something, or maybe you need a nap, or maybe you just need to get some work done. You can bring your laptop in. So, yeah, it helps everybody in the family. Totally Honestly, it really does help everybody. And so we talked about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, hbot, last time, and so we concluded by talking about how these two can work together. But in case I didn't hear it, I kind of want to review that how do HBOT and neurofeedback, how can they help each other out?

Speaker 2: 17:15

Right, right. So the wonderful word of they're synergistic with each other, hyperbaric really helps the hardware of the body, so the physical structures of the brain and the gi tract in the system, and reducing the inflammation so that those can function better. And then the neurofeedback helps optimize what we would call the software or the processing centers of the brain. So yeah, they don't clash in any way, they're totally synergistic. So, like your son Trevor goes, he does them back to back.

Speaker 2: 17:56

And if you have the time to do that, it's totally great. In either order, it doesn't matter Hyperbaric first and then neurofeedback, like you do, or you can do it the other way around. Either way it's going to be beneficial and the results are lasting.

Speaker 1: 18:11

And you mentioned the home care unit. So we, in the beginning, when we started neurofeedback, trevor was in junior high and so he didn't get home till 4.30, which meant we were unable to get to the office to access the equipment. And you guys, we have a home care unit, so what? I loved it because it gave us an ability to start when we couldn't get to your office, which was so important because I knew Trevor really needed this.

Speaker 1: 18:39

After I'd seen the results in my older son, I just knew we needed to do this, but we just couldn't make it in, and so we had a home care unit, which actually was installed on my own laptop. So I had my laptop. I didn't have to learn new equipment per se my laptop and the equipment plugged into my laptop. You guys trained us on where to put stuff, how to hook it all up, and then we were able to run it at home. The only thing is, at home we had to make sure that there weren't other distractions that we're going to put in play, and so that might be something they have to tackle, but in general, as long as we kept the distractions low, we were able to run it three, four days a week because we were home and it was just 30 minutes of hey, you're going to jump on and you're going to do this.

Speaker 2: 19:30

So we explained to them what you send home and how that works, because it was super helpful for us. Yeah, home training is a really great option because, as you had mentioned, it's time consuming to find the time to get into an appointment time that works for you Especially if you're in school.

Speaker 2: 19:40

Yeah, our afternoon appointments fill up so fast because there's only so many chairs and rooms in the office to set up, and we have a pretty substantial set up. We can accommodate five at a time. So home training is just so great too, because you can do it at home whenever works for you. We severely discount it because you're doing what I call the heavy lifting. You're the one taking the time to set them up. But it is very easy. Yeah, it's we. If you have a compatible laptop, which is not hard to find Most have a Windows-based laptop it does have to be Windows-based. It will work on a Mac if you're able to put a Windows operating system on a Mac. So that is an option. But yeah, we send you a link to download specific software to run. And this is all assuming you've had a brain map and and we have a plan for you.

Speaker 2: 20:39

The brain map can't be done at home, that has to be done in office.

Speaker 2: 20:41

But as far as following through with the therapies, then we can set you up with a home training unit, um, so you just need a laptop, software and then we give you the hardware neurofeedback training hardware, which is just a little little um amplifier and sensors that plug in there, and that's the tutorial that we schedule. We spend a good hour maybe hour and a half if needed with me showing you how to um correctly attach the leads, where on the head to put them and how to care for them and clean them after you're done, walking you through the step-by-step, you know, using the software. The software is very user-friendly. You just basically follow the prompts and it gives you quality checks before starting the session so you can be confident that you have everything attached right and that you're going to have proper feedback. Um, and then and then you just go and it turns itself off and then you're done and you just put it away and get ready for next time, yep, and, like you said, user friendly.

Speaker 1: 21:42

So I was running Trevor and Jaden at home at the same time and Jaden could hook himself up. Yeah, and he was 16. He could hook himself up, he could follow the prompts. He even knew his login information and he could get himself going on it, probably because he's a teenager. He actually did it easier than I did, and then I started being like, well, since you're so good at this, can you do your brother? But this is again the older son who has been through the HBOT, who is now. This was his last 10 of 40 sessions and we've seen these huge jumps with him and that's why I was able to trust him to do these things, because we've seen these improvements. His neuroconnectivity is definitely running at quite an efficient level now, whereas we've come a long ways. So I thank you guys for that for sure. You talked about holding a small child. Is there an age range that's good, better for either of?

Speaker 2: 22:41

these right um, hyperbaric can be any age um, assuming the checks have been made as far as, like you know, the hole in the heart, you know you can't do h-bot with that yeah, there are some things you need to be aware of, so check their website, east Valley Naturopathic Doctors, and you can listen to our previous episode on HBOT are really limited to age seven and above, which is a wide range, but under seven brain mapping can still be used.

Speaker 2: 23:21

It's difficult, though, to get a six-year-old or younger especially one with special needs to sit still enough to get a quality measure. And two, the database that the information is sent to for processing compares that data against seven-year-olds and up, like you put in your age, and it correlates that data with a normative database of the appropriate age. So that's also why it's important to just wait till they're seven. There are special circumstances where, if you've already seen the doctor and um he re and we know neurofeedback would be beneficial, it is safe for under age seven Um, we just have no negative side effects. Um, I've done as young as two um with specialized protocols and application techniques. So I it is possible to train them at a younger age. Usually we start them with HBOT to kind of stabilize them a little bit better, and then, if needed, then we can segue into neurofeedback training. But yeah, typically age seven and up, but special circumstances we can do it with younger than seven, but you just need to see the doctor about that first.

Speaker 1: 24:37

Yeah, absolutely, that makes sense. Well, that's good to know. Is there a benefit in repeating therapy, which I am asking for myself personally too? Is there a benefit in repeating therapy after some time has passed? So let's say you did it at seven or 10. And now your child is 15. Because we know that hormones and growth change the brain. So is there a benefit to repeating therapies, and is there a recommendation on that at all?

Speaker 2: 25:02

Yeah, it's always safe to repeat or do another program Right. You're always in, it's always enhancing the functionality of the brain, and you know we live in a toxic environment, no matter how clean we try and keep our diets and our environment, and two accidents happen and those types of things can kind of set us back from any progress we may have made in a previous program. So, yeah, it's always an option to you know, revisit more neurofeedback training. We just need a fresh map to get a fresh. You know, look under the hood and see what's going on now and where's our target area and what do we need to work with at this point in time.

Speaker 1: 25:46

Yeah, that would be great Because, like I said, asking for myself, asking for a friend, right? No shame, no shame in needing it again.

Speaker 1: 25:55

Or you know Well, and again, again, I've seen such incredible progress. I just feel like, well, let's, let's give some time for the brain to do its thing, for development to happen, because we know the brain is not done growing until almost age 28, and so let's give some time for some development to happen. Then let's jump back in and see if we can work some things. Sometimes life experiences whether it's an injury or you have a it could be an emotional trauma. Even that emotional trauma is brain trauma, neurotrauma, and so we need to rewire that neurotrauma to not be reactive, in a sense, to triggers or to circumstances or situations, and so it can couple with counseling and everything else like that too. And as a as a therapist, I truly believe in brain healing in all the ways that you can do that. So East Valley naturopathic doctors does more than HBOT and neurofeedback. We talked a little bit about that last time.

Speaker 1: 26:54

I've had, with Trevor, the stool sample, but we did it and it was incredibly valuable. In fact I had. I submitted it to his GI doctor and they're like how did he even get those? We wouldn't test for this. And I'm like, well, I'm so glad I went to someone else, because I would have constantly been fighting inflammation in my son and the inflammation wasn't going to go anywhere because I wasn't treating the right thing Right. And so the stool sample. We now treated the two parasites and we've seen turnaround from that. We've talked about his vitamin levels. We know he has an egg allergy, but it's not the anaphylactic kind, so the regular doctor didn't catch that, those kinds of things. So what is it that East Valley naturopathic doctors offers in addition to these two lovely therapies?

Speaker 2: 27:41

Right. We do specialty labs. We can even do genetic testing. The doctors have access to nutritional counseling and support. That's huge. If a child has gluten, dairy, sugar sensitivities, that's like the worst because it's so hard to eliminate those. But a lot of you know you need help and guidance. Well, what can this child eat without aggravating the system?

Speaker 1: 28:09

If someone says, eliminate gluten, you walk out in the world and that is strangely hard to do, but once you get used to it with guidance, it becomes super easy. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Yeah, so yeah, there's no going back, because once you see the benefit it's like oh, I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole, right? Yeah, cleaning up the environment we have educational series on our website. It's hidden, it's hard to find, but at the very top of our homepage there's a calendar tab and if you click on that you'll find a calendar of events and we have different educational series like cleaning up toxins in your home and in your diet, or breathwork classes. Soon we're going to be adding other nutritional classes, cooking classes, all kinds of things. So it's always fun to just check out the website. It's a living document. It always has new things added to it. But yeah, we have lots of services.

Speaker 2: 29:08

Meeting with the doctor first, like I said in the beginning, when you do your initial appointment, you get the brain map and you review with Dr Porter. Initial appointment you get the brain map and you review with Dr Porter. He can call for labs that you know to test for other underlying infections that may be present that you're unaware of. We do a lot of testing for Lyme mold exposure. Pans, or PANDAS, is another big one. That's a big one Really. Just it throws people for a loop and you just don't know what to do, and neurofeedback is helpful for that too, as well as you know. You got to get that infection under control, so it does become a very dynamic experience, just with the labs alone.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Yeah, and that actually reminded me that when we started with you guys and part of the labs we discovered Trevor, really and I'm probably going to butcher this because I forgot to look it up before we talked about it but something with this fungal count was really high and or off, or I forgot how they put it. But first thing he asked, dr Porter asked me was he said he goes has your son had a lot of antibiotics? And I was like, oh Lord, yes, let me tell you, you know, and it's ear infections and sinus infections, because he has a cranial facial abnormalities. Just on and on and on and on. He'd been on antibiotics probably since at least four or five months old through his life. Every time he went into surgery they pump you with an antibiotic, every time, you know. So it's like and that's the go to treatment for just about anything that is an illness with a kid is an antibiotic. And so I was like oh, yes, he's had a lot. And he's like well, your bacteria and your fungus balance each other out in your body and if you've killed off your bacteria this many times, we've got some high fungal counts and so that's causing inflammation and we treated that and that brought things down and changed the brain map again.

Speaker 1: 31:01

And so there's just so much that I believe in utilizing multiple doctors. You know, your primary care doctor, your GI doctor, you have to have a team, and a naturopathic doctor should absolutely be part of that team, because you're looking at something from a completely different angle, exactly, yep, and it's so, so important and it really is a non-side effect holistic angle, right, and I love that about you. So last question for you today Are there any specials that your office is offering at this time? Yes, yeah, are there any specials that your office is offering at this?

Speaker 2: 31:35

time. Yes, yeah. So anybody who calls in wants to visit the office and make an appointment with the doctor, we'll give them $50 off of an initial brain map. And, like I mentioned earlier, when you do an initial brain map, that includes a one-hour visit with the doctor, porter, and so that's a significant savings. And when you do the two together because they are offered individually if you're kind of on the fence about well I don't know that I need a brain map, I just want to see the doctor You're saving over $200 by doing the two together. Initially it's a huge savings, and then you'll save another $50 off the top of that.

Speaker 1: 32:17

So, yeah, I just mentioned you heard about us on the special parent podcast and we'll happily apply that discount and your website has so many other resources and Dr Porter also does a lot of talks on different topics, so you can find those on the website. So go to your website, find all the resources and I joked about last time. The only resource on the website is you.

Speaker 2: 32:43

I know. Well, maybe a clip of this will get on there, or I don't know. There we go.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I love that idea, we'll see. Well thank you so much, Sherry, for joining us and talking to us about these therapies that there's so much research backing it but yet it's not well known out there in the community and I'm hoping to get it out there to help all of the kids and therefore their parents, yeah, so thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 33:04

I'm happy to be a part of that, spreading the good news that there is something that you can do about these issues and help support these kiddos and yeah, therapies that are not medication.

Speaker 1: 33:17

It's really, really helpful. So, thank you so much, my pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to seeing you again and remember you've got this. This program is made possible by friends and partners of the Special Parent Podcast. For more information and to join our mailing list, visit specialparentorg.