Brain Integration Therapy for Pain Relief
It should be obvious that the opposite of brain integration is a brain unintegrated. This notion of brain integration is especially important for those people living with chronic pain.
Brain Integration – Building Neuroplastic Brain Connections
For over 20 years I've used brain integration methods to change thinking and alter how our brain and body connects. It is our brain that sends messages to get our body to move, therefore by moving we can influence our brain and its neural connections.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand neuroplasticity and the benefit of using contralateral movement to improve brain integration is to use an example.
Here is a case study from clinical research of contralateral movement that reduced pain and increasing range of movement (ROM) that changed fibromyalgia symptoms.
Clinical Research: Contralateral Movement for Chronic Pain Relief
Let me introduce a 50-year-old participant in my clinical research on chronic pain. I shall call her Ms J. She came into my office for her first consultation walking slowly and holding her right arm to her chest, effectively carrying it with her left hand.
She had severe pain in neck and shoulders, especially the right shoulder with radiation down her arm, and pain in both knees.
Nine years previously she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and one year later gave up work and went on the disability pension.
Ms J was depressed, rarely leaving the house during the last year, and had gradually decreased her interaction with family and friends. She was also overweight, so it was a difficult and painful process for her to get onto the massage table, even with help from her companion and myself.
Though it seemed unlikely treatment, contralateral movement, done slowly was started. Cross crawl is the alternate moving of arms and legs, effectively marching on the spot, moving feet and knees up and down while moving arms back and forward.
Ms J needed to do this process lying on the massage table. Because Mrs J was in a lot of pain we started with slight, gentle movements. Ms J moved her hands and forearms; her right hand (couldn’t move more than her hand) while I simultaneously lifted her left leg. She moved her left hand while her companion lifted her right leg.
As we lifted her legs they slowly changed from straight, stiff, and heavy to more relaxed, flexing at knee and hip with a greater range of motion. At the same time Ms J began to increase, unconsciously, her range of movement in her arms.
After getting off the table, again with difficulty, she noticed that her arm was down by her side and feeling quite comfortable.
So why was this process so effective? Mannion, Duorak, Taimela & Muntener (2001) found that improvement in movement appeared to be due to an increased neural activation of the muscles involved in movement. They also state that it is also a “confirmation/encouragement for the patient that movement is not harmful and a foundation on which to build” (p.468).
In Ms J’s case she continued to do cross crawl every day, getting help from others if she was feeling particularly sore. Within three weeks she was driving her car, and for the first time in over a year was able to do housework and made cakes for the extended family.
This is a very interesting example of how contralateral movement can and has resulted in someone saying goodbye to chronic pain and all its associated difficulties.
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Also, more specifically removing the fear of movement, a major component behind chronic pain.
Brain Integration Methodology
For over 20 years I have been including a range of bilateral stimulation methods such as: -
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Contralateral movement.
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Working in the mid field.
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Surrogate body movement.
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Crossing the midline.
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Integrating brain hemispheres.
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Multidirectional eye movements.
Thinking Brain or Feeling Brain
Another example of changing brain integration, we are generally a thinking person or a feeling person to an extent that it affects our whole brain integration.
However, in everyday life we need to be able to bring together our thoughts (cerebral brain) and our emotions (limbic brain) to most activities that we do at home and at work.
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Connecting Brain and Body
The final piece of brain integration I feel is important is that we don't effectively live with our head disconnected from our body. By this strange sentence, I use as an example of a person with severe anxiety. They tend to always be thinking.
By doing integrative physical movements brings their focus to their physical body takes them from being stuck in their mind and in their thoughts.
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In the same way when we have physical pain or long-term chronic pain it can be so challenging that we can almost either be their pain or they have to separate themselves from their pain.
As the brain is our controller, we once again need to focus on brain reintegration to begin to take part in pain management activities.
As I described at the beginning, in the case study, how contralateral movement, an example of brain integration was one of the treatments that helped a woman reclaim her life from years of fibromyalgia.