What is Neurorehabilitation?
Dr. Thomas Ryan is a psychologist practicing in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Dr. Ryan specializes in the treatment of mental health problems and helps people to cope with their mental illnesses. As a psychologist, Dr. Ryan evaluates and treats patients through a variety of methods, most typically psychotherapy or talk therapy.... more
Neurorehabilitation is a model of service delivery for individuals who have insults to the brain, whether acquired or traumatic neurological processes with the goal to return the individual to baseline functioning, meaning before the insult or injury. This is a process whereby people disabled by injury or disease process work together with a team of professionals to achieve their optimum physical, psychological, social, and vocational well-being. Oftentimes, because of the individuals perceived loss of functioning, they may encounter psychiatric issues such as anxiety or depression. This form of rehabilitation is a two-way interactive process concerned with addressing deficits resulting from injury or disease. The aforementioned psychiatric issues, if present, issues are addressed with concurrent processes and interventions.
Several factors influence the extent of recovery including individuals' motivation for change, acceptance of select interventions that can engender neuroplasticity and most importantly hard work and repetition The most important factors for neurocognitive recovery include motivation, repetition, age, gender and location of the insult or how the brain is impacted by the disease process. As neuroscience has progressed and studied, issues such as neuroplasticity and neurogenesis have taken the forefront in terms of recovery and rehabilitation. These two terms relate to the brain being able to reorganize and assist in adaptive recovery. This simply means damaged parts of the brain can be reorganized for functional improvement through the rehabilitative process.
For me, as a provider of such services, I utilize a varied approach that incorporates Eastern medicine and Western principles. If psychotropics can be avoided, it makes sense to implement similar interventions that are less invasive with fewer side effects. Eastern medicine has brought us meditation, acupuncture, and a variety of herbal medicine that based on research, has the same efficacy as our psychotropics. Western practitioners generally want to medicate symptoms, but what about the root cause? It makes sense to ameliorate the underlying cause rather than treat the symptoms. My approach is very different as a trained scientist-practitioner. I believe in treating people with various interventional strategies THEY feel comfortable with undergoing. If not, the outcomes will be poor.
Additionally, one of my strengths is addressing SPMI (Severe and Persistent Mental Illnesses.) These disorders include Major Depression with Psychosis, Bipolar Disorder with Psychosis, and Schizophrenia. Oftentimes, these individuals spend multiple times in psychiatric hospitals and never get the appropriate treatment they deserve. Moreover, addiction is a specialty as well. I spent 22 years as a clinical director and administrator for a governmental organization whose primary focus was to address the rampant uptick of substance abuse including the latest trend of including potentially fatal drugs in more benign offerings such as THC and other psychoactive drugs.
In any of the aforementioned areas of rehabilitation, treatment of addictions, or psychiatric disorders, there are select factors that can make individuals successful. Allowing you to not cause resentment, lack of motivation, or aspire for wellness. I am fully aware that interventional strategies to optimize functioning are not easy. However, if you enter into a psychotherapeutic relationship whether for neurorehabilitation or recovering from psychiatric issues or addictions, it does require significant effort. I also understand that depending on where individuals are regarding their willingness and desire to engage to achieve positive outcomes regardless of individual issues this can result in less than optimal recovery.
I have had great success treating neurocognitive disorders such as acquired brain injuries such as hemorrhagic or ischemic strokes, aphasia, Parkinson's, traumatic or acquired brain injuries, Hypoxic events, Quadriplegia from multiple sclerosis, and dementia as well as training many facilities to ensure positive outcomes and utilize appropriate clinical practice parameters. Similarly, individuals with SPMI, have also had great success in terms of engendering positive treatment modalities whether psychotropic medicine combined with psychotherapy and enhancing motivation to decrease dystonic symptomatology.
