31st July- 5th Aug 2008 including Pre and Post-conference Workshops - Invited Speakers and Workshops                                        

Dr. Tom Collura PhD

Dr. Donald Moss PhD

one hour Conference presentation (Sun 3rd of August)

Title: User-Friendly Mind-Body Therapies for Health CareAbstract: Increasingly, patients suffer from disorders produced by exposure to stressful environments and by maladaptive life styles that dispose one to illness. Mind-body therapies reverse the effects of the human stress response and moderate the symptoms of many common medical disorders. Mind-body approaches provide useful adjuncts to mainstream medical care. In many cases fairly minimal interventions, of brief duration, can make significant differences in the patient’s symptoms and quality of life. Dr Moss will identify a wide range of medical diseases and conditions, for which such mind-body interventions have demonstrated effectiveness.

One Day post-conference Workshop:
Monday 4th of August 2008 (9.00am-5.30pm)

Title:  Pathways to Illness, Pathways to Health: Applications of Mind-Body Medicine to Common Medical Disorders.
Abstract:  This workshop provides a comprehensive mind-body framework for intervening with medically ill patients, based on the Pathways to Illness paradigm (McGrady & Moss, in preparation). Sixty to seventy percent of patients entering primary care present complaints which would benefit from mind-body intervention. The majority of these patients receive routine medical care, including medical testing, medication, and/or referral to a medical specialist. Those referred to mental health specialists frequently refuse referral, and become more focused on medical/physical causes and solutions.  Yet if given a choice, many of these patients will seek out complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, many with no documented effectiveness.  

• This workshop advocates a comprehensive model for integrating behavioral, behavioral, psychophysiological, and lifestyle changes into health care.

• The model begins with a presentation of the Pathways to Illness paradigm, illustrating specific life style choices, environmental conditions, psychophysiological mechanisms, and cognitive/affective dysregulation processes, which lead the individual to the illness condition.

• The workshop then proceeds to describe a comprehensive assessment which identifies the patient’s individual pathway to illness:  genetic, lifestyle, nutritional, and psycho-physiological factors which dispose the patient to illness. 

• The emphasis is on identifying turning points and choices, which are amenable to voluntary control and self-regulatory change strategies. 

• Finally, patients who understand the pathways that brought them to illness are more motivated to walk the pathway toward health.

• The workshop will highlight the development of a prescriptive individualized pathway for health, including facing difficult behavioral and life-style changes.  Mind-body therapies including biofeedback, hypnosis, and meditative techniques supplement lifestyle interventions in restoring health.

Dr Moss will briefly review the outcome literature to identify disorders for which mind-body therapies have demonstrated positive efficacy. Specific applications will be discussed, moving beyond the bounds of typical psychological practice: headache, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and lupus erythematosis. For each of these disorders, life-style, risk behaviors, and psychophysiological patterns will be reviewed, which can contribute to the pathogenesis of disease, and which can also serve as the basis for a restoration to health. Special attention will be given to heart rate variability biofeedback for its expanding applications to a variety of health care problems. 

Workshop Objectives 
At the end of this workshop, attendees will be able to:

1. identify categories of medical patients who respond poorly to routine biomedical treatment,

2. conduct an assessment which identifies the patient’s pathway to illness:  genetic, lifestyle, nutritional, and psychophysiological factors which dispose the patient to illness,

3. discuss strategies to reframe the “pathway to illness” as a potential “pathway to health” for the patient, increasing the motivation and readiness for behavioral and life-style change,

4. summarize which mind-body therapies have been supported by well constructed outcomes research,

5. recognize and understand specific medical disorders, which have been shown to respond positively to life-style change and mind-body therapies, and

6. use case history material, to understand methods for integrating mainstream medical care with the “pathways model,” in an integrative medicine paradigm.

Donald Moss, Ph.D., is the Director of Integrative Health Studies at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco, and is a partner in the Psychological Services Center in Grand Haven, Michigan.  He is Editor of the Biofeedback Magazine, Associate Editor for the journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, and Consulting Editor for the Journal of Neurotherapy, Psychophysiology Today, and the Journal of Phenomenological Psychology.   Dr. Moss has over 50 publications in the fields of psychophysiology, biofeedback, and mind-body therapies, including an edited book (Handbook of Mind Body Medicine for Primary Care, Sage, 2003). He has given lectures and workshops on these topics throughout the world, including recent presentations at the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe. He is also past-president of AAPB.

Dr Rien Breteler, PhD 

one hour Conference presentation (Sat 2nd August)

Title: Brain Processes in Dyslexia and their Consequences for Neurofeedback: A Review of Current Developments and Future Directions. 

About 15% of the population differs from normals in reading and writing ability due to dyslexia, a specific disorder in the language system. The phonological deficit theory concerning decoding and identification of text has received most support. A “dyslexic triad” has been postulated consisting of poor phonological awareness, poor verbal short-term memory and slow lexical retrieval. Recent research suggests the importance of memory load, explaining why most children with dyslexia can correctly repeat one- and two-syllable nonwords. The temporo-parietal system, a system in the left occipito-temporal area, and an anterior system in the inferior frontal gyrus have been suggested to be involved in dyslexics’ problems in reading and writing. Besides, coherence abnormalities between frontal and central/posterior areas appear to play a role.

In the light of these findings neurofeedback treatment research for dyslexia will be discussed. Group studies, including the first randomized neurofeedback treatment study (with Effect Sizes up to 3.0), allow for the estimation of the effectiveness of neurofeedback as a health care intervention. Case studies allow for showing the dynamics of change processes. QEEG-guided neurofeedback, addressing the left occipito-temporal word form area during reading, and coherence, may be one of the most promising interventions for dyslexia of the current century.

One day post-conference Workshop
Tues 5th August 2008 (9.00am-5.30pm)

The QEEG and how to translate it into Neurotherapy protocols for patterns associated with Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and OCD: A Phenotype Approach.

Research has shown that QEEG-guided neurofeedback is superior to the symptom based approach. Initially, normalization of deviant activity was applied in order to decrease a range of complaints. Recently, EEG phenotypes have been suggested. For example, within the low beta-power, high theta-power profile of children with ADHD, sub groups have been identified, having frontal beta spindles or frontal alpha. This variability has been associated with the limited effects of medication.

Although most research concerns itself with EEG power, recently the role of coherence has received more attention. Besides, brain processes in, e.g., depression, anxiety, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and OCD have EEG representations, which have been used in neurofeedback.

The workshop will start with an introduction into EEG, QEEG and phenotypes. Then, the five domains will be discussed. The focus of the workshop will be on hands-on QEEG interpretation and protocol development.

At the end of the workshop the participants will have knowledge about :

1. The morphology of the raw EEG and its importance for QEEG maps

2. How to interpret QEEG maps

3. The various phenotypes and their role in depression, anxiety, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome and OCD .

4. Practiced (limited) hands-on experience in how to interpret Raw EEG

5. How to describe QEEG maps,

6. How to develop neurofeedback protocols in five clinical domains.

Dr. Rien Breteler is a chartered psychologist in the Dutch Health Care system.  He has been Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the Radboud University Nijmegen since 1987. From 2003 and onwards he has been involved in Neurofeedback research and practice. Currently he is president of the Neurofeedback section of the Dutch Psychologists' Association NIP. He is also director of the Neurofeedback curriculum of the Biofeedback Federation of Europe (BFE) (Netherlands).

Rien Breteler is convinced that neurofeedback will be able to make a considerable contribution to mental and physical health care, in particular where psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are inadequate. This trend may already be seen in ADHD treatment. An increasing number of parents prefer neurofeedback due to the side-effects of medication. Rien Breteler is involved in various studies concerning the conditions for effective application of neurofeedback.