Brain Injury Program
Have you experienced a serious concussion, stroke or other form of traumatic brain injury (TBI)?
If so, your cognitive functioning might have been affected, including your concentration and attention, learning and memory, self-regulation, concentration, speech and language, processing speed, reasoning, planning and problem-solving. This in turn can directly impair your ability to work, communicate, maintain relationships, and/or carry out daily tasks that were once routine. You may have to rely on others to help you get through the day.
If you experience some of these challenges, your psychological health may also be affected. You may feel worried and frustrated with your decreased ability to do some of the things that you could previously do with ease, you may feel more anxious, become less confident in your abilities, tire faster, or you may feel depressed and isolated with the change in your abilities. You may also be experiencing trauma from the incident that resulted in your brain injury.
At Insight Effectus, we will help you to re-build, as much as possible, your cognitive and functional abilities and to gain new skills to compensate for what was lost. We will also help you to deal with the psychological issues associated with your brain injury or any other psychological or relationship issues in your life. Ultimately, we aim to help you regain a noticeable degree of your mental functions and your independence.
There are various factors that can affect the duration and extent of a person’s cognitive recovery, including the severity of the injury, age, pre-existing medical conditions or other complications, as well as access and response to treatment. Fortunately, there is growing evidence to show that the brain can reorganize and rewire around damaged areas, meaning that many people with brain injury can recover[1] to some degree[2] and more so for those with mild TBI.[3]
Due to the different rehabilitation needs that may exist, we may work with other specialists such as physicians, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapist to facilitate your recovery.
What to expect from the brain injury program
In this program you will receive:
- A full Baseline Assessment with Jaci Freeman
- Cognitive-perceptual training sessions
- Counselling for you or your family, which will be tailored to support you emotionally and psychologically. This can include support in stress management, grief/loss, anxiety, depression, dealing with trauma and more.
- Extensive options for multi-dimensional testing, results, interpretation, and recommendations tailored to your specific needs.
- Support and maintenance
*NOTE: The number of sessions may vary depending on your needs.
Benefits of the brain injury program
The intended outcome of this program is to reduce traumatic brain injury related symptoms while improving your cognitive abilities including focus, memory, brain processing speed, eye-hand coordination and visual processing allowing for neuroplasticity to occur. (Neuroplasticity – also called brain plasticity or neural plasticity – is the ability of the brain to basically re-wire itself to respond to damage or impairment by building new pathways between neurons to compensate for lost functions).
Our aim is to see neurological improvement from the time at which the baseline assessment was taken.
Features of the brain injury program
- Cognitive-perceptual assessment, used to identify specific areas of cognitive functioning impacted by brain injury
- Cognitive-perceptual training targeted towards correcting impairment in areas of cognitive functioning identified through the assessment process
- Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is an effective, research-backed, non-invasive process in which a focused magnetic field stimulates under-active brain cells, activates them to work more efficiently and transforms lives through symptom reduction. rTMS can be particularly effective when used to treat severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, chronic pain, migraines, post concussion symptoms, and burnout that has not fully responded to conventional treatments (medication/therapy).
Contact Insight Psychological to learn more about this program.
[1] Sophie Su YR, Veeravagu A, Grant G. Neuroplasticity after Traumatic Brain Injury. In: Laskowitz D, Grant G, editors. Translational Research in Traumatic Brain Injury. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor and Francis Group; 2016. Chapter 8. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK326735/
[2] D. Neumann and A. Lequerica (nd). Cognitive Problems after TBI. In collaboration with the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center: https://msktc.org/tbi/factsheets/Cognitive-Problems-After-Traumatic-Brain-Injury
[3] Orman J.A.L. Epidemiology. In. In: Silver J.M, McAllister T.W, Yudofsky S.C, editors. Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury. Virginia: American Psychiatric Publishing.; 2011. pp. 1–22.
