Drake’s Neurophysical Training Program – N.P.T.

The Neurophysical Training Program reflects what has been learned after 27 years and caring for over 10,000 patients. We are seeking long term, deep neurological change and we have set up our Neurophysical Training Program to that end.

Unlike programs based on temporarily regulating brain patterns that are needed for required levels of attention, we are looking for long term change without ongoing treatment.

Drug therapy is clearly temporary symptom relief. What may be less obvious is that some other treatments that appear to be similar to ours can often be temporary as well.

We seek long term change in the brain’s capacity, without side effects. To accomplish this we have our N.P.T. program which includes all the necessary factors required to meet this goal in the least amount of treatment time possible, with the best results. This is possible because of the details you will find below that are included in our tailor made program, based on all of our successes and limited failures.

The program’s core is the Neurofeedback learned response treatment / training that challenges the areas of the brain not functioning correctly. With most ADD patients a commitment to thirty individualized, fifty-minute training sessions will be sufficient. Hyperactive ADHD and Autism patients will require more treatment, based on the patient’s specific symptoms.

It is essential to integrate this new ability into the patient’s world. For that, we have our N.P.T. assimilation process – and that is where we begin to ensure long term change.

To ensure the best chance for success, we require the thirty session minimum, unless there are additional treatments necessary based on the evaluation. But that is not all we do in our NPT Program. The following list encompasses the components that assist Neurofeedback learned response in becoming a new and available resource for our patients. Before we discharge any patient, we review their new abilities and skills that will need reinforcement through application. Successful integration of the Neurofeedback learned response by usage will improve and strengthen the brain functioning. It will also strengthen, and make available, a more complete response to outside demands, which previously have been a source of failure and frustration.

The Neurophysical Training Program includes these supportive services:

  • Personal Program Coordinator
  • Behavior Modification class and support
  • School contact
  • Education on rights through schools
  • Medication consults
  • Time management class (for adults)
  • Self-esteem building
  • Progress tracking and ratings
  • Parent/patient education
  • Involvement of whole family
  • Spousal support and involvement
  • Complete analysis of previous evaluations
  • Recommendations for further treatment

Our experience tells us a thirty session treatment program for inattentive ADD (more for Autism or hyperactive ADHD) is likely to be enough to teach the Neurofeedback learned response. However, the NPT Program is absolutely necessary to assimilate the response into the patient’s world. If more than thirty sessions are required, the pricing on the additional Neurofeedback sessions are discounted, Drake has a special agreement with the leading manufacturer of the most advanced diagnostic EEG and neurofeedback treatment equipment available. The Drake protocols have been worked out in conjunction with this company so as to limit the amount of time and the number of sessions required to achieve the goals we set and to attain new Neurofeedback learned response capability. Because the Drake’s protocols are Drake specific – not generic – far fewer sessions are necessary and success comes more easily for the patient.

The Neurophysical Trainer administers the Neurofeedback treatment. All of our Trainers receive specific and specialized training at Drake; they are then certified by Drake to implement individualized Neurofeedback protocols, often guided by the results of a Brain Mapping assessment. The efficacy of each treatment session, as ordered by the Medical Director, is reviewed to determine if normal progress is occurring. If not, adjustments are made. In addition, the Drake Clinical Management overseens and reviews sessions for progress; when anomalies are observed, we require our best and most experienced judgments to ensure that Neurophysical progress is maximally occurring for each patient.

 

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dr david velkoff headshot

“David F. Velkoff, M.D., our Medical Director and co-founder, supervises all evaluation procedures and treatment programs. He is recognized as a physician pioneer in using biofeedback, qEEG brain mapping, neurofeedback, and neuromodulation in the treatment of ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and stress related illnesses including anxiety, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure. Dr. David Velkoff earned his Master’s degree in Psychology from the California State University at Los Angeles in 1975, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in 1976. This was followed by Dr. Velkoff completing his internship in Obstetrics and Gynecology with an elective in Neurology at the University of California Medical Center in Irvine. He then shifted his specialty to Neurophysical Medicine and received his initial training in biofeedback/neurofeedback in Neurophysical Medicine from the leading doctors in the world in biofeedback at the renown Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. In 1980, he co-founded the Drake Institute of Neurophysical Medicine. Seeking to better understand the link between illness and the mind, Dr. Velkoff served as the clinical director of an international research study on psychoneuroimmunology with the UCLA School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. This was a follow-up study to an earlier clinical collaborative effort with UCLA School of Medicine demonstrating how the Drake Institute's stress treatment resulted in improved immune functioning of natural killer cell activity. Dr. Velkoff served as one of the founding associate editors of the scientific publication, Journal of Neurotherapy. He has been an invited guest lecturer at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, UCLA, Cedars Sinai Medical Center-Thalians Mental Health Center, St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, and CHADD. He has been a medical consultant in Neurophysical Medicine to CNN, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, Univision, and PBS.”

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