Mom feels like her son can have a happy and productive life now.

Our son has been diagnosed on the Spectrum with comorbidities of Tourette's Syndrome, ADHD, OCD, Anxiety and DCD. Typically, when an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis is given, they will take away some if not all of the other comorbidities but not in our case. They are all very pronounced. He is a smart young man and we are fortunate that he can express himself through verbal communication. When he was between the ages of 2 and 11, our family life was ruled by making sure our son did not become overstimulated or dysregulated. We could not participate in "typical" family outings. Everything had to be planned and explained days in advanced so that our time outside of our home went as smooth as possible. He was easily frustrated and would immediately see red and lash out, harming anyone or anything in his space. Our son required a lot of support at school from his EA and unfortunately spent way too much time in their "Time out, Calm rooms". After we finally received his final diagnosis at the age of 9, we knew that we needed to continue to push and try anything possible to help him understand and manage his emotional regulation. We knew that if we could just get him to stop for 30 seconds before lashing out that he would be able to recognize his big emotions and then in turn be able to regulate those feelings and maybe learn to walk away to self-calm. We have tried everything- a diet plan set out by a natural path, CBD oil, Essential oils, TRS detox spray etc. I have always felt that if any of these helped even 5 to 10 %, cumulatively, they would have to make a massive difference and help make his days a little better. When our son was 10, I met an Acupuncturist. He introduced me to Neurofeedback and once again it was something that sounded to good to be true but I was intrigued and thought, what if? Like most parents with children on the spectrum, we know there is no cure, no magic pill, but we will always be open for something that will help them navigate their world and make life a little easier for them. As I was looking into Neurofeedback, we had a family incident, where our son exploded and threw a T.V. remote at point blank range at his older brother's face, this was the defining moment where my husband and I decided we would book sessions of NFB in the hopes that it would help. We started NFB when he was 11. After the first 3 sessions we noticed that he was talking more to us. He was actually asking us direct questions and was explaining more of what he was thinking (100% still his own preferred topics) but he was letting us in. He was actually staying at the supper table longer, listening to our conversations. Over those first 10 sessions, the difference in his attention span was unbelievable. He was holding eye contact; he was participating in family conversations and he was willing to try new foods. We were shocked and very pleased for him and our family. Once we switched and began receiving treatments from Jody and Chelsey (Another 10 hours), he was able to pause for a few seconds before hitting the "red zone". I cannot explain how huge this was for us and him. I spent many nights crying and worrying that those few seconds of pause would go away and we would be back at square one. A defining moment throughout his sessions, was the phone call from his strategies teacher asking if there was anything new going on with our son. She was fishing a bit to see if we had started him on any type of medication. They had seen such a change in him at school that she was positive a medication was introduced. I was happy to inform her about NFB and the success we had seen with it. It was about 7 months after we had completed NFB, that we realized, that our son did not have any major explosive moments, and to this day (he is now 13) he has not had one. He gets mad, but its typical of a 13-year-old boy, he is now able to express to us that he needs a break, he is walking away and self-calming, and he is explaining what he is thinking. At 12, our son asked us for anxiety medication. Of course, we complied and talked with his pediatrician and psychiatrist through the Glenrose about this possibility. Once again, we believe that whatever will help make his days better, we are willing to do it! I know in every fiber of my being that if we did not try NFB, he would have never asked. We would still be trying to guess and get him to express himself so we knew how to best help him and would have been trying medication after medication trying to find the best fit. Our one doctor said, it would be an extremely long road to figure out meds for our son because of the Tourettes, ADHD and Anxiety. We had no clue what was driving what. She said, he was a complex mystery. Very scary words coming from a professional but NFB helped shorten that road for my son and I can never thank Jody and Chelsey enough for that. I actually feel like he can have a happy and productive life now. I am always spreading the word on NFB to other families, if I could drive their child there myself, I would!