How is a psychophysiology evaluation different?
Mental and psychological problems are very difficult for those who experience them - that much is obvious.
What causes them to occur, however, isn't always obvious.
We know, at least, that they come from the brain and the mind. This is why those who want to help sufferers live better lives ask:
"How can we understand a person's mind?"
Traditional psychology answers this question with "written tests and assessments". They offer personality and behavior evaluations, clinical interviews, IQ tests, and even career or work planning tests.
Each test is useless on its own - the idea is that they all come together to provide a complete picture of a person's mental situation, which is why they have to take all of them.
The stumbling block is that each of these tests along with the interview can take 1-2 hours a piece. This means a person is sitting there in the office for something like 8 hours, not to mention they need to spend thousands of dollars for this service.
For all that time and money, there seems to be one very important thing these psychological evaluations are missing: the brain!
It's so obvious.
Mental issues come from the brain, so wouldn't we want to get a clear picture of how it's working?
While that is the goal of those written tests, a person simply describing what's going on doesn't tell us what may be physically happening with the brain.
Luckily, with modern brain imaging technology, we can see what's happening with the brain - we can see precisely how it's behaving under the circumstances that are causing the person problems.
This is what psychophysiology is all about. We look for the physical basis of any psychological problem. Remember: the brain is an organ too, and mental illnesses are physical illnesses just as much as any other ailment!
Psychophysiology works by administering "tests" directly to your brain. First, we will examine your brain in a resting state, so we get a baseline for how it functions.
From there, we see how the brain reacts to certain sounds or images. We compare these results to a large database of other people so we can figure out what makes your brain unique.
Maybe you feel "spaced out" a lot. Well, instead of just having that symptom written down as in a traditional evaluation, with psychophysiology we can see what's going on in the brain: maybe there are too many slow waves passing over the part that's responsible for focus, for instance.
Psychophysiologists can then create a neurofeedback training regimen that addresses the issue.
You could also try whatever therapy you want and see for yourself how your brain is reacting to it - you'll have physical evidence that shows whether or not it's helping!
People sometimes get discouraged when they try a therapy for a bit but don't see any progress. Oftentimes, there is progress, but it can only be seen in imaging of the brain. When the patients see this for themselves, they become more motivated until, eventually, they feel the change in their life.
A great example of this is when we use muscle sensors for people who are re-learning to use their limbs after a stroke.
They try and try to move their arm, for instance, but just can't and become discouraged.
We show them that the muscle is responding, that electrical signals are bouncing back - they're just not strong enough, yet.
This helps the patient to keep going with the exercises until, finally, their arm or leg can move freely again.
Psychophysiology also shows us that it's not uncommon for someone to think they have one problem, say, ADHD, but are actually experiencing another problem such as epileptic discharge. Since a regular psychologist is only going off of symptoms, they might think the person has ADHD, too! Only brain imaging can discover these kinds of issues.
Compared to traditional psychological evaluations - which may run between $3,000 and $5,000 - psychophysiological evaluations are relatively cheap. They usually run somewhere between $600 and $1,500, depending on how much "brain information" the patient wants or needs.
We don't want to downplay written tests here - they definitely can help! PsychCentral has articles describing each type, and you should definitely check those out.
Rather, we - and many others - feel that they're missing something.
If you're experiencing psychological problems, it's important that you feel confident in whatever approach you take.
You're looking for answers, but first you'll have to consider a question: which method will give you answers that are actionable, answers that tell or show you how your problems can be solved?
Both can help, but only one literally looks at the physical source of those issues: the brain.