ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Psycho-Educational Evaluations:
The staff at RPS have performed thousands of psycho-educational evaluations. Their expertise in this area is outstanding. The evaluation process includes obtaining a thorough history of the presenting problem and the individual's development. The test battery to be administered is designed specifically to focus on the presenting issues with the aim of developing specific strategies to help with the identified problem. All evaluations include a review of the results and an easily understood report, which includes all the gathered data.
For more information regarding psycho-educational evaluations, the following link is recommended:
Psychological Evaluations:
Dr. Ronald Raymond has extensive experience in the area of psychological consultation and psychological evaluations designed for diagnostic and treatment interventions. A psychological consultation or evaluation can help a person to better understand their behavior, emotional experiences, and reactions, as well as providing valuable information and suggested strategies for the treating clinician. A psychological evaluation or consultation may involve discussions, and at times, the administration of various objective and projective tests.
Click on the following sites for more information on psychological evaluations:
Neurofeedback is a brainwave (EEG) training process. This technique gives the individual a picture of how their brain is functioning. When this is understood, it allows the development of specific skills to change brain activity in the direction of improving performance at school, or work and to gain a better sense of well being.
The brain can be understood as an electrical instrument that works on microvolts and various frequencies, which are commonly referred to as Brainwaves. The brain's activity determines all feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Neurological research demonstrates that many of the imbalances felt in life can be related to an imbalances in the brain's electrical frequencies. Certain frequencies and microvoltage within those frequencies account for different emotional and behavioral states.
A person cannot reliably influence their brain wave patterns without knowing what is happening in the brain. However, when a person can see their brainwaves on a computer screen, it enables them to influence and change them.
Neurofeedback is a non-invasive technique. By using sensors that are placed on the scalp, the brainwaves that may account for the presenting issues can be observed and monitored.
During the neurofeedback session the client sits quietly with several noninvasive sensors on the scalp, and hears and sees signals that represent the processing activity of the brain. The experience for the client is often a “Harry Potter” type. The individual becomes the mouse or joystick while playing a computer type game that modifies behavior in the desired direction.
At RPS we have been successful in using neurofeedback for the treatment of ADD, ADHD, Hyperactivity, Depression, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors, and Pain management.
Click on the following sites for more information on neurofeedback:
Biofeedback:
The best way to understand the term “biofeedback” is by breaking it into the two parts that make up the word. “Bio” means the biology of the body, "Feedback” means getting information about what the body is doing. Feedback is obtained through the measurement of muscle tensions, body temperature, cardio-vascular flow, and many other aspects of our physiology. Getting the feedback provides the first step in learning how to modify the particular area of concern. We all respond to the world on many different levels, through thoughts, emotions and behavior. These are always inter-related. For example, the connection between thoughts, emotions and muscle tension is well documented, and often difficult for a person to recognize and understand. Biofeedback helps a person modify the interaction between what is going on mentally and the reaction in a particular body system. Biofeedback enables the person to learn to detect even low levels of tension associated with certain thoughts or emotional feelings. Once recognized, the person can learn ways of modifying the body's reactions that are out of balance and creating a sense of discomfort.
Biofeedback has proven to be one of the most effective ways of helping with the effects of stress, anxiety, and depression. It is a structured technique that provides immediate information on how the individual’s perception of events in their life are affecting their mental and physiological response.
The biofeedback therapists at RPS have effectively used biofeedback to modify general stress levels, to alleviate the symptoms of TMJ, Raynauds, sleep interferences, and to learn anger management techniques, to alleviate headaches, and to reduce anxiety.
Click on the following sites for more information on biofeedback:
Audio Visual Entrainment (AVE):
Altering brain wave activity is a well researched and documented form to aid in the treatment of psychological and physiological disorders. AVE affects brain wave frequencies in a similar manner to traditional neurofeedback. The difference is that the changes made through AVE occur passively, as compared to neurofeedback, which requires the person to actively participate in modifying the amplitude and power of various brainwaves. AVE utilizes an electronic device that provides rhythmic light and sound pulses in certain frequencies that help activate, synchronize, and train various brain waves. AVE can create deep relaxation, meditation or enhanced activation, and help to reach peak perforamnce. Entrainment is the process of attaining the various possible brain states that would move a person toward their goal.
For further information on audio-visual entrainment use the following links:
Hypnotherapy:
Hypnotherapy helps to re-program patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior that create a sense of discomfort. Dr. Raymond has successfully used hypnotherapy to help people conquer irrational fears, phobias, interfering habits, negative thinking, and addictions. Hypnosis creates an enhanced state of awareness. Hypnosis enables a deep state of relaxation during which the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is revealed to the person and therapist.
When in a hypnotic state, the therapist is able to suggest thoughts, feelings and lifestyle modifications, which become firmly planted in the conscious control portions of the brain.
Hypnosis, as used in hypnotherapy, releases the body from conscious control during the relaxed trance-like state, breathing becomes slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate usually falls to a healthier level. Changes along neural pathways and hormonal channels can result in an aleviation of various unwanted thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Dr. Raymond and Mrs. Raymond are both certified hypnotherapists, trained in the Eriksonian approach to hypnosis, and have been using the techniques of hypnotherapy for over thirty years to help people with a varity of emotional and behavioral issues.
For further information on hypnotherapy and hypnosis use the following links:
Psychotherapy:
If you asked ten randomly chosen people for their definition of the term psychotherapy, you would very likely get ten different answers. For many, the term psychotherapy still produces an image of a bearded man holding a pipe to his lips sitting in a comfortable chair with a patient reclining on a couch talking to him. Scenes like this do continue to take place, but the psychoanalytic model of Freud, as depicted above, is rare and never takes place at RPS. Dr. Ron Raymond defines psychotherapy as an interaction between himself and his client (not patient) that permits the client to share areas of concern in a nonjudgmental relationship. The goal of therapy is to help the client arrive at understanding and resolving the troublesome issues. Dr. Raymond 's approach is as a Humanistic psychotherapist who actively helps the client reach his/her goal. Many people continue to believe that seeking psychotherapy is a sign of weakness or as having a “mental disorder.” Dr. Raymond helps to remove that stigma by emphasizing to his his clients that “only the strong walk through this door.” Dr. Raymond has been trained in many different psychotherapy approaches and spent five years in his own analysis, which he believes is one of the most important tools he brings to the psychotherapeutic interaction. He has been trained in Humanistic Psychotherapy, Existential Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy...
For more information on psychotherapy go to the following links:
EMDR:
Increased Awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has developed by the number of miltary personel who suffer this impairment. However, this awareness has also resulted in an increased appreciation for the amount of trauma that many non-military people have experienced. All of the therapists at RPS are committed to the belief that each person has experienced a series of traumatic events, throughout what can be considered a “normal” life. Our philosophy at RPS is that those, many of them regarded as minor to others, but significant to the individual, often result in discomfort and stress producing ways of interacting with the world.
After many years of approaching the issues of PTSD with traditional psychotherapy, the therapists at RPS have adopted a new way of helping people cope with, and understand the effects of the various traumatic situations they have encountered. The new technique is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR incorporates the wisdom of other therapies. The recall of all past evens is accomplished by accessing some visual image related to that event. For example, recall what you ate for dinner last evening, notice that the way you recall it is by getting an image relating to eating that meal. All events are recorded in the visual cortex of the mind, which continues to hold onto the visual images related to that event. Those images include, not only the original picture, but also the sounds, feelings, sensations and thoughts related to that event. Traumas become locked in the brain and can be triggered by many seemingly unrelated stimuli. All of the therapists at RPS have been trained in EMDR and use it as a therapeutic intervention where appropriate. They have found it to be useful for PTSD, Phobias, anxiety, pain management, and any problems that stem from psychological or physical trauma.
For more information about EMDR go to the following sites:
REIKI:
Reiki is an ancient healing method that was developed in Japan. Reiki is a “laying on of hands” technique for stress reduction and relaxation that promotes healing and increased self awareness. It is based on the principle that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us, and is what causes us to be alive. Reiki is an effort to balance internal energy levels. It is important to stress that Reiki is often misunderstood as being a religious type technique. Reiki is not associated with any religion and is also not to be considered “new age.” Reiki is not a massage technique and the healing energy does not come from the practitioner, but is channeled through the practitioner from a higher universal power.
For more information about Reiki go to the following site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfML_ENhac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1RU9aLuCQ