An award winning neuroscientist from Harvard, Carl M. Anderson, has joined our healing community. He will be our research director, and he will spearhead leading edge studies to improve the brain.
Carl has co-authored more than 50 scientific papers, and his research has been featured in several top media outlets, including NPR, Time magazine and ABC’s 20/20. His research and program development with CooperRiis will provide data and scientific abilities unmatched by any residential program.
Carl will help launch the Healing Trauma Program, expanding on an emerging effort to help residential clients with mood regulation by strengthening the nervous system and brain functioning. The work is called the CooperRiis Neuro-Enhancement Program (CNEP), and it stems from one of the most significant scientific developments in the last several decades.
That breakthrough involves a treatment called “neurofeedback,” which has been highlighted by media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Newsweek. Neurofeedback is an interactive way to improve how the brain functions.
Computers can transform brain activity into what appear to be music or video games, for instance. Certain brain activities will pause the music or make the game sputter, while other activities allow the music and games to continue. This helps brains self-heal, similar to the way someone would see themselves in a mirror and immediately straighten their posture.
Since we started CNEP in 2014, we’ve used neuro-enhancement with 45 residents, helping them significantly improve in ways such as reasoning, executive functioning, complex attention and social acuity. Over several months, residents often reported that neurofeedback helped reduce their anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances and the effect of past traumas – which often spurs depression, substance abuse and psychosis.
We have presented those results at two national conferences.
Hiring Carl also marks a rare collaboration between mental health clinicians and neuroscientists. CooperRiis will now combine the best of relationship-centered care with the best of cutting-edge science. We’ll have the most advanced approach available for helping those with trauma heal and thrive.
“We will look back at this time,” Carl says, “and recognize it as a turning point for the world of mental health care.”
