Most 7-year-old children spend their weekends playing, whether outside, or, these days, on a tablet. Kim Brown spent the weekends as a 7-year-old with her family back and forth from Waco to Dallas to be by her brother’s side.
Kim’s brother, Cameron, was born with hydrocephalus, which causes excess fluid buildup in the brain’s cavities.
The fluid surrounding and protecting the brain is called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a colorless substance that protects and cushions the brain and spine. If the flow of CSF is blocked, the consequent buildup can keep the brain from functioning properly. It can cause brain damage and even death.
Just a couple of days after his birth, Kim’s brother Cameron had to have brain surgery.
“At about two days old, he had brain surgery, which in that specific case was to literally drain the water that is on the brain,” Brown said.
“And you know, as a 7-year-old not really understanding why my parents were going to Dallas every weekend to see the neurologist, you know we live in Waco at the time, so many complications were arising and not fully understanding the depth of his condition made me more and more curious and fascinated with brain health.”
For many weeks, when Brown and her family traveled to Dallas for her brother’s treatments, they would stay at the Ronald McDonald House or with relatives in Dallas.
Brown spoke with The Dallas Express about the effect that year had on her. She said she had a growing fascination and curiosity about the brain and how it functions.
“As a child, it just opened up my eyes and my curiosity of neurology and how everyone’s brains are different.”
Her brother’s condition significantly impacted her life and how she treated people going forward. It formed her understanding and compassion for people.
“I think it gave me a big heart, it gave me understanding, it gave me compassion for people who are ‘different,’ and you know my dad was always big on ‘You treat everyone the same no matter what walk of life.’ That is a big piece of who I am,” Brown said, trying to hold back tears.
Her fascination and curiosity about how the brain works guided her studies at college.
She attended Baylor University, earning her bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology and a minor in kinesiology, and is currently studying to get her BCIA Certification for neurofeedback.
She is also the director of QEEG brain mapping and owner of Brain Codes Center Dallas, which provides natural treatments for mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD, insomnia, concussion, and brain trauma injury.
“I remember telling my mom I wanted to be like my brother’s doctor, so here we are working with the brain, just not in surgical gear,” Brown said.
The Dallas Express asked her to explain neurofeedback in simple terms.
“I like to think of it as kind of a gym for your brain,” Brown said. “It’s somewhere where people come, and we do an analysis of their brain, and then we have training sessions to optimize their brain.”
Brain Code Centers provide neurofeedback, also known as neurotherapy, or quantitative EEG (electroencephalogram) biofeedback, a therapeutic intervention that provides immediate feedback from a computer-based program that assesses a client’s brainwave activity.
Neurofeedback tries to help the patient control their brainwaves consciously by measuring specific brainwaves based on the issues being treated.
It monitors your brain for brainwave activity and almost immediately provides feedback, often through visual or audio cues.
For example, a specialist might have you watch something on a screen that is visually stimulating to measure your alpha and beta waves.
The goal is to train the brain to regulate itself and help its owner learn when their brain is in its ideal state.
Some sessions can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
“I would go in for a 45-minute session and get a quick update on how I did since the last session, and my counselor would hook up two little electrodes to the top of my scalp and give me some earbuds to listen to music,” Lesa Allen, a former biometric patient told The Dallas Express about neurofeedback therapy,
“He would turn on the equipment, and I would lay there for about 35, 40 minutes while it did its thing,” she added.
Some of the benefits of neurofeedback therapy are that it helps you manage stress better, can help reduce symptoms of anxiety, help improve focus and attention and help treat PTSD symptoms.
“This was the part that really blew my mind, I didn’t have an expectation for it to help,” Allen said.
“I came out of there after the first session feeling like a limp noodle because it had relaxed me so much and because I’m an anxious person, I grit my teeth a lot, and I was like I can’t, I can’t grit my teeth,” Allen said in a burst of playful laughter.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this relaxed except under sedation before,” she continued.
The Dallas Express asked Brown what she had planned for her business.
“I envision Brain Codes to be a center where we have multiple training rooms where we serve as many kids and adults [as] we can,” she replied.
She added, “I envision that we prioritize brain health, our mental health just as much as we do physical activity.”
