Its team of licensed professional counselors offer counseling for children, teenagers, adults, couples and families. Located at 17920 Huffmeister Road, Ste. 150, Cypress, the practice also has team members who are certified to provide a new drug-free treatment: microcurrent neurofeedback.
“What microcurrent neurofeedback does is it helps to put the brain back into an environment where it can heal itself,” said Licensed Professional Counselor Rebekah McKinney.
When individuals experience prolonged periods of stress or trauma, their brains can get stuck in fight, flight or freeze. This state of heightened awareness can lead to a dysregulated nervous system, causing many mental and physical symptoms.
Microcurrent neurofeedback can benefit people who experience:
- anxiety
- depression
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- attention deficit disorder
- chronic fatigue
- chronic pain
- migraine
- insomnia or trouble sleeping
- traumatic brain injuries
“It's a fairly new technology and it's non-invasive,” McKinney said. “We use electroencephalography leads and connect those to different parts of the head and the skull to put microcurrents of energy into the brain and into the nervous system.”
This helps the patient’s brain waves become unstuck and allows the patient’s brain to develop a healthier response to stress.
The microcurrents emit significantly less energy than a cell phone, and the treatment is not a painful experience, McKinney said. Many patients say they feel relaxed after receiving microcurrent neurofeedback.
Owner Kristin King compared this treatment to turning off your cell phone when it experiences glitches. When you reset your phone, it is able to function the way it was designed to again, she said.
King said she recommends patients do microcurrent neurofeedback along with talk therapy.
“With neurofeedback helping to heal your nervous system, you're more able to dive into those harder topics in talk therapy,” King said. “Once patients are able to feel more regulated, their tolerance for sitting with [difficult] things is much much greater.”
Most insurance companies do not cover microcurrent neurofeedback, so the team at Sequoia Counseling Center keeps pieces affordable for its patients. The initial intake assessment costs $125 and ongoing sessions cost $100.
At Sequoia Counseling Center, patients engage in passive neurofeedback, meaning they do not have to watch something specific or focus on a specific memory. McKinney said patients can read a book, listen to music or sit and relax.
King said she has personally seen the positive impact of microcurrent neurofeedback in herself and in her family.
“[My daughter] had been on probably five or six different ADHD meds and nothing ever worked,” King said. “[After starting neurofeedback] I noticed immediately she was lighter and less anxious. After about five or six sessions, we started to notice that she could focus in a way that she had not previously been able to.”
Sequoia Counseling Center staff want to be a resource to the Cypress community. They use their social media accounts to share information and mental health resources. In addition, they provide counseling sessions for members of the Cy-Fair fire department through a partnership with the city.
To learn more about microcurrent feedback or Sequoia Counseling Center, visit the practice’s website.
The above story was produced by Multi-platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
