The NeuroHealth Process
Supporting your FND Nervous System with Knowledge and Kindness
Through mindfulness and resilience-based practices, your nervous system becomes more regulated, creating the conditions for Functional Neurological Symptoms to improve and potentially resolve.
Mindfulness and Resilience-Based Practices at the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth
- Cultivating Safety and Stability – We establish a physically and emotionally secure environment that fosters trust and reduces nervous system activation. Our SMART room offers a seizure-aware setting to explore, play, and create new movement habits.
- Mindful Awareness – We encourage present-moment awareness through relational mindfulness as well as breathing biofeedback, meditation, and grounding techniques.
- Emotional Regulation – We utilize tools such as progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, and somatic movement to help with emotional dysregulation and dissociation often part of FND.
- Autonomy and Choice – We promote self-efficacy encouraging clients to make informed decisions about their healing and well-being.
- Resilience Building – Our focus is to offer knowledge and strengthen nervous system regulation, coping skills, adaptability, and resilience through self-reflection, strengths-based interventions, and positive affirmations.
- Compassionate Communication – We foster trust and connection through active listening, validation, and nonjudgmental language.
- Holistic Integration – We combine a mindfulness-based to CBT with somatic, and expressive therapies for a comprehensive approach to healing.
- Body-Based Healing – By incorporating movement, yoga, sensory processing, and breathwork we help regulate the nervous system and release stored trauma.
- Community and Social Support – We are part of community and encourage safe, supportive relationships and peer connections to promote healing and resilience.
- Self-Compassion Practices – Self-kindness, acceptance, compassion and self-care rituals are key in counteracting shame so often part of FND and fostering inner strength.
- Adaptability and Flexibility – The goal is to foster a flexible FND nervous system. we support clients in recognizing their capacity for growth through brain plasticity and change while adapting to life’s challenges.
- Trauma-Informed Education – We provide psychoeducation about the impact of trauma on the brain and body, empowering individuals with knowledge and tools for nervous system self-regulation.
- Strength-Based Approaches – We are shifting the focus from deficits to strengths, helping clients recognize their inner and outer resources and inherent capacity for healing.
- Expressive Therapies – By utilizing art, music, dance, and journaling as outlets for processing emotions and fostering resilience we allow creativity to be part of the healing journey.
At the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth we offer a six to eight week intensive outpatient program serving clients from out of state as well as Colorado.
The Intensive Outpatient Program can be a very beneficial route to choose for any client who wishes to receive in-depth care on their journey of healing.
The highly personalized and focused in-person NeuroHealth process is preceded by telehealth sessions through a HIPPA-compliant system, as well as follow-up telehealth sessions to help with integration and deepening into the psychoeducational teachings and psychotherapeutic nervous system self-regulation.
Clients often choose to come out to Boulder again after an integration period of several months, to deepen into their ability to regulate the nervous system.
The outpatient program is built around your needs, and in our consultation appointment we will together develop a format that works best for you.
Lodging is NOT provided by the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth, but you may find hotel and/or Airbnb opportunities in and around Boulder to create a holistic experience for yourself.
“There is power inherent in committing yourself to the process of creating health in all levels of your life.” Christiane Northrup, M.D.
How does Somatic (body-based) Psychotherapy help?
The ways that functional neurological symptoms impact your life can be greatly helped by Somatic-based Psychotherapy Sessions. Dr. Moenter treats functional symptoms from a polyvagal based perspective, offering Sensorimotor Psychotherapy as the framework of her treatment.
By working with those states of nervous system dysregulation directly. using Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Dr. Moenter treats clients with FND in a more holistic way. The focus of the sessions is not on achieving “control over” the symptoms but on changing underlying psycho-biological mechanism which lead to those functional changes in the brain experienced by clients with FND.
The loss of control over your body and/or mind and the unpredictability of functional neurological symptoms can have a significant emotional impact on your life.
As a person with FND, you are most likely familiar with feelings of helplessness, depression, anxiety, loss of control, overwhelm, shame and guilt. You might feel as if you don’t fit in and have to depend on others for support and daily care. This is a lot to hold for any person and is especially difficult to deal with when those feelings arise in addition to having FND.
Dr. Moenter, as the lead clinician at the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth, can help.
Over the years, Dr. Moenter has helped many individuals and families to step out of the secrecy, shame, and fear often experienced as a result of their own or a family member’s FND.
In her work with individuals, couples, and families, Dr. Moenter supports and challenges each person in a life-affirming, person-centered, joyful, and mindful way. She will help you explore and transform the challenges many individuals diagnosed with FND know quite intimately.
The Neuro Health Process
The main focus at the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth is to help you master the skill of nervous system regulation. Through relational mindfulness you will learn how to self-regulate your emotions, thoughts, and physical experiences.
Through your work together, Dr. Moenter will help you:
- Learn how to use mindfulness and self-awareness to create a more contemplative “nervous system-friendly” lifestyle.
- Identify pre-symptom warnings, including subtle changes in your physiology, thought patterns, and feeling state.
- Learn stress management techniques individualized to your lifestyle
- Reduce possible symptoms of PTSD, including hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, feeling detached or dissociated, hypersensitivity, irritability or angry outbursts
- Explore ways to self-regulate states of hyper or hypo activation of the nervous system.
- Identify emotional, behavioral, physiological, and environmental challenges and learn how to be with rather than to avoid.
- Discover a greater quality of life while implementing a healthy lifestyle, including: exercise, nutrition, sleep, mindfulness, connection to nature, gardening, community, animal companions, independence, emotional health, and more.
- Recognize and cope with feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger, shame, avoidance behavior, isolation and loneliness, and suicidal thoughts.
Healing Happens
Healing happens on many levels: emotionally, spiritually, and physically. When you develop an understanding of the interconnectedness of your symptoms with other aspects of your life; both in your past and present, you enable true healing to begin.
Let’s explore and understand those influences and de-link them, so you can experience greater emotional freedom, joy, and confidence. Referencing Ron Kurtz, we believe that “the impulse to heal is real and powerful and lies within you…We are not the healers. We are the context in which healing is inspired.”
Contact Dr. Moenter to set up an initial consultation
Unyte-ILS
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
Developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an auditory intervention designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience. Based on Dr. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, by calming the physiological and emotional state, the door is opened for improved communication and more successful therapy. The SSP is a research-based therapy showing significant results in the following areas:
- Social and emotional difficulties
- Auditory sensitivities
- Anxiety and trauma related challenges
- Inattention
- Stressors that impact social engagement
- Regulation of the Autonomic Nervous System
Optimal Resilience
This non-invasive intervention involves listening to music that has been processed specifically to retune the nervous system (regulating state) to introduce a sense of safety and the ability to socially engage. This allows the client to better interpret not only human speech, but, importantly, the emotional meaning of language. Once interpersonal interactions improve, spontaneous social behaviors and an enhanced ability to learn, self-regulate and engage are often seen.
If you are curious and would like to learn more, feel free to call Dr. Moenter at 303.258.1116
Breathing, Stress, and Seizures
Breathing is a behavior essential to human life. The body’s homeostasis, especially changes in arterial carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, is greatly influenced by an individual’s breathing behavior. As early as in the 1930s researchers have been investigating the relationship between breathing, brain waves, and seizure activity.
Chronic hyperventilation, or over-breathing, can trigger and exacerbate functional symptoms.
Chronic hyperventilation is a learned behavior leading to Hypocapnia. Hypocapnia is a CO2 deficiency in the blood and other body fluids, leading to cerebral vasoconstriction. Hypocapnia can trigger and exacerbate a wide variety of physical and functional neurological symptoms including physiological slowing of brain rhythms, interictal discharges, and FND.
Optimal Breathing
Bringing awareness to and regulating your breathing to a level of optimal health can lower functional symptoms.
Many people who over-breathe, which triggers a variety of symptoms such as seizures, are not aware of their behavior. Fortunately, optimal breathing behavior can be learned. At the Boulder Center for NeuroHealth we use Respiratory Biofeedback to teach you about your breathing behavior. We want you to be knowledgeable and empowered to regulate your over-breathing and consequently Co2 levels.
We use the CapnoTrainer® , an educational instrument to identify, evaluate, and teach you about how optimal breathing behavior can positively impact your life. On this journey of breathing education you will learn how to identify your own behavior and how it impacts your emotional and physical health. You will be able to detect deregulated breathing chemistry through experience, notice subtle shifts in your behavior and shift your breathing behavior towards health and optimal body chemistry.
If you are curious and would like to learn more, feel free to call Dr. Moenter at 303.258.1116
An Evidence-Based Solution
Over the past decade, the scientific literature has seen a phenomenal increase in the number and quality of research studies demonstrating the positive impacts of meditation. The success of meditation is directly correlated to a number of biometric ‘indicators’ – of which Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is considered to be one of the strongest.
The base of (formerly) Unyte’s Interactive Meditation program was created by Wild Divine, a true pioneer in mind-body technology, which sold tens of thousands of biofeedback devices in 60 countries over 15 years, and whose products were referenced in over 100 scientific journal articles. Our Interactive Meditation platform is back under the brand of Wild Divine, now partnered with another biofeedback pioneer, Somatic Vision, also referenced in numerous studies and articles.
The Benefits of HRV Biofeedback
HRV is a measure of the variation in time between heartbeats and is considered to be a strong indicator of your meditative state. It has been shown through decades of research that a higher HRV correlates with an optimal, relaxed nervous system state, positive emotions, and improved health.
According to the research, HRV biofeedback may, as part of a healthy lifestyle, help in the following ways:
- • Improve ability to handle adversity or stressful situations
- • Decrease anxiety
- • Stress management
- • Reduce depression
- • Improve responses to anger-inducing stimuli
- • Improve sleep quality
- • Reduce pain
- • Improve gastrointestinal disorder symptoms
- • Improve mood and psychological well-being
- • Help fine-tune skills for optimal sports performance
from: Wild Divine Research – Wild Divine
The combined elements of an ILS program — movement, treated music and bone conduction — help build the foundation for brain and body organization. By addressing brain function at a foundational level, we are better able to become more mentally and emotionally resilient, more effective at school or work, and function in our modern world.
How does the ILS work?
The ILS creates an experience that activates multiple sensory systems to create and strengthen neural connections and networks, harnessing the power of neuroplasticity.
Just like with physical activity, specific, simultaneous and repeated multisensory stimulation gradually trains the brain and body to process and respond to multisensory input more effectively through improved organization, leading to improved function in the world.
The ILS provides multisensory input through filtered classical music, delivered via air- and bone-conduction headphones and movement activities. The ILS activities are fun and can easily be customized for all ages and skill levels.
From: Integrated Listening System for Nervous System Regulation | Unyte
Mirror Therapy
Mirror therapy was first proposed as a potential therapeutic intervention by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran to help alleviate Phantom limb pain, a condition in which patients feel they still have a pain in the limb after amputation.
Ramachandran and Rogers-Ramachandran first devised the technique in an attempt to help those with phantom limb pain resolve what they termed a ‘learned paralysis’ of the painful phantom limb. The visual feedback, from viewing the reflection of the intact limb in place of the phantom limb, made it possible for the patient to perceive movement in the phantom limb. Their hypothesis was that every time the patient attempted to move the paralysed limb, they received sensory feedback (through vision and proprioception) that the limb did not move. This feedback stamped itself into the brain circuitry through a process of Hebbian learning, so that, even when the limb was no longer present, the brain had learned that the limb (and subsequent phantom) was paralysed. To retrain the brain, and thereby eliminate the learned paralysis, Ramachandran and Rogers-Ramachandran created the mirror box.
From: Mirror Therapy – Physiopedia (physio-pedia.com)
Dr. Moenter uses Mirror Therapy as part of her work with one-sided paralysis, limp weakness, or pain syndrome.
Movement Education
Dr. Moenter integrates her over 45 years of experience in dance, yoga, meditation, and mindful and creative movement practices in her work with FND.
One room in her practice is dedicated to exploring mindful movement.
Using protective floor mats allows clients to engage in the body’s natural curiosity re-engaging in less familiar movements such as independently getting in and out of the wheelchair, using wall-mounted ballet bars for support, allowing for sensory-informed play with yoga balls, swinging chairs, and fidget toys.
Playful exploration of voluntary movement is a large component of Dr. Moenter’s work with the FND nervous system, deepening into motor control, and body awareness.
Her mindful movement practices are inspired by teachers such as Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Francisco Kaiut, Aline LaPierre, Pat Ogden, Gabrielle Roth, and those many people she has shared a dance and yoga floor with.
Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) is an innovative therapy designed to support children and adolescents who have experienced complex trauma. It focuses on improving emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal regulation by utilizing therapeutic equipment such as weighted blankets, balance beams, fitness balls, and large cushions. These tools are used in shared play to support natural self-regulation, facilitate attachment-building, and allow for the embodied processing of traumatic experiences.
The treatment blends movement and relationship-building to regulate arousal states and powerful emotions, engaging both subcortical and cortical neural pathways to enhance psychological and behavioral integration. Additionally, SMART expands a child’s capacity to tolerate positive and negative emotional states and to build interpersonal connections, promoting healthy development.
SMART has been recognized as an Evidence-Based Practice by the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness and as a Promising Practice by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)/SAMHSA, meeting SAMHSA guidelines for child trauma treatments.
NeuroRehab VR focuses on transforming neurological rehabilitation through virtual reality (VR), using an innovative, patient-centered approach. Their technology leverages immersive VR environments to create highly customizable therapeutic exercises designed to support motor, cognitive, and functional recovery. By engaging patients in interactive tasks that mimic real-life activities, the therapy stimulates neuroplasticity and promotes recovery in a motivating and enjoyable way.
The VR exercises are tailored to each patient’s specific needs and goals, allowing clinicians to dynamically adjust difficulty levels and track progress in real time. This personalized approach ensures that therapy remains challenging yet achievable, optimizing outcomes for conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological disorders. By combining evidence-based rehabilitation techniques with the engagement of VR, NeuroRehab VR enhances both the effectiveness and accessibility of neurological therapy.
Dr, Moenter focuses on our healing presence as clinicians by practicing self-care, balance, and joy in our work.
Start your journey to a healthier nervous system NOW. Call or email to set up your initial consultation. P: 303.258.1116
E: DrAfra@boulderneurohealth.com
About Us
Boulder Center For NeuroHealth – Support for Individuals Diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)