Once considered a treatment for the body, physiotherapy is now being considered brain therapy, as an increasing number of health professionals understand the importance of neuroplasticity.

A new clinic has opened its doors in Queensland, dedicated to doing just that, its aim to change the paradigm of neurological assessment and rehabilitation for people with neurodegenerative conditions or neurodiversity, and others seeking to improve their performance through brain-based training.

The team at Neurofit Brain Centre includes physiotherapists, chiropractors and exercise physiologists who have completed additional training in functional neurology – in other words, the management of neurodevelopmental, neurobehavioral, neurodegenerative and brain/spinal injury disorders.

“Physiotherapy uses many types of physical agents to promote neuroplasticity that is to provide stimulations that enhance nerve cells to fire and interconnect with one another,” explains Neurofit’s Dr Johnson Huang.

“Neuroplasticity is now widely accepted with numerous studies by neuroscientists and is becoming more and more popular amongst different health professions including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, chiropractors, speech pathologists, and exercise physiologists that use various types of activities to improve and change brain functions.”

Dr Huang says physiotherapy traditionally employs various physical agents as modalities to treatments. For example, thermal (or heat), cryotherapy (or ice), electrical stim (such as TENS), light (such as laser), sound (such as ultrasound), and vibration (or massage) most commonly use on muscle, joints, ligaments and tendons.

“Now we are using these modalities with further addition of colour, music, olfaction, and visual stimulations directly to the insufficient parts of the brain to improve its functions,” he says.

The exciting thing about brain therapy is that it works for a wide range of conditions, including

• Neurodiversity: ADHD, ASD, OCD, Tics, Dyslexia, Learning disability, Sensory processing disorders, social dysfunctions, neurobehavioural disorders, developmental delay
• Headache, Pain syndromes, Neuropathy, Vertigo/Dizziness, Balance and disequilibrium 
• Neurodegeneration: Parkinson's, dementia/Alzheimer's
• Traumatic Brain injury and stroke rehabilitation 
• Sports performance

Neurofit Brain Centre’s personalised therapy programs use a combination of evidence-based therapies and holistic methods designed to stimulate the chosen areas of the brain.

Starting with an initial consultation and assessment, patients benefit from identifying areas of the brain that are underdeveloped, under-regulated or under-integrated, and follow a tailored program of targeted activities to strengthen and improve brain function.

Some of those evidence based therapies include brain-based video games and sensory stimulation using sounds, smells and laser eye games.

“We find that neuro-diverse children such as those living with ADHD or Autism have a tendency to face extreme challenges in society today,” explains Mr Huang.

“Common treatments include either medications to suppress symptoms, or ongoing support to alleviate parental stress and help with the management of behaviour issues.”

Currently, there aren’t many services such as those offered at the Neurofit Brain Centre that take a deeper look into the brain to investigate where there may be an imbalance and address its cause.

“When the brain becomes less imbalanced you start to notice changes, and we continue working with these children over the long-term. These improvements have a flow-on effect, enhancing the lives of the child, family, the classroom and the community.

“Brain imbalances are involved in many common conditions like learning difficulties, developmental delays or neurological conditions.

“Many athletes also find that brain-based therapy helps improve their performance by integrating any retained reflexes that may be affecting their coordination or balance.”

Dr Huang says brain-based therapy may well be the future of health care.

“Since the brain governs our body and health, therefore having a balanced and well- functioning brain will offer a better top-down regulation of our entire body system.”