Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast

How Targeted Neurotherapy Can Restore Focus For ADHD

• Dr. Heather Putney • Episode 12

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How Does Neurotherapy Help With ADHD?

What if ADHD isn’t a focus problem, but a regulation problem your brain can learn to solve? We open the hood on neurotherapy and show how brain mapping turns a broad diagnosis into precise, personalized care. Instead of chasing symptoms, we reveal the electrical patterns underneath—overarousal that fuels anxiety and reactivity, slow frontal rhythms that drag on attention, and mixed profiles that explain why some people “fail meds.”

We walk through the core ADHD profiles we see on EEG and how each one guides treatment, from calming fast, edgy networks to energizing sluggish regions that need a gentle push. You’ll hear how targeted stimulation, LED light therapy, and pulsed electromagnetics can be layered to nudge the right circuits while avoiding global side effects. For kids, that means shorter, comfortable sessions and smart distractions to help them sit still; for teens and adults, it often includes executive function tasks during stimulation so gains stick in real life.

We also tackle the “imposter” profiles that look like ADHD but aren’t: paroxysmal activity, absence seizures, and sleep disorders like apnea or restless legs. Brain mapping helps us spot red flags, coordinate referrals to neurology or sleep medicine, and protect clients from the wrong treatment. When neurotherapy is indicated, it pairs powerfully with coaching and psychotherapy—better regulation adds the pause that lets skills work, leading to calmer moods, improved reading and academics, stronger task initiation, and fewer meltdowns.

If you’re ready to move beyond trial-and-error and get strategic about your brain health, start here. Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more people find practical, science-driven care for ADHD.

To learn more about Transformative Neurotherapy visit:
https://www.TransformativeNeurotherapy.org
Transformative Neurotherapy
570 Lincoln Ave.
Bellevue, PA 15202
412-204-7397

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with your host, Dr. Heather Button, founder and executive director of Transformative Neurotherapy. This is the place where healing happens faster. Because let's face it, your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual until now. Here we take a holistic approach to brain health, bringing together science, mind-body harmony, and the tools you need to optimize your well-being. Whether you're a high performer, executive, athlete, longevity hacker, or just someone tired of your brain working against you, Dr. Butney is here to help you unlock your full potential. From brain fog to chronic stress, we're covering it all. So you can finally experience brain health, mind heart, and total well-being. Ready to get on stock? Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01:

ADHD isn't just about distraction, it's about regulation. Dr. Putney shares how neurotherapy helps clients build focus, calmness, and confidence without relying solely on medication. Welcome everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer in the studio with Dr. Heather Putney, founder and executive director of transformative neurotherapy. Dr. Heather, let's just dive in. How does neurotherapy help with ADHD?

SPEAKER_02:

Neurotherapy is, I part of me feels like neurotherapy is designed for ADHD. But that also might be because it's one of the reasons why I sought out the training. Myself, I I have ADHD and it's highly genetically linked. So I've got two neurospicy children as well. And I was looking for, in in addition to helping some of my other clients get unstuck, um, I was also looking for some non-medic non-medication approaches to help balancing the brain. So for myself, like I was able to kind of manage and learn some supportive skills like growing up and I and I wasn't medicated. But then I have two neurodiverse boys and they look different, you know. So every ADHD person, they say if you've met one person with ADHD, you've met one person with ADHD. The flavors are a little different, the manifestations are a little bit different. So then when my kids hit school age, it was kind of like it was kind of like off the charts. And what could, you know, how can we support them? Because they didn't manage things and the same, the same executive functioning supports that worked for me did not work for them. And so we had to kind of start thinking outside the box. And so that kind of drew me in to exploring um neurotherapy as an option. And what's beautiful about it is it works wonderfully to help to help balance brains with ADHD.

SPEAKER_01:

And what are some of the core brain patterns that you do see in your patients with ADHD?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's that's one of the kickers with ADHD. And I've talked about how one of the big things we do with neurotherapy is we start out with that assessment. And so when you are, you know, when you get a kid in or an adult in with ADHD symptoms, you know, they can present very differently. So the symptoms can look fairly similarly. Sometimes they tend to be more ADHD eye, which is the inattentive, so they're jumping in, this, that, and the other, or you have the hyperactive, the kids that can't stand in their seat, maybe a little bit more emotionally reactive, or sometimes you have the combined pattern. That's what you're going to see in the DSM 5, you know, the kind of diversity there. But when it gets to brain patterns, it's a completely different scenario. So there's kind of eight main profiles of ADHD brains, and then there's about four of them that create ADHD symptomology, but it's actually got a completely different, more like kind of medical cause, so it can create some of those symptoms, but it's actually something else and it needs to be intervened in differently. So one of the most beautiful things about being able to understand ADHD and treat ADHD is that we can get specific because the sentence can look very simple similar, but the etiology, which is the like underlying cause, is different. So, for example, one common profile with ADHD, and it also has it has an overlap with addiction and it has an overlap with anxiety, is a low, like a low voltage, uh, which is a lower power with a lot of fast and the extravagan, a little over aroused profile. And so those adults and kiddos can be more, they're feeling a little bit anxious, a little bit more agitated, don't have enough calm and chill. And that's actually a more genetic profile because they the their brain tends to produce a little bit more GABA A receptors, which pulls out the common chill neuro GABA in our brains. And so they're feeling a little bit more edgy, you know, so they just can be a little bit more reactive. And when you're feeling like that, you might tend to be drawn to things that will help self-medicate. So, you know, if you get older, you know, you might reach for alcohol, which will calm and you know, calm the brain down. And so you end up like being drawn to certain things that that kind of help you take the edge off, right? So that's one of the reasons why it tends to be it can be an addictive profile because you know, people are drawn to things that you know, they just notice all this works for me, I feel a little bit more calm because my baseline is just a little bit hyper-aroused, right? So that's one common profile. Another profile, uh by the way, that profile, if you put that ADHD, highly distractable kid on a stimulant, it's going to rev their brain up more. That could create more anxiety. It rarely it rarely turns out well. So then you see ADHD and you think, oh, stimulant. This group doesn't do so well on the stimulants. Okay. So let's switch to another very common profile with ADHD. And it has some sort of slow wave pattern going on, usually in the frontal, in the frontal regions or this or the midline. So like more of a theta pattern. And so the brain just is it's a little groggy, it's a little slow, you know, and that part of the brain, those certain parts of the brains need a little speeding up. Those kids do respond pretty well to stimulants, but you know, we can also you make we can also treat that with neurotherapy to help just kind of like boost this area, get it running a little faster, a little bit more seamlessly. And so we can kind of, you know, treat that that way as well. But sometimes what people are looking for is with the scans, is like, well, if we were to medicate, because things are off the chart, they're failing out of school or this, that and the other. If you were to do that, which medication would work better? And and this can kind of guide which medication choice you may use if you're going to do that, or if you need to do that in the beginning while you start neurotherapy, and then then they start to get more balanced and you want to and and you want to wean off, that can work as well too, as long as we're working closely with the you know, the providers or the prescribers, the psychiatrists or the PCPs. So we don't do any medication prescribing, but you can come in and be on ADHD medications or a combination of things, and that doesn't change whether or not you can get help from neuro from neurotherapy because it's very targeted. Another profile that we see a lot with ADHD is maybe these kids have come in and they've tried, they've tried stimulants, they've tried, you know, a variety of things and they failed a lot of different medications and they're still really suffering. Sometimes what we see is they've got complex brain patterns. They've got part of their brain that's revved up a little too fast and part of their brain that's working a little slower. So what generally happens with medications is they tend to do one of two things. They tend to speed up the brain or calm the brain. And when you're putting it in, and when you're taking medication, it kind of puts it in your and that's oversimplified, but you know, for but for the general population, I think that's a good enough explanation. But when you're taking a medication, it's systemic, it's going to impact all the for all you know, all the brain globally. So when you've got these people, these mixed characteristics, like their frontal lobe is running a little faster, they're highly distractable, this, that, and the other, but some of the, you know, they've also got some slower processing stuff down the middle, in the midline. Um, they tend to fail medications and they're still suffering. So what's beautiful about neurotherapy is we can actually soothe that kind of that faster wave, like give it some calm and chill, you know, and then work down the midline or whatever area that the the EEG indicates, so the brain maps indicate, needs a little bit of, you know, speeding up and you know, strength training really for those spots. So it works really, really great for, well, it works great for everybody, but for those clients that have just failed meds, failed meds, failed meds, it works exceptionally well because we can give them exactly what they need, exactly where they need it. And the medications just can't target it like that.

SPEAKER_01:

So and I I appreciate what you said too, that all the ADHD, you know, patients, they're everybody's different. And we're not, you know, whoever has it is not just a number to you. And I really appreciate that too, that everybody's treated like an individual. And with that, you know, how do you tailor the session to the different um patients that walk in? You have kids and adults coming in and and you know, with different severity levels or whatever it may be. How do you tailor the session when somebody walks in like the first time and they're like, I've been diagnosed, help me.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I tailor the sessions by starting with the scan and the report, so I know the exact treatments, the exact frequencies, the exact placement before I even go to touch their head. And it's not so different between the adults and the kids. The intensity at which we give the, like when we're working with the electrical stimulation, there's a certain level of intensity of the frequencies, not the frequencies, but the the power of intensity we use. It may not be as, you know, we might not go up as high for a kid as we would an adult. Teens can usually take it if they want, you know, if they want to get a little bit higher dosage. But for the most part, we use the same modalities. We can use the the the LED light therapy, we can use the the PEMS, the magnetic force uh uh things, and we can use the electrical currents on little kids through adults. So the treatment doesn't change a ton. If kids are super sensitive, we can just, you know, use one modality instead of all three. But we're we usually generally do quite well with layering, but it might just be like, how strong do we turn it up for the kids? You know, we also may allow the kids to play on an iPad or distract themselves a little bit with something while they're getting the treatment so they can, you know, tolerate it a little bit more or sit in the seat a little bit better because we're talking about wiggle butts, right? You know, up and down and all around. You don't want them pulling off their stuff. So, you know, we may allow them to do that, whereas we might encourage the adults to do something. If you're ADHD and, you know, struggling with something, we may ask them to kind of focus on something that they're struggling with or do brain training exercises on their on their phone, which will help strengthen some of the executive functioning. So while we're juicing it up, we're actually having them, you know, do the, you know, do some exercises as well while they're getting the while they're getting the treatment. So we're reinforcing that. So it's kind of a win-win.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's yeah, that's wonderful. And a last question for you, what kind of improvements do many of your patients report um that they're noticing? Like, is it focus? Is it better emotional regulation? Is it a mix?

SPEAKER_02:

It's yes. So um it depends on the kids. One of the things you also see a lot with our ADHD kids is there's a lot of overlap with potentially like learning disabilities or things like that. So we see a lot of overlap with dyslexia, dystraphia, things like that, reading, you know, reading challenges or whatnot. And that tends to be a little bit further back in the brain. Um, but we've seen we see kids who came in really struggling with reading and they're doing neurotherapy, they're getting better support up here. Maybe we're doing a little bit of work back here, and their reading scores improve, their ability to understand things, so their ability to process it flows through the brain better. So we see usually acting, we frequently see academic improvements, we see the ability to focus increase as well, and definitely behaviorally. So, especially when we've got those kids, like those beta spinels in the frontal, those tends to be the more reactive, more emotionally, emotionally volatile children, and they definitely calm down. They can get a little bit more breaks, you know, there's a little bit more ability between the the uh the action and the reaction. They might be able to think about and apply some of the things they might be learning in, you know, if they're working with school counselors, like social, social skill settings, you know. One of the biggest problems with ADHD brains is it's like you've got a Ferrari engine with bicycle brakes. So it, so they they have a lot of go and not a lot of no. And so that impulsivity, that reactivity is just really, really high. And so one of the things that our therapy can do is it kind of helps give them more of that, more breaks so they can kind of pause and make an intentional decision versus a reaction. So it goes really well. And I and I and I hate to do anything even with neurotherapy and say like talk therapy is not important because that's not true. They blend together perfectly. But if if you teach a kid with ADHD, or even an adult, all these, all these skills, right? About what to do on how to manage this, that, and the other, but their brain goes from zero to 110 so fast they don't have a chance to apply the skills, it doesn't work. But with the neurotherapy, if it gives them a little bit more pause, a little bit more time, then they can utilize those skills and they start to become more successful. Those things that that that you're teaching them, they're there, but they can't reach for it fast enough to utilize it when they need it. But with that beautiful mix of that coaching, you know, or or the or the psychotherapy support, plus a neurotherapy, it just gives them more choices and they are less emotional, less reactive, less, you know, meltdowns, less overwhelm. It works better not only for them. I mean, and we I work with a lot of adult ADHD clients as well. You know, their ability to start and finish tasks that they don't like, non-preferred tasks, increases. You know, like I the dishes are just horrible. They're like I can't get them done, or the laundry or this, that, and the other. And they're like, I'm noticing that the dishes are getting done more consistently, this, that, and the other, and it's not so painful, you know? So those are some of the beautiful things. They find themselves being more efficient at work and things like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Dr. Heather, you mentioned that there are some clients that come in and they think they have symptoms of ADHD, or they have ADHD, but they actually don't. Can you tell us more about that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, there's about four what we call imposter, or or what you know, we can kind of refer to as imposter profiles that symptomatically, you know, you might, they might actually come in with a diagnosis of ADHD. But when we get down to the brain profiles, it's that's not what's really going on. So for example, one of them is kind of it's they might have paroxysms in the brain, which basically means, and that's a big, uh that's a big word, but it basically means the brain has a lot of electrical misfirings, things like that. It's kind of an unstable brain. And when those happen, it can create panic. It can also be like a brain wipe. You know, it's just like I was talking and now it's gone, you know. So when we see that, those patterns in the EEG, that may be a refer out, you know, to a neurologist to take a look at because it's it, because that's not it's not true ADHD. And you you add certain medications to that, you're gonna make that worse. But it can have an ADHD symptomatic flavor, but you know, from the client, they think that's what it is because I was doing this and now it's just like I lost everything, or I just feel really overwhelmed. But that's not really what the the core source is. And so we see those and then we start collaborating with other, you know, with other providers. That's also true for absentee seizures. So we might, so it has a very similar kind of profile, electrical misfirings. They kind of, you know, they kind of get a blank stare, they forgot what they were doing or whatnot. So if we see some really bizarre firings in there, that's when it's going to be. I'm not gonna diagnose that, I'm not a neurologist, but I can you know see that there's something going on here. That's an immediate referral to a neurologist because the treatment's gonna be different. It's not like neurotherapy is what's going to fix that. And another, and another big profile that we see is a vigilance regulation issue. It's basically a sleep issue. And so there's a lot of overlap with sleep issues and ADHD. And there's a lot of talk even in the research that, you know, kind of what comes first, the chicken or the egg here. Do they have ADHD symptoms because they can't sleep, they can't stay awake, you know, or does the ADHD, you know, those vigilant issues cause this? But sometimes there's really a true sleep issue. And so they're so they look like they can't focus at school or this, that, and the other, but they may have an apnea, they may have restless legs, they may have a medical reason why they're having such sleep issues. And we can see some of those profiles also in the EEG. So we actually might refer them out to you know to their doctors or whatnot to potentially order a sleep study, and there might be a medical reason why they're presenting the way they are. So in addition to seeing the profiles where we can where we can do a lot of work with neurotherapy or even work with their PCPs or their psychiatrists to like fine-tune if you want to use a medication, which one might work better with their brain profile. There's these this other cluster of you know people that look ADHD, but that's not really what it is. But then we can get them maybe to providers that they wouldn't have otherwise have gotten to without that insight. So that's one of the things I love about the work I do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's amazing. Just the revelations that come about by you. It's like how much stuff you're discovering as you go through this process. Um, well, Dr. Heather, thank you again for shedding light on this powerful approach to healing. We really appreciate you. And we'll see you next time on the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

You've been listening to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with Dr. Heather Putney. Remember, your brain isn't supposed to hold you back, it's supposed to power you forward. So stop letting it crash your party and start letting it do its job. If you are ready to optimize brain health, sharpen your focus, and age like a fine wine, schedule your free consultation today at Transformative Neurotherapy.org. Or call us at 412-204-7397. Because here, healing happens faster. See you next time.