All Services are in person or optional Telehealth.

Stroke Treatments

Dr. Diane® Brain Health utilizes state of the art technology, and has the Solutions and Resourcessm to get you feeling your best. The Dr. Diane® integrative team of brain health experts is trained in conventional, complementary and alternative Stroke treatments. This team will provide you with a customized Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Diane® sees each person as a unique individual and knows that one method does not fit everyone.

Insurance Descriptions of Stroke Treatments

The description of Stroke treatment is by insurance coverage: Conventional, Complimentary, and Alternative. For an in-depth explanation of how each treatment affects a specific area, please read Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. This book may be for people with a Concussion, but it still relates to a Stroke. The only difference between a Concussion and a Stroke is that a Concussion is from an outside force, whereas a Stroke is an acquired brain injury. The methods suggested for the symptoms of a Concussion are applicable to all Stroke symptoms.

Dr. Diane®’s Approach to Stroke Treatments

You are a unique person. How a Stroke affects your brain is as unique as you are. Are you a hearty person, reactive, or sensitive? What type of childhood did you have? Each person brings a life history that has to be accounted for when determining the best treatment. How often have you been prescribed medication that had many side effects, only because the person prescribing the medication or treatment did NOT take into account your reaction to it?

Dr. Diane® and her team of Brain Health Experts work as a unified team, which strongly believes that regardless of the presenting problem or situation, you as a person should be seen from the five distinct views that make up our approach: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and energy. Often these areas intertwine and each needs to be addressed, Diane looks for the core issue. Then, your individual treatment programs are developed based on conventional, complimentary, and alternative treatment methods, as well as your unique goals. These methods are often modified to meet your specific needs as you progress in regaining your life.

To correct the cause of either a Stroke or an Aneurysm, you may be given medication and/or undergo brain surgery. In the case of a Stroke, some methods break up the clot, while others remove it. If you had an Aneurysm rupture, there are surgical methods to remove the damaged area and repair the surrounding vessels.

Treating the Consequences of Having a Stroke or Aneurysm

The various treatments for the damage caused by a Stroke or an Aneurysm are usually provided in out-patient rehabilitation facilities by an integrative team. These treatments can include:

Speech and Language Therapy

  • Speech Sound Production: Articulation, apraxia of speech, dysarthria, ataxia, dyskinesia
  • Resonance: Hyper-nasality, hypo-nasality, cul-de-sac resonance, mixed resonance
  • Voice: Phonation quality, pitch, loudness, respiration
  • Fluency: Stuttering, cluttering.

Language (comprehension and expression): Phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics (language use, social aspects of communication), literacy (reading, writing, spelling), pre-linguistic communication (e.g., joint attention, intentionality, communicative signaling), paralinguistic communication.

Feeding and swallowing: Oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, orofacial myology (including tongue thrust), oral-motor functions.

Amy Karas is our Speech and Language Pathologist on our Brain Health Expert Team. She also is a Cognitive Therapy practitioner.

Cognitive Therapy

  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Problem solving
  • Executive functioning.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy encompasses exercises that help improve range of motion, muscle strength, coordination, endurance, flexibility, balance, motor skills, and general mobility. Physical therapy Stroke Treatments may also involve massage therapy, heat or water therapy, along with other interventions that will help improve a patient’s comfort and accelerate recovery. Anthony Percoco is our Physical Therapist on our Brain Health Expert Team. She also provides Craniosacral therapy.

Craniosacral Therapy

Developed by John Upledger, this therapy employs the concept of dynamic activity and relationship within the Craniosacral system. This is based on cranial osteopathy, with therapists believing that the natural movements of the skull bones come from the membrane that lines the nervous system structures that lead to the brain and spinal cord. Improving the natural rhythmic movement helps to improve brain functioning.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is designed to assess the function and potential complications related to the movement of upper extremities, daily living skills, cognition, vision, and perception. Together with the patient and family, an Occupational Therapist will help determine the best ways to perform daily living skills including showering, dressing, and attending to personal hygiene. The therapist will identify equipment that can help the patient with said skills.

In addition, Occupational Therapy helps an individual adapt to classroom and workplace environments. It can also be used to help brain-injured adults improve their fine motor and social skills, as well as learn new techniques for managing everyday responsibilities and performing various job skills.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is designed to increase awareness, within your choices of thought, feeling or action. Psychotherapy can increase your sense of well-being and can better manage discomfort or distress. Psychotherapy can help you deal with behavioral or emotional problems, and psychological reactions to life events.

Types of Psychotherapy for Treating Stroke

  • Insight Therapy:
    Traditional talk therapy that is used to gain insight and understanding from your past to help you modify how you feel. Types include Freudian and Jungian therapy; which are extremely useful in treating depression, anxiety and trauma.
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
    Helps people change how they think, feel, or act in order to improve their mood, reduce stress, or achieve other important goals. There are three parts to CBT:

    • How you think (cognitive) can and does change your behavior
    • The way you think may be monitored and altered
    • The desired behavior change may be affected through changes in the way you think.

Dr. Diane® is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, board certified Health Psychologist, and Neuropsychologist.

Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology includes the use of medications to help change or regulate mental activity, mood, and behavior. Antidepressants and anti-anxiety agents are among the most commonly prescribed Psychopharmacologic drugs. Psychopharmacologists are Psychiatrists who specialize in the use of medication to lessen or eliminate psychological, neurological, and behavioral problems. Dr. Sharon Barrett, M.D. is the Psychopharmacologist on our Brain Health Expert Team.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture, an ancient form of Chinese medicine, is centered on the body’s qi, or natural energy flow. The energy that flows through your body is as important to your health and well-being as the more traditionally recognized bodily functions. Often when these energies become weak, disturbed or out of balance, we experience physical and emotional symptoms. In order to relieve these symptoms, the energy that flows through your body must be restored. William Mogan is the Acupuncturist on our Brain Health Expert Team.

Reiki

Reiki is a method of energy healing, which utilizes a natural universal energy that helps to balance the client’s system and assists healing. Reiki is especially effective for stress reduction, increasing overall vitality, and treating injuries. Clara Diebold is the Reiki Master on our Brain Health Expert Team.

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a type of behavioral medicine that trains people to use information about their bodies to improve their health by monitoring skin temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and other body conditions, which promotes control over the nervous system.

There are four types of Biofeedback for Stroke Treatments. All employ some type of computer or monitoring device, along with electronic sensors to give information about what is going on in the body:

  • Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
  • Thermal (as seen in “mood rings” which measure skin temperature)
  • Muscular (Electromyography: EMG)
  • Neurological (Electroencephalography: EEG) also called Neuro-therapy.

Neuro-Biofeedback, or Neurofeedback, uses a computer to give information to a person about his or her own brainwave pattern in the form of EEG activity. EEG Biofeedback assists a person to alter his or her own brainwave characteristics by challenging the brain to learn to reorganize and function better. When the brain is not functioning properly, evidence of this usually shows up in EEG activity. The EEG Biofeedback technique is a process in which subtle brainwave information is amplified and shown back to the trainee in the form of a computer game. The object of the training is to re-educate the brain to make voluntary changes via computerized graphic displays and auditory signals that encourage a change in mental state and challenge the brain to function more effectively. Both Dr. Diane® and Paul Soper are Neurofeedback specialists, and are part of the Brain Health Expert Team.

Water Therapy

Water therapy refers to Treatments and exercises performed while submerged in water. The hydrostatic (passive) and hydrodynamic (active) properties of water provide an optimal environment for safe and effective therapy and conditioning. With little or no weight bearing in the water, clients are able to perform desired activities quickly and safely. Dr. Igor Burdenko, Ph.D., is world renowned for his Burdenko Method. He is a part of Brain Health Expert Team.

Nutritional Changes

The importance of a Brain Healthy diet is essential for you to regain your life. Martha Lindsay is our nutrition educator. Please see our Brain Healthy Foods.

Schedule Your Consultation

Are you ready to relieve the pain and suffering caused by your traumatic brain injury? Contact Dr. Diane and her team of experts today, and get your life back on track.


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Find Help and Hope in Dr. Diane’s Book!

Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

If you're suffering from a concussion, or any other form of mild traumatic brain injury, pick up Dr. Diane's book Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and start healing today!


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CONTACT DR. DIANE®

Dr. Diane® Roberts Stoler, Ed.D.
7 Hodges Street
N. Andover, MA 01845
Phone: (800) 500-9971
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Dr. Diane is a catalyst for change

Image Credit Elaine Boucher

Within each person shines an inner light that illuminates our path and is the source of hope. Illness, trauma, suffering and grief can diminish the light and shroud hope. I am a catalyst for hope and change, offering a way to rekindle this inner light.

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