WMH Season 2, Ep 2: The Brain-Body Connection and Mental Health

This is a transcript of Watching Mental Health Season 2, Episode 2 with Frank Amato which you can watch and listen to here:

Katie Waechter: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Watching Mental Health. We are officially in our second season episode two, and I'm excited about this episode because I am kicking it off with a guest who I've been wanting to bring on to watching Mental health since it launched actually. And this person is Frank Amato and he relocated from the east coast to Southern Nevada in 2019 after spending 20 years in the corporate world. And he is now a board certified cognitive specialist as well as the admissions director at Brain Balance of Southern Nevada.

And I first learned about Brain Balance through Frank. He had me come down, take a tour of I believe the Henderson facility and it was fabulous. And so I'm excited to have him on to talk a little bit more about that brain balance connectivity. And so he found his passion in doing this work by coaching sports teams as well as business teams and applying that brain balance connectivity. And so we're going to have a really awesome episode today where we get to jump right into what the Brain balance connection is and how that really impacts our mental health as well as all of the health of our lives and really how much more we're connected than we realize. So without further ado, let's bring on Frank and have him introduce himself.

Frank Amato: Hello, I'm so happy to be here.

Katie: Thank you so much for being a guest. I'm so excited. Like I said, I've been wanting to bring you on since I launched the show and you've been just gracious and kind enough to say yes and to come on board.

Frank: We go back a long way. You were one of the first people I met when I moved here.

Katie: That's true. Yeah, pre pandemic. Yeah, that's absolutely true. And I've just seen you flourish. I've seen Brain Balance flourish. You have multiple locations now. So tell us more about who you are and what Brain Balance is.

Frank: Brain balance is something very different from what's out there as far as mental health goes. Most of mental health is about working from the outside in dealing with the effects instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem. So brain balance offers parents and adults a long-term solution where they can make a short-term commitment for a long-term gain in their child's mental health or their own mental health instead of dealing with things from the outside in waiting for them to get severe where medication is needed or therapy or counseling, which then only becomes about day-to-Day. Regulation brain balance, like I said, gives parents the opportunity to make a long-term change in their child or themselves.

Katie: And I really like that you say their child or themselves. I originally thought that this was really for children, but the last time we spoke you were like, no, no, this can be applied to anybody at any point in time. You can go in and take a look and work with your brain is what you're saying

Frank: And change the brain. You're right. I tell people it's age three to age 103. That's what we work with. As long as you have a brain and you want a better one, that's the only qualifications.

Katie: That's very cool. And from the website I have looked at it, you work with Beyond mental health, you work with people who have developmental or learning disorders. Is that true? You work with people that are beyond mental health?

Frank: Yes. Well, it's a fact that the World Health Organization will tell you. NIH will tell you the mental health problems we have as adults start out from a lack of brain development in childhood. So our goal is to give kids the foundational blocks of the missing brain development that never happened for whatever reason, physical, chemical, emotional trauma, lack of sensory stimulation, and fill in those missing blocks. So now they have the brain they were meant to have instead of parents or themselves managing the brain that's in their head right now.

Katie: Yeah, that's so interesting because a lot of people say that, especially these days, I think trauma is a buzzword in the mental health arena and it seems like even trauma that's impacting your brain and you're saying, let's go in and look at how we can change the brain function from whatever happened, whatever trauma that was, or like you're saying, other things that may have occurred. And it seems like in light that shows up in so many different ways. We're also alike, but different. We all present differently depending on what happens to us.

Frank: Yeah, I would say 90 to 95% of the time. See, I'm talking with parents while the child's being assessed and 90 to 95% of the time I'm talking with a parent who struggled exactly like that child struggled that we're assessing at that time.

Katie: Okay, that's interesting. Wow.

Frank: And a lot of times they'll admit it. They'll say, you know what? Yeah, I was the same way when I was a kid.

Katie: Wow, very cool. So is that because, and maybe it's both, is that because maybe the parent didn't know and so they just kind of passed on through the environment, what they knew? Or is that more genetic, in other words, I guess, is that nature or nurture or is it a little bit of both?

Frank: Well, it's definitely both and it's somewhat genetic, but it doesn't mean it can't be overcome. It can always be overcome. The best way to look at brain balance is we're a gym for your brain. Like I said, the only two qualifications are you have a brain and you want a better one.

Katie: That's very cool.

Frank: So all kids today, the way that we're growing up is not the way that I grew up when I was a kid where mom kicked me outside to play sports and could be five degrees outside with 10 feet of snow, and I'm outside today it's, I'm going to go in my room and I'm going to look at a screen for 10 hours.

Katie: And that really impacts, I am sure, as you know, the way the brain develops. So do you think that's part of the reason why even though we talk about mental health more and when we talk about taking care of ourselves and mental health is health, even though we say that we continue to have just this huge amount of issues in an epidemic, so to speak, of mental health problems, do you think that that part of that is because the brain is developing by staring at a screen for 10 hours these days versus at any other point in our history when we were going outside and we were socializing?

Frank: Absolutely. That sensory motor system never gets a chance to fully develop because we're not as active as we once were. I often tell parents of my autistic families that kids that we never see any professional autistic athletes because if the one thing in autistic brain is weakened is sensory motor skills, gross motor skills balance, equilibrium coordination, knowing where your body is because they're all doing coding and they're doing computer things, and that's all they do every 24 hours a day. So the brain never gets the sensory stimulation necessary to develop to its full potential. So while they're intelligent and they're great with details and numbers and letters and repetition and routine, they're not so good with big picture skills and focus and attention and emotional regulation and emotional maturity and social and social interactions, all those things, they're weaker in. They don't see the big picture of life. They just see the details in life.

Katie: Yeah, that's true. So with brain balance, are you going in and then assessing where they're weakened? So for the children with autism who are on the spectrum, that sensory area, are you assessing that where that area is and then in other, maybe for lack of a better term, doing some sort of therapy where you're just putting them in that position?

Frank: Yeah, we're dealing with, see, I tell parents often when parents have an autistic child or a child with a DHD, their only concern is getting that child through the day. How do we get this child to tomorrow? How do we get 'em to the next day? Is today going to be a good day When they wake up, it's the first thing they think about, is Johnny going to have a good day today? So they have to feed into the strengths of the child to get them to the next day. Brain balance has a more long-term outlook, so we're feeding into the weaknesses in the brain and developing those weak areas. So now they truly have the brain they were meant to have.

Katie: Okay. Yeah. So kind of that exposing them to what they're weak at,

Frank: Right? The sensory things, the no screens, we're going to play board games or we're going to do crafts, or we're going to go outside and do a hike. We're going to play hopscotch out in the driveway, we're going to go for a hike, whatever it may be.

Katie: Sure. And so children who are maybe coming in with more behavioral issues around mental health, are you doing stuff that is more specifically addressing that? Things like maybe helping them with socialization if maybe they have social anxiety or are you taking slightly different approach? It seems like every little area is getting a little bit of a different approach based off of what they need.

Frank: True. And all our plans are customized by an initial assessment. And like you were saying before, as I often tell parents too, would you rather your child not think about being angry or just not be angry? If we deal with the behaviors, we're going to have them think about not being angry, and that's a ball and chain that they carry through the rest of their life, trying to manage the thoughts coming out of their head. Instead, let's develop the part of the brain where the anger starts. So now they're not angry anymore. Now they're not frustrated anymore. They could do all the things they see their classmates doing.

Katie: Right. Wow, that's interesting.

Frank: No, no, go ahead.

Katie: No, no, go on, go on.

Frank: It's just about dealing with the root, not dealing with the behavior. The behavior is a result of the brain not developing properly. So let's deal with the root cause. If ceiling, if our roof has a big hole in it, let's not keep buying buckets to put underneath it so that nothing gets wet. Let's go fix the hole in the roof before it gets bigger.

Katie: So I usually ask this towards the end of my interviews, and I think I know what camp or what direction you're leaning, but I want to ask you this question and it's, do you think that a mental health challenge or a diagnosis is something that we can overcome? Can we get to the root and get through it and get past it, or is it something that we're going to have to potentially work with for the rest of our life? And does that vary by diagnosis? It seems like some diagnoses really you can't brain your way out of, but maybe I'm wrong, maybe things like psychosis or schizoaffective disorder. So tell me more about your thoughts on that.

Frank: I often tell parents the label gets you no closer to a solution. We get this name, and by the way, it's someone's opinion. There's no blood test for any of those names. So different people can have different ideas about what that person has. We put a name on it, then what do we do? Well, we're going to medicate it, we're going to therapy it, whatever, counsel it, whatever's out there. If it's a child, we're going to make teaching accommodations, IEPs, 5 0 4 plans if it's we're going to find a different school for the child parenting accommodations if you want to go that way of lifetime management. Those are the things that you do here we're about, like I said, we're not about the label, we're about the solution. We're a non-medical holistic approach. So we don't diagnose here, but what we do is get to the root, find out where that brain is, because when we develop the brain, all of a sudden things start to melt away.

Katie: Yeah, for sure. So have you dealt with children or adults who have experience with psychosis or with having psychotic episodes?

Frank: Some, but sometimes it's conjunction with a therapy, a counseling service where immediate change is needed, then yeah, let's do that. Absolutely. If they need medication right now, if they need therapy to get through the day today, they're cutting themselves or they said they have some suicidal ideations, we have to deal with that emergency right at that point. But when we're done, when we're over that emergency, we need something long-term for that child. So this doesn't become a pattern in that child's life.

Katie: Most definitely. I tend to feel that way about medication. If you're in a state where you really need it, then let's do that for a moment and then while we're working on the longer term solutions and things like that. And so I just love that the solution here is really as, again, it's not symptoms. It's going into the brain and it's trying to get to the root, as you're saying. So I think that's really cool. Does brain balance have set programs so people go in for typically maybe a few months at a time, or can it be ongoing if people are really struggling?

Frank: Well, it's a one time thing that you go through. We build up the brain. We have a 12 after you're done in center, and 90 to 95% of our families are less than a year. So it's months, not years to get the brain up to where it needs to be. And then when we follow up, we follow up for another year with 12 monthly checks to make sure that the brain is still developing the way that it should. So as they transition away from us, we know that their life is going to be everything it was meant to be.

Katie: Yeah, that's great. So let's pick up a little bit what brought you into this? What brought you here to Southern Nevada? Was brain balance here in Southern Nevada before you, because I don't remember seeing it, but maybe I just had never met anybody. And what brought you here to the West Coast to do this work?

Frank: Okay. There are 75 brain balance centers across the country. Okay. We have the two here in Nevada, Henderson and Summerland Henderson has been here for 13 years. Summerland has been here, I believe for eight years. I came five years ago. A college friend of mine is the owner of both centers, and she had been telling me about this stuff and knows that I'm in child development, coach football for a long time and other things. She knows how much I love kids. And so she said, Hey, why don't you want to come out here and do this? And I said, you know what? I was going through a divorce at the time and it was a good time for a change. Get out of New York. And I came out and it's really turned out really, really well, something I'm very, very passionate about.

Katie: That's really great. And so before you were coaching kids, so tell us more about that. You were in child development, is that what you

Frank: Were doing? Yeah, I was in, well, child development as far as what we went to school for a biology major, coaching football for 20 years. I was in the corporate world for a long time doing dental technology. So I was dealing with dentists a lot. And then like I said, made the move over.

Katie: That's exciting. You must have been, well, I don't know because it's the Raiders, but you probably thought it was fun when football came to Las Vegas.

Frank: Yes. I'm not a Raider fan, but yes, I like that the games are on earlier too, that they're not on at one on at 10 o'clock.

Katie: Right, right. That's actually, that's true. Yeah. It's easier to go in on a Monday when you watch football that earlier in the day. So let's talk a little bit more about Las Vegas. It's a unique environment. You've been here for five years now. I know part of that was the pandemic, but I feel like you really just jumped in headfirst basically to try and address our issues. And Las Vegas has pretty extensive, I think, issues around child's mental health access and developments. So what have you seen? Do you find that that's true coming from the east coast or is the problem everywhere?

Frank: Well, the problem is everywhere. Bringing up Las Vegas, one of the areas that I've always, I'm trying to get into, I haven't had a lot of success, but I'm trying, is to get into the prison population and to really change their brain and mature their brain to the point where they can see, they can understand the big picture. Because when I talk to anybody, any families that come in, dad's a police officer or a corrections officer, they all say, you know what? These kids that are in jail, they're not bad kids. They just made a stupid immature decision. So if we can mature their brain to see the big picture rather than trying to change them from the outside in, change them from the inside out to have a better, well, most of them did not have a great childhood. We know that did not have the sensory stimulation needed, had trauma in their life, so let's develop the brain, do what nature didn't do. So now they're able to see the big picture. A typical parent of an autistic child or a DHD child will tell me this, Frank, he's nine years old, but not counting his intelligence, he acts like he's six

Because it's different parts of the brain. They're nine years old, intelligence numbers, letters, repetition like I said before, but they're six years old. Big picture, knowing right from wrong, having the social wherewithal to be with the right people to socialize with, not socialize with. Katie's, my only friend and Katie asked me to do this thing and I know it's wrong, but Katie is my only friend and if I don't do it, she's not going to be my friend anymore.

Katie: So

Frank: I go do it and I get caught. I'm not a bad person. I just made an immature decision because of my weakness dealing with socially, my social anxiety, my social immaturity.

Katie: So you probably see this a lot because this is so popular with a DHD and a DD kids. And I think in adults too. I think a lot of adults are recognizing that they have these symptoms in adulthood and medication is like this go-to, but medication medicating a 9-year-old, it feels inherently wrong to me that because their brain is still developing. Yeah, exactly. We hit

Frank: More than five-year-old medication.

Katie: Oh my gosh. So what are your thoughts on medication for A DHD and a DD and do you find that the success rates at Brain balance are better than what medicine is providing some of these kids?

Frank: Well, they did a research study on us at Harvard in 2019 that ended, and it was the head of psychiatry, Martin Cher that did the head of pharmacology who's a psychiatrist. He did the study and he found that brain balance was more effective than the medication. And it lasted for a longer period of time because we're making long-term changes. We know that once the medication wears off, we're back to square one. We didn't change anything. We made it easier for the teacher. That's all we did. We didn't make it better for the child. So a lot of the parents say, just a parent yesterday, do I not give my child medication when they come in to see you? Well, that's not a conversation we get into. We're not medical. You do what you think is best between you and your pediatrician. You decide when you see changes, then you go back to the pediatrician and you say, okay, I think we want to start tailing off on things. That's between you and him. We don't get involved in that.

Katie: Okay. I'm glad you mentioned that. I was going to ask that next because it seems like you probably get that a lot people coming in who don't know what else to do and they're just on medicine. And it does seem like you probably with brain balance is you're getting a lot of parents who are kind of on their last resort. They're not sure where else to turn. And I think that we see that a lot in Las Vegas where our people don't know where to go when their loved ones are struggling.

Frank: You are right about that and it should be reversed, but it's not. A lot of parents say, Hey, I've tried the medication, I've tried this, I've tried that. And so you're my last hope. Okay, great. I love you having you here, but we should be the first and the medication should be the last before you start putting dangerous drugs into a child. And by the way, teaching a child that, hey, if I don't feel right, I can take a drug. Well, it's 16 years old. That could be a dangerous lesson for them to learn.

Katie: Yeah, no, that's absolutely true. Well, I just think that's great. I think you're doing really good work out here and that you keep sticking with Las Vegas and really keep Love it. Loving brain balance. I think that you love the city. I think that you do. I see you out and about a lot.

Frank: Absolutely. I love it. I made great friends here, you as one of them. And yeah, love the weather, love everything about it.

Katie: Yeah, most definitely. Well, I just think that's fabulous. So when you have your time off, this is a stressful job. So I always like to ask my professionals, what does self-care look like to you when you do take time off? I think it's important that we all do, but I think that we forget to take care of ourselves when we're so busy taking care of others sometimes. So tell me more about your self-care.

Frank:

I like to do things that make me uncomfortable, how I grow. So be it, of course, work in the gym, playing guitar, learning new things, firearms training, that I go to trainings and do things that I never thought I would ever do. And people make me uncomfortable, some trainers, but you know what? I work at it and I'm not uncomfortable anymore. If we're not uncomfortable in certain times, we'll never grow.

Katie: That's so cool. And you know what? I think that's awesome that that's what you say that you're doing because that's quite literally something that keeps your brain continuing to work and continuing to evolve. So in you've taken it to heart in your spare time, you're still doing things that are getting your brain to stay active, which you probably know more about this, but it seems like the more active your brain is, even in adulthood, the less you have of possible dementia of declining earlier in life. Have you seen that kind of stuff come out from your work?

Frank: As I tell my friends and I tell, never give up your legs, never ever give up your legs. Once you do, you're going to go downhill cognitively because we're not using it anymore.

Katie: Yeah, yeah. I think you're absolutely.

Frank: So all those people you see on the scooters riding around the supermarket or whatever, okay. It doesn't end well.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. They're not helping themselves when they do that,

Frank: But they're looking for the immediate satisfaction of getting through the day. Like I said before, instead of having the bigger picture of what is this going to look? What am I going to look like five years from now?

Katie: Got to keep moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's really valuable. Full circle. I feel like we full circled this, so I think that's amazing. And so thank you so much again for your time. How can people get in touch with brain balance? Like you said, it doesn't have to be somebody whose back is against a wall, who doesn't know where else to turn. When is the time to reach out to brain balance and see if it's right for you or your child

Frank: When you notice your child's struggling, and parents go through this all the time where they're just pulling their hair out, trying to get their kid to the next day, worrying about is the teacher doing the right thing here? Am I parenting this child right? It takes four hours to do homework. I can't get him out of his room. He has these meltdowns in public. Give me a call. Consultations are always no charge. And I will talk to anybody for any amount of time on the phone, whatever I need to do to help them to explain what we do here. And if it's a good fit, we'll schedule an assessment.

Katie: Okay, wonderful. And how can people get in touch with you to get that consultation?

Frank: The number is 7 0 7 7 8 9 5 0 0. Ask for Frank because I deal with, like I said, all the families coming in, go through me. Also, you can email me at famato@brainbalance.com and the website is brainbalance.com is the website

Katie: Fabulous. And you have locations in Summerland and Henderson, so I feel like the city is taken care of in that way. So no one's driving too far. And you're doing great work, so I appreciate it and I'm just glad that you're out here. And I'm glad to learn more about Brain Balance and that it's really growing and I think that it's valuable to have in our community this type of treatment that is more holistic, that is getting to the root of things. And so I just think that it's really great work. So I'm so glad that you came on.

Frank: Glad. Thank you so much. And my number one saying that I like to say is prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.

Katie: Oh, yes. Wonderful. Well, thank you again.

Frank: You're welcome, Katie. Thank you.

Katie: Oh, of course. No, what were you going to say?

Frank: No, no, I was going to say nothing. I just wanted to get that in that I love that saying, so I wanted to make sure I added that.

Katie: Yeah, no, that's a great one. That's a really great one. I think that you're full of a lot of wisdom around this area and really just paying more attention to our brains and not just our symptoms, not just our traumas, but what's actually happening underneath. And so I just think that that's a really powerful thing to walk away with. So thank you again for joining us, and please join us anytime. I'd love to have you back. We are here every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, Watching Mental Health, so please tune in next time everyone, and we'll see you next time! 

Frank: Thanks Katie!