By Rob Fitzpatrick
This spring, I had an opportunity to travel to Jacmel, Haiti as a part of The Refuge Center’s partnership with the Hands and Feet Project to work one on one with children living in their program.
I had previously travelled with the program to work with American staff and the house mothers, to provide education on support.
The idea for this trip to work directly with the kids came from conversations with fellow Neurofeedback providers last year, about the success across language barriers in Europe when working with refugees from Syria.
During this conversation, my mind went directly to the work that our two organizations do, and I immediately contacted our director Amy Alexander about introducing this modality to Hands and Feet Project.
Further research came from the book Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma by Sebern Fisher. With great help from the leadership of The Refuge Center and the Hands and Feet Project, I was able to work with a group of young people over the course of nearly two weeks in April.
My time in Haiti was amazing, and most importantly, pretest/posttest results indicated that Neurofeedback, or EEG biofeedback, had positive results during that time.
Neurofeedback is quite different from traditional talk therapy in many ways. For work with the children at Hands and Feet Project, it is based on a client being able to develop self-regulation and calming.
As such, I returned from this trip very affirmed that this is a modality that can be helpful for our partnership with Hands and Feet Project, and even more excited about future collaborations using Neurofeedback (our next trip is scheduled for July of this year!).
By far, the most impressive part for me was the work that is being done on a daily basis to help the children in Jacmel and Grand Goave, Haiti. 
If you are not familiar with the Hands and Feet Project and what they are all about, please go to HandsandFeetProject.org to see more.
For more information about Neurofeedback, check out the text from Fisher, eeginfo.com or contact The Refuge Center at 615-591-5262.
