Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) is often misunderstood—but if you or someone you love experiences it, you know how deeply real the symptoms are. Whether it’s unexplained tremors, non-epileptic seisures, limb weakness, speech issues, or persistent fatigue, these challenges can feel isolating—but they aren’t imagined, and you’re not alone Wikipedia.
While FND symptoms might look neurological, there’s no identifiable disease on scans—yet the brain-body connection is out of sync in deeply felt ways. Diagnosis is made through positive signs, like specific movement patterns or triggers that respond to distraction—confirming that the experience is genuine, not imagined Wikipedia.
Common contributors include:
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- Stressful life events or trauma
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- Hidden emotional memories manifesting physically
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- Miscommunication between brain and body rooted in survival instincts gone astray
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- Physiotherapy helps retrain motor responses for movement-related symptoms
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- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) reshapes the way thoughts influence physical reactions
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- Psychodynamic therapies explore emotional origins of symptoms
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- Occupational therapy, speech therapy, and self-management tools build resilience in daily life
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- Mindfulness and somatic awareness help regulate stress and bodily responses
What Is BWRT—and Could It Help? BWRT (BrainWorking Recursive Therapy®) is a relatively new, neuroscience-informed approach developed in the UK in the early 2010s. It aims to interrupt automatic, distressing reactions before they fully form—by working with the brain’s rapid, pre-conscious responses to triggers How BWRT Works—And Why It Might Be a Gentle Fit
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- Content-light, not story-heavy: You don’t delve into painful memories—just recognize how you feel now and how you’d prefer to
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- Fast and focused: Often effective in 1–5 sessions, depending on complexity
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- Neuroscience at heart: Inspired by Libet’s research showing that our brain reacts before our conscious awareness—BWRT seeks to pivot the reaction in mid-stream
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- Positive, future-focused: Instead of revisiting in too much depth what went wrong, BWRT emphasises what you’d rather feel and creates new neural pathways accordingly.
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- Online-friendly: Many facilitators offer sessions via Zoom or Skype, making it accessible and flexible. I offer BWRT through my highly secure online consulting room at https://doxy.me/positivelycalm
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- For symptoms like tremors or non-epileptic seizures—when anxiety or stress triggers a physical response—BWRT’s pre-emptive rewiring could help “freeze” the automatic reaction before it spirals.
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- For wide-ranging FND symptoms, the therapy may offer a gentle, less daunting way to reframe how the brain-body system responds—without in-depth trauma work or cognitive overload.
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- And BWRT Online works just as well as in person!
A case study using BWRT on a recent client A recent client of mine presented with FND symptoms presenting as head tics. These had started after a non-epileptic fit during an event that was quite traumatic for her. She had been experiencing these symptoms for six months and the tics were so bad they left her with physical neck pain. She had stopped going out as it made her feel very awkward socially and caused embarrassment. Talking therapies just didn’t seem to be going deep enough to resolve the problem and she was recommended to me by someone who had insight into my work with BWRT. Addressing both her trauma and embarrassment helped reduce her tics. In fact, she came back to me the next week and hadn’t ticked once. She was quite amazed as her tics were a daily occurrence. We also addressed her feelings around what other people think when she ticked. She is now in a position that she can go out socially without worrying and she is not ticking. She is now happy to return to work. Doctors and neurologists that she had seen wanted her to go on medication as a solution but she was very reluctant to do so. BWRT has truly been a game changer for her. For further help with Functional Neurological Disorder please contact me here.