Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. Hosted by Tony Miantour. Broadcasting from the heart of Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests share their raw, powerful stories. Some will spark laughter, others will move you to tears. These real-life journeys inspire, connect, and remind you that you're never alone. We're igniting a global movement to empower everyone to make a lasting difference by fostering deep awareness, unwavering acceptance, and profound understanding of autism and mental health. Tune in, be inspired, and join us in transforming the world one story at a time. Hi, I'm Tony Miantour. Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. Joining us today is Dana Hargis, LPC. She's the founder of Restore of Ada, a biofeedback therapy center in Ada, Oklahoma. With a background in education and special education along with a master's degree in school counseling, Dana transitioned from a public school teacher to a dedicated practitioner of biofeedback therapy. Her journey began with a passion for helping children with emotional and learning challenges, leading her to establish Restore of Ada, where she focuses on calming the nervous system to address issues like ADD, anxiety, depression, and addiction. She empowers clients to achieve lasting mental and emotional well-being. It's a pleasure to have her join us today. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, I'm glad to. So tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got started. Okay, I was an educator a very long time ago. Like, I think I started teaching school in like 91. And I taught school for about nine years, mostly special education. And during that period of time, I was a foster and then an adoptive mom. So I was very interested in how to help dysregulated people because I had them living in my house and I spent my day with them in the classroom. Okay, that makes sense. During that period of time, I got interested in biofeedback as an intervention for my own son, one of my adopted kids. And as I worked through that and began to try to figure out how I could do it myself, I figured out, first of all, that there were only two people in Oklahoma doing it. They were both private pay and I didn't have the money to get him what he needed. But it really intrigued me all the things I found out when I was researching and visiting with people and calling places. And at the time, I was working on a master's and I just kind of sped things up and got my master's in counseling and went under supervision and became a licensed counselor here in Oklahoma. With the thought, as soon as I have this license in hand, I'm going to go and do this biofeedback training, see if I can help my own son. And at that point, I had stopped being a teacher and I was going to just become a counselor. So I did that and was able to do a lot of cool stuff with him. And for the first time in his life, he was able to go to school without him calling me and without medication. So it was really great. And that was kind of the start of a new journey. And I entered into this career that I've had now for the last 25 years. So that led you to opening a company now, correct? Yes, I have two companies. The first company is my counseling agency and it's just a private practice here in Ada. And we have like a little substation in Moore, which is close to Norman, Oklahoma. We have 13 counselors and we schedule over a thousand appointments a month and we do biofeedback. Okay. So you have all these counselors. Let's focus on that part of it first with all the counselors that work with you in your bio. It says you cover autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar, a lot of different things that fall under the mental health umbrella. So what is it that you cover or is there anything that you don't cover? Well, if you think about it, I think, first of all, if you live in a town, our town is probably 35,000 people in the town proper. And then there's lots of little towns around us that we pull from. What we focus on is what walks through the door. You know, it's like, if you go to Dallas, you can probably make a career of seeing women between the ages of 30 and 50 with anxiety and blah, blah, blah. But when you open Ada, that isn't really the way it works. So we've had an opportunity for a long time to get to figure out how do you deal with all these different demographics and where that has led me for probably 20 years. I've known I want to move out of where I'm at some day and I want to move into intensive treatment that is more whole body. In counseling, you tend to see people once a week, maybe twice a week and we make great progress. I'm not unhappy with where I'm at or what I'm doing. I just know that in terms of mental health, especially mental health for people that are really struggling, I feel like our current systems are a fail. I'm curious. Where do you think it's feeling? Inpatient care is not appropriate. It will keep you alive. If somebody is going to die, it's very good to like if somebody's drinking themselves to death, they can sober up, they can get some help, they can be protected. But I feel like inpatient care for children is unbelievably inadequate and for most adults as well. They come out over-medicated and struggling often more than when they went in. And then we look at all the medications and all the things that we're doing to try to help people. And what I see is that they don't work. I feel like you've got to address the whole body. At some point in my past, I thought, okay, I am going to open a mental hospital. That was my plan. And I started checking into that looking. And then in the end, I thought, do I really want to spend a million dollars? Yeah, that makes total sense. That's a lot of money. I've worked all my life to get out of debt, to get where I am in this nice stable position. And I have a lot of grandkids and I have a good life and I don't want to tie myself so hard to something that I lose what I have. So kind of went by the wayside. And then I thought I'm going to open a boy's home. And I began to try to navigate that with our state. What did you find there? Anything better? They won't even pay me enough to do it right. I knew what I needed to do. I couldn't even find a way to make it break even. So then I had to let that go. So I've been letting things go a long time. So finally, I arrived at my current model that I knew would work. Then I just had to figure out how to make a go of it. And I feel like I have. Okay. What did you come up with? It's a whole bodied approach that centers around biofeedback, but people start about six weeks before they come to Ada in their home. And I have a lady that works with me. She begins to work with them to get them to begin to make lifestyle changes, depending on where they are, depends on where you start. Can you give an example of what you're talking about there? Things as simple as shift in the diet and what are we going to do to improve gut health? Also, the impact of attachment on our whole life. Like, I feel like that is so often ignored. We look at what supplements might be helpful. So they get things from us in the mail. For six weeks, we work with them online to prepare them to be as ready as they can when they get to Ada. Okay. That sounds good. So what's next after that? They run to Ada. They're here for two weeks and they receive five months of biofeedback in two weeks. So you're getting a AM and a PM session every day. And also during that time, we have all these other interventions that begin to work on resetting your nervous system. What type of results are you seeing from this? The outcome is astounding. Because if you think, how would you like to learn something? If you were going to learn to play the piano and you were going to do it an hour a week every week, or in this case, it would even be just 30 minutes, because we do counseling in conjunction with biofeedback. So it's not like they get a whole hour of it. You're going to do 30 minutes a week and I'm going to do 45 minutes twice a day. In the end, it's going to take you five months to catch up with the number of treatments I get in 10 days. But what that really does is it trains the brain in such a rapid way. The brain is eager to learn. It's eager to change. So you begin to address things like insomnia and anxiety and anger and overthinking and attentional problems. Yeah, that sounds like a very good plan. You just meet the brain where it is. And most of the time, the goal is to really calm things down. And then when people are not with me, they're with my colleague and we have some other employees that we work on other aspects of this. How do we take these changes and go back home with them? Now, when you say biofeedback, there's going to be a lot of listeners that say, what? Right. Can you explain in layman's terms what that actually is? Yes. The simplest way I know to explain it is just like you do exercise for your body. You can do exercise for your brain. So there are electrodes on the head, but they have no output. No current goes through your head. They're just there to pick up the brain waves. And then that takes the brain waves to my screen. You're watching a screen. It can be as simple as there's games and different things. It really what you're doing doesn't matter much. Like all of the things have the same outcome. But I think a simple way to visualize it is you're looking at a YouTube video. The biofeedback equipment puts a filter on the YouTube video. When your brain is doing what we want it to do, the screen is wide and clear and the volume is strong. And that's like telling the brain, yes, yes, yes. Good job. And then when the brain diverts, does something that's like out of the realm of what we desire, the screen closes in, it gets a little foggy and the volume diminishes it. So that's like saying, no, no, no. So all the time you're on there, you're getting a series of yeses and noes showing the brain. We want more of this and less of that. How many different types of people do you work with? When I say types, I mean autistic, bipolar, ADHD, schizophrenic, anything that falls under that mental health umbrella. How many of those different types do you actually work with? I would say all of them. Like there are things that are more or less prevalent in our practice. We do see some people with schizophrenia. We do see lots of people with anxiety, depression. We see a lot of people that have autism. We never limit anything. If somebody calls, we try to make sure that we put them with the best possible person for them. So we have them tell us, do you want a man? Do you want a woman? What do you want this person to be like? And some people want somebody older and some people want, I want someone closer to my age and I'm 30. So we have such a nice variety of counselors. We're usually able to really accommodate what people want. And sometimes when they tell us what their issues are, then our staff will say, the best person for you is this person. I have a lot of history with people who have disabilities. That's been my life. You know, my whole adult life, I have worked with people who are struggling in some way. And so if somebody has that issue, oftentimes I've also spent a lot of times with delinquents. I enjoy that. I feel like somebody needs to love them. Somebody needs to care about them, but someone also has to stand up to them. I like doing that. Okay. Hypothetical. How would you approach someone that is schizophrenic? Their brain is telling them something. They may be going through antisagnosia. They really don't know that they're doing wrong. They think they're doing right. So they're having a plethora of issues. How would you handle something like that? The first thing I think is you just have to build rapport. It's just doing good therapy to begin with. If you can get to the person, if you can get to the point that the person trusts you and is willing to participate in Saebao feedback, then it gets simpler from the standpoint of there's a very thorough intake process that helps you narrow down based upon the symptoms this person has. And it's really not about a diagnosis as much as it is about the groups of symptoms together. Can they sleep? Are they stable? Are they able to focus? Are they able? There's like lots and lots of questions. And then those questions build a real picture of this is where the electrodes should go when you start. And this is what we're thinking of in terms of what frequency we'll start at. And then it just becomes a collecting of information from them and hopefully a caregiver week by week in our case now. But in a case like in restore, it's much more fast paced. Okay. So what are the opinions of the medical doctors in your area regarding your therapy? Are they supportive? Well, it's interesting. When we started here, like about 25 years ago, I would say that people would tell us very negative things their doctor said, because they would be excited and go to their doctor and say, guess what? My son sleeps now. And he's like, well, wasn't that biofeedback? He just grew out of his insomnia. We had things like that. But at this point locally, we've felt such a nice reputation that we actually have a lot of doctors that come here. We see doctors, kids. I feel like it was hard fought, but locally we're very well thought of. And people recognize that we're able to help lots of different people with different problems. Now you mentioned another business. Is that right along with this one as well? That's the thing. I have this long term biofeedback and counseling. And then where I've been at the last year is called restore of ADA. And that is the fast paced that nine week program. Tensive and making all those shifts. And then the last portion of that is called restore plus and restore plus is an online forum that provides lots of practical information. Because not everybody can come to ADA and do biofeedback and have this intensive experience. But restore plus looks at all the components like diet and exercise and how do you spend your time and how do you build dopamine? What's the impact of the choices that you're making and how do you reset the brain? If you're not going to be able to leave your home and come to ADA, but you're there at home, what kind of practical things can be done to get you where you want to go? That's like the final component that's open to others as well. That wouldn't just be open to people who come here. So basically you have the online, then you have the people that come to see you weekly or bi-weekly, then you have the intense training. Correct. Correct. Okay. You mentioned nutrition. So do you have a dietitian or a nutritionist on board? And how do you use that to help these people get back on track to where they need to be? The lady that's kind of my right hand that does everything with me and for me. She started her life as a home economics teacher, but then she did advanced studies in attachment and resiliency. And then she also has done just extensive programs, not university programs, but just online programs and self-study programs in nutrition, how to get the gut. Like you make more of your hormones and your serotonin and all the things you need in your gut than you do your brain. Yet we know where the gut. Your brain will be no better than your gut. And then when we add the factor that we tend to medicate people with medication that causes weight gain, chronic constipation, significant gut issues, and then we're like, surprised, they're not better. I have yet to find a program that deals with the whole body. Feel like that's what we're doing. When you say whole body, you've mentioned the gut, the brain. Can you give me a picture of what this whole body experiences that you're talking about? Just as a for instance of some of the things we're talking about when people come to us here in Ada, we do exercise that relates to releasing trauma that's stored in fascia. We also look at different types of exercise that you can do. For instance, being on a rebounder or a trampoline to get your lymph system moving. Your lymph doesn't have a pump. And if you've done a lot of different things, even like just eating food that's not clean, you are likely to have poor lymph flow and that's a huge deal. And then we have PEMF technology, which is again about frequencies. I believe that frequency is king. We need the input of better frequencies, especially when we're talking about cell phones and towers and all the things that are giving input to us. We need to look at all of those things. And we also deal with heart rate variability. That's another very science driven process that begins to change your nervous system. So our goal is with many different interventions to create this reset in the body that allows you. I mean, this sounds grandiose, but allows you to become what you were created to be. So by touching on all these things you just spoke about, this goes way beyond what people would consider normal therapy. As a therapist, obviously I think talking works. I talk to people all day long for the last 25 years. I believe in therapy. There are a lot of things therapy cannot touch. Like you will not talk them better. You have to give the body something that it needs. And oftentimes within our intake process, we'll kind of figure out like, okay, this person, we're really going to focus on that. You know, we'll be looking at what things we think are the primary stressors based upon what they tell us about their history. But we spend that six weeks and then again, that full two weeks just with lots of instruction. And then Restore Plus has a lot of practical things. We have a section on there called do something. And that is just filled with things that you could try today. Because I think people are overwhelmed with what do I do? So we explore what's something you can do. What would it look like if you did it today? And then we encourage you to only do that one thing until you get good at it. And then we move to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. People are going to come in at different places. I mean, I have people show up at my office hysterical because they're having panic attacks and they don't know why it's happening. Some when I figure out they're drinking three monster drinks a day and they don't drink water. It's not rocket science. But in order for me to help them, I really need to discontinue the monster drinks and add some water. You know, and that sounds so simplistic. But there are lots and lots of very simplistic things that we need to consider and then begin to do something. So this nine week process that you do, is this a nine week college type situation where they have to be there for nine straight weeks? No, no, no. The first six weeks are at home and then they have two weeks in person. The third week is back to your home. Now we're going to work with you and talk about how we're integrating this at home. And then you have a year follow up with Restore Plus. Once they go through your nine week process, what's after that? You say follow up. If they've learned everything in that whole process, what can they expect for any future follow ups? That's where you remember that third component of Restore Plus. Okay. So they have access to all of that information, which includes live question and answers frequently during the month with my partner and I, which includes workshops, additional information that is added every week. So there's a good amount of base information there right now, but we continue to add information about new ways to perceive your health. Like what else can you do and what's the impact on your body if you don't have enough magnesium? What does that look like? And what are the foods that have magnesium in it that you could add now? So we are constantly going and here's the next thing you can look at. Okay. So you just brought up magnesium. Do you do blood tests to check on different levels of different things so that you can always be tweaking things they need to do to stay healthy? Well, I feel like that is out of our scope because we are not medical doctors. Our focus is on things that we can do. Like we do have a section on Restore Plus called Shorts with Dr. Shelly and it's a physician friend of mine talking about things from a doctor's perspective, talking about gut health, talking about different chemicals in your body and what you can do. We try to include as much information as we can, but we're not going to step out of our lane because we are not medical doctors. That makes perfect sense. Now, how do you make sure you get the right balance? You just brought up supplements. When you get supplements, some can interact with different supplements. Some can interact with different medicines. How do you get that balance so that there's no issues there? We are not really making suggestions. The initial suggestion we make is we have a really good line of products called standard process. They grow all their food. It's organic and it's like minerals and vitamins and things that are just basic things that we need for life. Okay. Then after that point, we're not making suggestions so much as providing information. We want you to know this is what you need to do. This is what you need to know about magnesium and here are the signs and the symptoms that you might be deficient. My preference would be that you start choosing some foods from this list that we're providing and eating them every day. If somebody would like to take a supplement, that will be their decision based on what they learn. It's more about us providing information and looking at natural ways to do things. I think that our toxin load is a big deal. People have substances in the air, in the food, on their body. It's like something as simple as getting away from a bug spray that has deed in it and looking at a product that you could make yourself at. You're not going to harm yourself, but you're going to potentially reduce that toxin load that can be huge for people who can't manage toxicity. Sure. That makes perfect sense. So basically, you're just feeding information, let them make the decisions. Then if they need supplements or medications, they just call their doctor and then they go from there and move forward. Right. We are not physicians. People often are getting off of their medications when they do biofeedback, but is all we are doing is encouraging them to go back to their doctor. We just help them consider where were you, where are you. I will talk to people about, so if you're going to go to your doctor, what do you plan to say? I encourage them, tell your doctor you're doing biofeedback. Tell them often when people do biofeedback, they don't need as much medication or they don't need any medication. They're going to have to advocate for themselves, but we do not make medical suggestions ever. That makes perfect sense. This way they can go through your program, they can figure things out, decide what they need, talk with their doctors. Then because of what they're doing with you, they can discuss everything with their doctors. And if they don't need anymore, then if they win for everyone. Right. We really work at what can you do yourself? I mean, they're obviously welcome and encouraged to go see a doctor, but it's like, I think that changes that you can make on your own and they become a part of your last style are the most powerful things you can do. Sure. Just like a plant-based diet can help you. It can change everything. Right. The next question is, how do people contact you and how do they find you? My website is RestoreOfAida.com. Phone number is 580-453-1076. Our email is contact at RestoreOfAida. Okay. Good. Well, this has been great information, great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Well, thanks for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you know someone who has a story to share, tell them to contact us at whynotme.world. One last thing. Spread the word about why not me. Our conversations are inspiring guests. The show, you are not alone in this world.
