Functional neurology has long excelled at identifying and addressing sensory, motor, and cerebellar contributions to neurological dysfunction. Yet for many complex patients, particularly those with persistent post-concussive symptoms, chronic stress-driven presentations, or autonomic instability, a critical variable remains outside the traditional clinical frame: the appraisal system. How a patient assigns meaning to an event, and whether that appraisal is balanced or polarized, directly modulates prefrontal cortex activity, amygdala output, heart rate variability, and long-term neuroplastic capacity. This course, Balancing Perceptions: Bringing Reappraisal into Functional Neurology, introduces clinicians to the neuroscience of valence and cognitive reappraisal as a clinically actionable extension of their existing functional neurology skill set.

Taught by Igor Dijkers, chiropractor and chiropractic neurologist practicing in the Netherlands, this one-credit continuing education session bridges the work of neuroscientist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist on hemispheric integration, the appraisal theory of emotion, and the structured cognitive methodology of the Demartini Method. Clinicians gain a working understanding of how polarized perception drives sympathetic dominance and amygdala escape, why right hemisphere integration is essential for adaptive reappraisal, and how a systematic, question-based reappraisal process can complement the sensory, vestibular, and oculomotor interventions already central to functional neurology practice. The course includes a detailed case presentation of a patient with persistent post-concussive syndrome whose functional recovery accelerated meaningfully when reappraisal was added to a comprehensive functional neurology program.

This course is designed for licensed clinicians with a foundation in functional neurology who are ready to extend their clinical reach into the prefrontal and autonomic dimensions of complex neurological presentations. Whether you work primarily with concussion rehabilitation, chronic pain, or stress-mediated neurological dysfunction, the frameworks introduced here offer an integrative, brain-based rationale for addressing perception as a clinical variable. No psychiatric background is required. The tools presented are designed to be self-applicable, repeatable, and compatible with existing functional neurology protocols.

Igor Dijkers holds an MSc in biology, completed his chiropractic training in the United Kingdom, and earned his diplomate status in functional neurology in 2007. He has been a faculty contributor to the Carrick Institute since 2025 and is a trained Demartini Method facilitator. He brings a rare combination of biological science, chiropractic neurology, and human behavior expertise to a topic that sits at the intersection of clinical neuroscience, emotion regulation, and brain-based rehabilitation.