Concussion Treatment

MindForge doesn't bill insurance — by design. Direct-pay is what makes an individualized, intensive program possible rather than care shaped by billing codes. HSA/FSA and financing options exist, and a written Good Faith Estimate precedes any commitment.

Concussion care at MindForge

MindForge is the Dallas–Fort Worth home of Neurological Restoration — brain-first neurorehabilitation that measures, localizes, and retrains, for conditions conventional pathways under-serve. For concussion, that means something specific: instead of "rest and see how it goes," your visual, vestibular, balance, autonomic, and cognitive systems are actually measured, and your recovery plan is built from what the instruments find — then re-measured until the data says you're back. Care follows one continuum: Discovery (a diagnostic day), an individualized Intensive where findings warrant it, then maintenance of what you've rebuilt.

What is a concussion?

A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury: a biomechanical force — a hit, a fall, a whiplash — that temporarily disrupts how brain networks function, usually without anything visible on CT or MRI. That last part matters: a normal scan does not mean a normal brain; scans see structure, and concussion is a disorder of function. Common effects include headache, dizziness, visual strain, fogginess, light and noise sensitivity, sleep disruption, and mood change. Most people recover within days to weeks — and a meaningful minority don't: roughly a third of concussion patients report persistent symptoms months after injury [1], and the strongest predictor of a hard recovery is often not the hit itself but how the recovery is managed.

If you were told to "just rest in a dark room"

That advice is a generation out of date. Prolonged strict rest beyond the first days is no longer the standard — the evidence now supports early, graded return to activity below the symptom threshold, guided by measurement [2]. If you've been resting for weeks and not improving, you haven't failed recovery; you've been given a plan built for 2005. The fix isn't more willpower or more darkness. It's an evaluation that finds which systems — visual, vestibular, autonomic — are actually driving your symptoms, and a program that trains them deliberately.

Where concussion symptoms actually come from

Each is measurable. Which combination is driving your symptoms is exactly what the evaluation determines — guessing is how recoveries stall.

Is this the right page?

This page is for recent concussion — days to weeks after injury. If symptoms have persisted for months, start at post-concussion syndrome; the evaluation is related but the program thesis differs. If the injured person is a child or teen, start at pediatric & teen concussion — school, sport, and growth change the plan. And if there are emergency signs — worsening or severe headache, repeated vomiting, seizures, weakness or numbness, unequal pupils, or declining alertness — this is not a rehabilitation question: go to the emergency department now.

How we evaluate a concussion: the Discovery Day

Every MindForge patient starts with the MindForge Discovery Day — a comprehensive neurological evaluation + report of findings + care plan, in one diagnostic day — one fixed fee, the same for everyone, shared plainly on your first call.

For concussion, the battery is matched to the injury: VNG-class oculomotor testing, balance and posturography, graded exertion response with autonomic measures, cervical contribution screening, cognitive testing, and validated symptom instruments. Then a hands-on clinical exam, and a same-day report of findings: which systems are involved, what we recommend, what it would cost as a written Good Faith Estimate — and whether you need us at all. Many recent concussions need a measured baseline, a graded plan, and a few follow-ups rather than an intensive; if that's you, we say so. Data, not promises.

Treatment: the Post-Concussion Intensive, scaled to the injury

Where findings warrant structured care, treatment is delivered as a concentrated, individualized program — for persistent cases, the full Post-Concussion Intensive described on the PCS page; for recent injuries, often a shorter graded-recovery program. The components, chosen by your data:

• Graded, sub-symptom-threshold aerobic reconditioning — the exercise-based approach supported by randomized-trial evidence for speeding recovery after concussion [2]
• Vestibular Conditioning — structured retraining of balance and gaze stabilization where vestibular findings are present [3]
• Visual/oculomotor rehabilitation — targeted work on the tracking and focusing systems driving screen intolerance
• Cervical care — where the neck is contributing
• Functional-medicine support — sleep, headache-trigger, and metabolic factors that drag recovery (how FM supports recovery)

Dosing is deliberate: concentrated enough to drive adaptation, always below the threshold that sets you back. Programs are individualized — pricing is shared plainly on your free 15-minute call; recent-injury graded programs typically scope lighter — and your exact quote comes with your Discovery Day results, with a Good Faith Estimate. The week-by-week shape is on what to expect. What we don't promise: a cure or a date. What we do: measurement, dosing matched to your findings, and re-testing that shows whether it's working.

What treatment looks like: after your Discovery Day, a typical recent-concussion program runs concentrated sessions across consecutive days to weeks — graded exertion, vestibular and visual work, and re-measurement — with your plan adjusted from your numbers, and your return to work, school, or sport sequenced by data rather than guesswork. It starts at the Discovery Day, and what to expect shows the daily rhythm.

What it costs

• MindForge Discovery Day — one fixed fee, the same for everyone, shared on your first call
• Programs — individualized; pricing shared on your free 15-minute call, exact quote + Good Faith Estimate at your Discovery Day wrap
• Superbills for out-of-network claims, HSA/FSA typically eligible, financing available — details on ways to pay

How to schedule

1. 01
   Book a free 15-minute call

   Online or at (214) 730-6463. For a recent injury, tell us when it happened; timing shapes the plan.
2. 02
   Your Discovery Day is scheduled live on that call

   Scheduled live, on the day that works for you; no online checkout, deliberately.
3. 03
   If a program follows, it typically begins within days

   Traveling from outside DFW? One-trip planning is available.

Prefer to start without a call? Send your records — a clinician reviews what you already have and tells you what they see, for a fixed review fee shared up front.

Frequently asked questions

[2] Sub-symptom-threshold aerobic exercise after concussion (Buffalo protocol): Leddy JJ, et al. Early Subthreshold Aerobic Exercise for Sport-Related Concussion: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatrics. 2019;173(4):319–325; replication in adolescent concussion, Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (2021).

[3] Vestibular rehabilitation: Grade-A meta-analytic evidence for peripheral vestibular dysfunction (proof-point inventory row 1); applied per-finding post-concussion.

Educational content. This page is educational and is not a diagnosis. Emergency symptoms belong in an emergency department.