Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT)
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Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT) 〰️
Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT)
Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT), developed by Sandra DeGroat, helps clients understand how their brain, emotions, and learned behavioral patterns work together to drive addictive behavior.
In gambling and other behavioral addictions, many reactions happen automatically—often outside of conscious awareness. These patterns develop over time as the brain learns to associate stress, relief, excitement, or reward with certain behaviors.
NBAT helps bring these automatic patterns into awareness. As clients begin to recognize how their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors interact, they gain the ability to interrupt compulsive cycles and respond in healthier ways.
Through this process, individuals can begin to reshape the patterns that have kept them stuck and develop greater control over their choices.
NBAT provides the foundation for deeper recovery work by helping clients move from automatic reaction to intentional decision-making.
In simple terms, Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT) helps people recognize the patterns running in the background of their mind so they can begin making different choices.
Many addictive behaviors happen automatically. NBAT helps slow that process down by increasing awareness of thoughts, emotions, and impulses as they occur. Once those patterns become visible, individuals can pause, reflect, and respond in healthier ways instead of reacting on autopilot.
What Clients Learn in NBAT
Through Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT), clients develop greater awareness of how their thoughts, emotions, and learned patterns influence behavior. This awareness helps individuals recognize automatic reactions, interrupt compulsive cycles, and begin making more intentional choices that support lasting recovery.,
Clients learn how to:
• Recognize automatic thoughts and emotional triggers
• Understand how the brain learns addictive patterns
• Identify the link between stress, reward, and behavior
• Interrupt impulsive reactions before they become actions
• Develop greater awareness of internal states and decision-making
• Replace automatic responses with intentional choices
These skills create the foundation for lasting recovery by helping individuals move from reacting automatically to responding with awareness and control.
A Foundational Element of the Lilac Grove Integrated Recovery Model™
Neurobehavioral Awareness Training™ (NBAT) is a core component of the Lilac Grove Integrated Recovery Model™ and provides the foundation for the recovery work that follows. By helping clients understand how automatic thoughts, emotions, and learned behavioral patterns influence addiction, NBAT creates the awareness necessary for meaningful change.
This increased awareness supports the next stages of recovery, including the 3-Prong Addiction Recovery System™ (3-PARS), where clients begin replacing harmful behaviors, rebuilding trust in relationships, and exploring the deeper factors that contributed to addiction. Together, these approaches create a structured and comprehensive pathway toward lasting recovery.
