Neurofeedback

I’m excited to offer neurofeedback as an additional tool for extraordinary living.

NeurOptimal(R)  Neurofeedback is one of the more powerful transformative technologies available today. It is a gentle, non-invasive process that utilizes information about your brain activity to facilitate better mental performance, mental health, and well-being. It’s like exercise for your brain — gently challenging it to develop the pathways it needs for better balance and functioning.

What Is Neurofeedback?

The Zengar NeurOptimal(R) system that I use simply gives your brain information about what it is doing using a dynamical, non-linear, moment-to-moment process, which your brain then uses to reorganize itself in a more efficient and productive way.

It’s helpful in shifting these unproductive patterns –
Hamster-wheeling thoughts
Anxiety/worry/panic
Stress
Depression
Distractibility
Information-processing difficulties
Brain fog
Effects from TBI
Effects from PTSD, and more

Your brain is given the opportunity to reorganize itself into patterns that are more efficient, peaceful, clear, and centered. It increases your mind’s ability to be more flexible, creative, and resilient – allowing you to be more you, more easily.

Other neurofeedback systems require a qEEG, which is then analyzed by someone who decides what your brain needs in order to correct itself and work more effectively. They work in a linear, two-dimensional way, considering only the amplitude and frequency of certain specific frequencies. The NeurOptimal(r) system operates in a nonlinear, dynamical(R) four- dimensional way, monitoring shifts as they occur in intensity, frequency, and duration across a wide spectrum of frequencies. It also trusts that, given the information, your brain can decide for itself what it needs in order to heal and function most effectively. By not imposing an external force on the process, your brain reorganizes itself in the most efficient and perfect-for-you way possible, with fewest side effects.

Neurofeedback is perhaps best known for its help with symptoms of ADD and ADHD. In many cases, symptoms are resolved to such an extent that medications can be dramatically reduced or eliminated. And because it helps train the brain to work more effectively and efficiently, people have reported increased test scores and higher grades. Kids often feel better and happier. And because they are better able to perform at the level they’re capable of, they’re more successful, which feels great. The benefits spill over into other areas of life.

Being centered and relaxed, yet focused, brings out the best in you no matter what arena you are operating in – business, school, athletics, the arts, in relationships – your life! It allows you to be responsive – less reactive – in your life, increasing your freedom, creativity, productivity, and fulfillment.

Using neurofeedback in combination with the energy psychotherapy techniques I use is an even more powerful combination than either methods alone, and gives even greater hope to those who feel helplessly stuck in chronic conditions.

How Does it Work?

The NeurOptimal(R) neurofeedback program I use “feeds back” to your brain information about the signal variability it’s picking up. The feedback triggers your brain’s own orienting response that occurs whenever any of its self-regulatory mechanisms go offline. The brain checks out what the problem is within itself, and begins to self-correct. It’s the “self-correction” that creates the improvement and strengthening.

What Happens in a Neurofeedback Session?

You sit in an easy chair, and I put a couple of sensor clips on each ear that have slender wires connected to them. I also put two sensors the size of a pencil eraser on the top sides of your head. You put on headphones.

For the next 35 minutes or so, you listen to music composed by Grammy-award winning composer Jeff Bova. It’s very easy — you can’t “try hard” to make it work faster or better, and so you can read, nap, play on your phone – your brain knows exactly what to do. The NeurOptimal(R) creators have improved the system to such a degree that it’s now almost fully automated for time and level of feedback, adapting itself to your system in a moment to moment way.

From your perspective, what happens during the session is that as the program picks up a variability in your brain signal, it triggers a brief pause, almost like a skip, or static, in the music. The unexpected break in the rhythm then triggers your brain to scan itself to see what’s going on and what needs to be done. It makes whatever correction is necessary to smooth things out again, and the music starts again. This all happens in a second or two.

When Can I Expect to See Results?

Of course, this will vary from person to person, depending on the severity and complexity of the symptoms. You wouldn’t go to a gym being overweight and out of shape, and expect to walk out after one session in perfect condition. Likewise, it takes a while for your brain to develop the right “muscles” in order for you to feel noticeably better.

Nevertheless, improvements can usually be felt after the first few sessions. Very often, people will report feeling relaxed and “clearer” even after the first session. In order to give it a reasonable trial, though, it’s necessary to give it about 6 sessions. After that, you would continue for a few sessions after you’ve stopped noticing improvements. The extra sessions give you the opportunity to notice changes that are emerging, but not yet fully realized. It also gives your brain a chance to anchor the improvements it’s made.

With more complicated issues like complex trauma, severe ADHD/learning disability problems or Asperger’s syndrome, it’s often necessary to continue longer. But again, given the alternatives, and given the payoffs for the rest of your life, it’s usually an investment well worth making.

Are the Results Long-lasting?

Unlike like medications, which wear off after you stop taking them, the results from neurofeedback are stable over time. It’s like learning to ride a bike — once your brain has developed the pathways that correctly interpret and manage all the signals concerning the balance and movement on the bike, those pathways are there for good.

That’s why, although the initial time and cost commitment may seem like a lot, it’s cheaper and easier than taking medications over the long run. And in the end, you have a brain that works a lot better than it did before!

That being said, oftentimes it’s helpful to come in occasionally for “tune-ups” after the main training has been accomplished. Life gets complicated and stressful, or new developmental milestones are reached, and we might need a little help to get our brain caught up with it all. But the tune-ups can be just a session or two. And some people like to continue on a regular basis over a longer term, because it promotes peak performance.

Side Effects?

There really aren’t any, especially as compared with medication. You might feel a little tired, or “brain tired,” but it goes away after a good night’s sleep. Some people feel a little spacey, but it’s similar to how you might feel after a deep nap or meditation. In some unusual instances, you might feel a mild headache — as if you had overdone it at the “brain gym” — but as with physical overexertion, the best thing to do is another round of neurofeedback.

This isn’t really a side effect, but it can be mistaken for one: sometimes, as the brain is busy reorganizing itself, patterns that have been there for you may become more noticeable. People can mistake that for “It’s making me worse” when it isn’t — you are simply more consciously aware of a pattern that has been with you all along and that is now in the process of resolving. The solution is to keep training! Give your system a chance to complete what it has started — it usually doesn’t take long.

Cost?

I want to make neurofeedback as accessible to people as possible, so I’ve created a number of ways to access it. You can come in and see me for $150/hour, and we might include neurofeedback in the overall plan for your getting yourself back on track. You can also come in for neurofeedback alone, choosing the bundle that works best for you:

Neurofeedback single session: $125
3-session bundle: $300
6-session bundle: $550

Student/Teacher/Military single session: $100
3-session bundle: $240
6-session bundle: $460

Additional family members: $75 each

How Do I Get Started?

Just email me — we’ll talk about what is going on with you and what might be the best course of action. Once we decide that, we just set up an appointment and take it from there!

Neurofeedback Helps Veterans

Read article from NC Health News on how neurofeedback helps veterans with PTSD
http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/09/16/the-reroute-home-neurofeedback-helps-vets-find-their-way/