Why Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is necessary because many of us push ourselves far too hard and far too long. We work, take care of children, parents, pets, households, serve the community and attempt to take care of ourselves. It’s a lot and it taxes our nervous systems to the extent that we can’t even quiet our minds and bodies with conventional methods like a day off, a vacation, yoga or meditation. What’s happened is chronic stress settles into our central nervous system and as a result we feel perpetually unsettled. Neurofeedback can help.

What is Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is brain training technology which enables the brain to self regulate and optimizes brain functioning. Neurofeedback calms the central nervous system which improves focus, clarity of thought and sleep.

The brain is an extremely complex organ.  But it has a self-regulating function that is always attempting to keep it balanced, functional and efficient. When everything is perfect in our life our brain has an easy time regulating itself and functions optimally.  But as we interface with the stresses and overwhelm of life, multitasking, relationships, or our coping mechanisms fray it can override the organized nature of the brain. Having a hard time keeping up, our brain gets used to the chaos and these dysfunctional neuropathways become our normal.  We can often still function but we don’t function optimally and our chronic stress can become our identity.

Chronic stress can change us.

Genetic predispositions may trigger, hyper- vigilance, hyper-activity, migraines, ruminating worries, or post trauma reactivity may become dominant.

Neurofeedback re-trains these habitual stress/anxiety responses, to release old stuck patterns and transform them into more stable, efficient and organized patterns with flexibility and lasting resilience. ​ A lot of energy can be wasted spinning wheels about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. Neurofeedback trains you to operate in the present, allowing your brain to be calm yet agile.

What Happens in a Neurofeedback Session?

During a neurofeedback session the brain learns to stay in the present. When the brain is in the present rather than recycling old traumas or future worries, it can be more agile in its response to what is actually happening. As the brain relaxes, the body relaxes. During neurofeedback the brain is changing and that change is permanent. ​ Adults and children report feeling calmer, more focused, grounded, more efficient, and clearer thinking, as a result of their neurofeedback training. Highly trained athletes and stage performers use neurofeedback to improve their skills and focus. It is beneficial for any brain.

Is neurofeedback safe?

NeurOptimal® is approved by the FDA as a general wellness product so it is safe.

Why?  Because nothing is being added to your brain. The training works by alerting your automatic functioning part of the brain to what it’s doing (this part  controls fear, flight/flight, sleep, attentiveness, executive functioning, etc.) so it can ‘see’ its own maladaptive patterns.  Because the brain is designed to be responsive to new information, when a neurofeedback session alerts the brain to its own functioning the brain will naturally tweak itself to be the most efficient and effective response.  When the brain is interrupted and alerted to its own behavior it says “hey, I’m about to create a stress response when I’m sitting here in a safe space.  That’s not efficient or an appropriate response.  I’m not going to do that.”

Why don’t the effects wear off?

Training with NeurOptimal® is actually a learning task. You get results because your brain is actively learning, even if you are not doing the learning consciously. Like reading, once your brain knows how to read, it can’t “not know”. Your brain doesn’t forget.

However, life goes on and you can— and will— get “sideswiped” by stress, by the environment you live in, by alcohol, by an anesthetic, by the difficult daily lives we all seem to live. When that happens, a few refresher sessions will get you back to where you were. A “neurofeedback trained brain” is quickly able to respond to the new sessions. It’s as if the brain says “I remember this!” and it goes through all the steps it went through in the weeks of initial training, but very quickly. So you are soon back into your good and stable place.