The NeurOptimal® Philosophy

NeurOptimal® is a Dynamical Neurofeedback™ system, and as such very different from other systems. It is completely non-invasive and non-directive because it is based on both a very different understanding about how the brain works, as well as how it is best optimized.

NeurOptimal® is designed to work with the brain as an information-detection system. By simply giving the brain information about its own activity — about what it has just done— NeurOptimal® helps the brain re-organize itself, thereby activating its own intrinsic healing wisdom. As a result of training the brain becomes more stable. As its flexibility and resilience improve, problems and issues begin to fade away.

How does NeurOptimal® do this, and what does this mean for how NeurOptimal® trainers work?

Firstly, NeurOptimal® trainers do not diagnose. And because they do not diagnose, they obviously do not treat. They don’t need to. Diagnosis is irrelevant to NeurOptimal® trainers because NeurOptimal® is continually monitoring "what the brain is doing", microsecond by microsecond, dancing with the brain as it shifts and evolves. A one-time assessment done minutes, hours or days before is WAY too slow to be useful information for NeurOptimal®. Diagnosis for NeurOptimal® is like trying to use a road map to fly in a jumbo jet from New York to San Francisco— it’s just not relevant. In the language of NeurOptimal®, the road map is not information.

There is no need for outside tests to "diagnose what's wrong" or an "expert" to decide “what the central nervous system (cns) needs”. You can simply allow the cns to receive the pure information about itself — untainted by the beliefs of the trainer — and the brain organizes on its own. This is what the cns is designed to do and NeurOptimal® is designed to rely on this inherent intelligence of the brain. As a result, the NeurOptimal® process is perfectly, effortlessly, natural. And this is true no matter what the problem is — even if there was significant developmental delay or injury as far back as birth or even earlier. Every brain has the potential to optimize itself, if given the right information.

Secondly, NeurOptimal® provides information to the brain from a wide array of “targets” representing a vast array of frequencies, many of which were first described by Zengar and are unique to NeurOptimal®. With many systems you have to choose one or two frequencies and hope you "get it right". And if you don’t get it right, there may be specific side effects associated with what you have done. Also, what you are doing for one issue may be contra-indicated for another issue you have. Ugh- so complicated! With NeurOptimal® you not only don’t have to worry about these things, you also receive the benefits of training across the range of all the available frequencies with NeurOptimal®. Whether you are seeking training because of an issue you want to address, to excel in a particular endeavor or to pursue spiritual enlightenment and discovery, you can have it ALL, each and every session. NeurOptimal® does this by using sixteen different targets, each of these targets working dynamically with “where the cns is” at that moment in time. The result of this comprehensive array of dynamical targeting is that you enjoy comprehensive growth and change — across the array of possibilities.

So although someone may do training because they want to feel more alert, or be able to focus better or to feel less troubled in their daily life, they also tell us they are sleeping better and feel lighter and brighter in their life, which seems to flow more easily. They say they are able to cope more calmly with problems and are much more aware when a situation is not positive for them. One client began training to help manage the panic he felt every time he left his house. Not only did he get over has panic, NeurOptimal® helped him significantly improve his golf game, much to the amazement of his golfing buddies and the pro at his club!

One of the additional benefits of working with multiple frequencies the way NeurOptimal® does is that you don’t get side effects as you do when working with only one or two frequencies. Each frequency has a particular effect or state it is associated with. So if you work with one that quiets the brain or one that activates the brain for example, you run the danger of becoming over quieted or over-activated. So a practitioner who uses one of these limited approaches needs to watch very carefully for signs of having pushed the training too far in one direction. In fact, you not feeling good is the information they will use to adjust what they are doing! This is VERY slow feedback as far as NeurOptimal® is concerned! So you get pushed in one direction and then another until the practitioner has decided what is the "right frequency" (this can take weeks to find out) and then that is what your brain is trained with.

When you work with NeurOptimal® you are flowing through many different frequencies in rapid succession, each frequency bandwidth balancing the others. You cannot go too far in any one direction, because you are getting everything moment by moment! You end up alert and relaxed, feeling alive and quiet at the same time. In perfect balance.

While there are many benefits to working the way NeurOptimal® does, there is probably none as great as the fact that NeurOptimal® never tells the brain what to do. This means NeurOptimal® does not “push” the brain in any direction as other systems do, as they categorize the frequencies into ones you need “more of” and ones you need “less of’. While Zengar has contributed greatly to identifying and describing these frequencies, we no longer use this older system of augmenting and suppressing. Whether your brain “should” produce more or less is irrelevant for NeurOptimal®. Instead NeurOptimal® simply gives the brain information about what it is doing and it decides for itself whether an increase or reduction is warranted. Probably more than anything, this pushing in a narrow range of bandwidths that do not balance each other, is the biggest cause of unwanted side effects with other systems. And the fact that NeurOptimal® does NOT do this makes NeurOptimal® not only unmatched in its power, but also its safety. NeurOptimal® works moment by moment with “where the client is”. Other systems set a threshold or level that they want you to be above or below, and the feedback will tell you how well you are doing this. The threshold may shift to a new set level periodically but it is always well behind the curve compared with where you are at any particular time. NeurOptimal® is dynamically assessing and dancing with your brain moment by moment. This “aliveness” makes it a truly interactive system that helps unleash points of “stuckness” in your cns. And when your brain gets tired it works with you where you are, making it very difficult to over train with NeurOptimal®.

The hallmark of an elegant solution is its simplicity, and NeurOptimal® is.... simply elegant.