FAQs

Ultimately, you have to try it. But you can also know that at this stage Trainers have done many thousands of sessions, and their experiences have been documented by Zengar, and in many cases by other health professionals. Trainers of NeurOptimal^® include doctors, PhDs and psychologists (as well as many other walks of life) . Such people would not have invested in the technology without having assured themselves of its benefits. Whilst Neurofeedback is very new to the UK and Ireland, it has been around for a very long time in the USA and even NeurOptimal^® already has hundreds of trainers in other European countries.

NeurOptimal^® is the result of many years or working within neurofeedback and psychology by two outstanding individuals: Dr Valdeane Brown (a Psychologist and Mathematician) and Dr. Susan Cheshire Brown, PhD ( a Psychologist). They wanted to improve on conventional neurofeedback and as soon as computer processing power became available they translated their new ideas into reality and formed Canadian company Zengar Inc.

Conventional neurofeedback can have side effects because it is based on a human being deciding what your brain should be doing. The beauty of NeurOptimal^® is that information is simply given back to your brain and your brain (which knows best) makes the decisions about what to do. This is why this form of neurofeedback is VERY safe and side effect free. NeurOptimal^® does not mess with your brain, neither does it put anything into your brain. The feedback is information in the form of brief gaps in the music you are listening to.

NeurOptimal^® does not cure anything. It is NOT a medical treatment. It trains and optimises the brain, and consequently a massive range of benefits across the board can be experienced. These benefits/changes, in most cases become long term.

Credit and thanks to: Lake Erie Brain Performance Institute

Since everyone and every brain is different, different people will experience different benefits according to their problems etc. However, there are some universal benefits we tend to see early on which include feeling more relaxed, sleeping better, greater clarity of mind and improved concentration, as well as enhanced mood.

It is not possible for the trainer to know. Each brain is different and depending upon many factors including what you are hoping to change, medication etc it will take more or less time. We often see some changes within 6 sessions, but usually more sessions are needed to stabilise the changes and extend them. Most people attend for between 10 and 30 sessions, though there are exceptions to this at each end of the spectrum. We have clients who love it so much and who wish to keep deepening their experience who have done in excess of 200 sessions.

In most cases yes, as long as you have attended enough sessions for your brain to learn and create new physiological structures. In some cases, changes are “thrown off” by life’s difficulties and a small number of top up sessions will quickly restore balance again.

No. Many elderly people gain huge benefit from sessions, as do young children. With very young children or hyperactive children, keeping them hooked up to the technology for 30 minutes can be challenging but there are ways of keeping them engaged.

Some medications will interfere with it or slow it down – this includes benzodiazepines, though this is certainly not always the case.  Most medication will not prevent it from working.

Anyone is free to buy a Professional System. Some people with serious long term problems buy a Personal or Professional System for home use. Some support groups buy a Professional system to share amongst members.

Anyone can buy a professional system and become a trainer. It is very easy to learn to use. We recommend attending a Zengar certified Basic Certification Course (we are authorised Instructors of this course and offer it frequently) so that you can learn in depth about the technology and how to use it with clients. The course is a 3 day course. Later you can attend advanced courses.