This review covers Sara, the Manager at the Pasadena location; the NeurOptimal system; and expectations and results in separate sections.
Sara/Pasadena Neurofeedback Training Co.
Sara was absolutely wonderful from start to finish and beyond: highly supportive, flexible to work with my situation and needs, appropriately communicative in email. A user of the NeurOptimal system herself, she's a true healing facilitator, wanting the best healing for everyone, whether it's with NeurOptimal or other modalities elsewhere. She had a number of suggestions during my 3 month rental process which helped me get the most out of my brain training investment.
The NeurOptimal System
Good: the sensors are more durable than one might think from reading the informative manual included with the system when renting. The sensor cabling is high-quality tangle-minimizing. The z-amp signal processing device seems well-made, and was trouble-free in my usage.
Bad: Even after 3 months, i was not facile at swiftly placing nor especially removing the sensors. The scalp sensors proved problematic to properly locate and get to adhere reliably through my lush, thick hair. I did eventually get little circles of hair cut on the ideal scalp spots, which helped a bit.
The electrically conductive paste is a royal pain to get out of one's hair. You'll do a lot better than i did if you have someone able to actually see it and help clean it all out of your hair. Thankfully it does wash out with a good hair washing.
The handles and spring mechanism on the ear sensors could use improvement. They may work well for dainty little fingers, unlike mine. The plates tend to slide side-to-side during placement and removal, due to the spring mechanism lacking sufficient lateral motion resistance. Hopefully later generations will see improvement with the handle grips and this unwanted sliding lateral motion.
There were problems with the Microsoft Surface: headphone jack wouldn't fit the mini plug on my preferred headphones, intermittent USB connectivity, touch surface usability issues. Software issues included: lock-ups, over-long audio silences, and general UI slowness. Technician Hank from the Neurofeedback Training Co. was excellent, cleaning up the mess from missed OS updates since January. The system worked a lot better once he was done.
Summary: despite the issues i had, the NeurOptimal system functioned as intended the vast majority of the time, and absolutely fulfilled its job as a brain-training tool.
Expectations and Results
My situation was, and is, complicated: dealing with a slew of physical and mental/emotional un-health issues. A psychotherapist who'd used and benefitted from the system herself recommended neurofeedback, specifically with Sara and the Neurofeedback Training Co. While neurofeedback would not resolve many of my issues, this therapist believed it would likely help my brain learn to be more swift and facile exiting the limbic fight/flight/freeze response--a major issue for me.
I did 2 initial in-office sessions with Sara, to become familiar with the system and what it could and could not do. I believe there was at least a slight beneficial effect from just these two sessions. I decided that using the NeurOptimal system for the recommended 2 to 3 months was likely to be beneficial to me, and rented a system for home use.
Most of the changes were gradual, and nonlinear. I didn't notice much of a change for another week or two, on the subtle side. Others in my life noticed more.
More time, more improvement. Clearly noticing the beneficial changes after a month, more so after 2 months. Went for a 3rd. month. Glad i did: the frequent daily training absolutely helped me make it through a difficult period, and further helped my brain learn to differentiate very rare actual immediate threats demanding immediate action for survival vs. long-term things that would play out over days/weeks/months.
It is now a few weeks after the end of my 3 month NeurOptimal rental period. I am no longer stuck in fight/flight/freeze. Though i continue to deal with many severely stressful things, anxiety now tends to be momentary, or at worst, brief: maybe a couple of minutes.
There has been a minor lessening (improvement) in staying awake in the middle of the night. There has been a significant lessening in waking up during the night or morning and immediately start worrying. Difficulty completing tasks decreased moderately. My anxiety has noticeably decreased. A sense of numbness has decreased. Fewer obsessive thoughts.
Everyone's brain is different, with no guarantees of efficacy for any mental/emotional health work including nerofeedback. Not only myself but the people who deal with me the most are quite certain that my having undergone brain training with the NeurOptimal system through the Neurofeedback Training Co. facilitated by Sara at the Pasadena office has materially benefitted me and my ability to cope with the many challenges of life. read more