Sometimes the most interesting changes are the ones you weren't even looking for.
That's certainly been my experience with NeurOptimal® neurofeedback.
I've been using NeurOptimal personally and offering it professionally since February 2018. Over those years, I've had the opportunity to observe a wide variety of experiences, both in myself and in the people who've rented systems from me.
Some people have reported improvements in sleep, concentration, and their ability to manage stress. Others have described changes they weren't necessarily expecting.
And sometimes the changes have been quite remarkable.
One of my own most memorable experiences involved an unexpected change in my relationship with chocolate.
Yes, chocolate! 😂
I'll tell you that story shortly.
But first, I want to explain how I became interested in NeurOptimal and why it has remained part of my practice for nearly nine years.
In February 2018, I decided to rent a NeurOptimal system.
At that point, I'd already been practising as a clinical social worker and trauma specialist for more than two decades, had recently become a Somatic Experiencing Practictioner (SEP) and had developed a strong interest in approaches that support nervous system regulation.
NeurOptimal intrigued me because it was different from traditional neurofeedback.
Rather than using individualized protocols to encourage particular brainwave patterns, NeurOptimal provides real-time information about the brain's electrical activity.
The idea is that the brain may be able to use this information to recognize patterns and make adjustments on its own.
I was curious enough to give it a try.
Over the following three weeks, I completed 22 sessions.
And I found the experience so helpful that I decided I didn't want to be without a system and saw the benefit of adding it to my practice.
In fact, I purchased three NeurOptimal systems and arranged for them to arrive just before I had to return the rental.
I suppose that's a pretty good indication of how impressed I was with my initial experience!
Since then, I've continued using NeurOptimal myself and have offered home rentals to people interested in exploring it.
Over the years, I've become increasingly interested in the wide variety of changes people sometimes report.
However, I want to make an important distinction before going further.
NeurOptimal is a general wellness brain-training system, and is not officially approved as a medical treatment.
Nevertheless, I think personal experiences can be interesting and worth discussing.
One of the things I've found interesting is that initially some people first experience changes in areas they weren't quite expecting.
Someone might begin using NeurOptimal because they're interested in concentration, for example, but notice that they're sleeping better or feeling less stressed before they notice anything related to focus.
Others describe improvements across several areas of functioning at approximately the same time.
Over the years, some of the more common changes people have reported to me include:
Of course, not everyone experiences these changes.
Some people notice mild responses - or even may not be sure if they had a response - while others describe changes that feel very significant.
I encourage people to approach the experience with curiosity rather than a rigid expectation of what should happen.
Now, about that chocolate.
Before I started using NeurOptimal in early 2018, I ate Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt every single day.
My kids referred to it as my medication. 😂
I never considered it a problem.
After all, I was only eating two to four squares a day, and dark chocolate contains antioxidants!
What could possibly be wrong with that?
But I had chocolate absolutely everywhere.
At home. At my office. At the cottage. In my purse.
If I was stressed, I'd have a little chocolate.
It was simply part of my everyday routine.
A few weeks after starting NeurOptimal, something rather strange happened.
One day I suddenly gasped out loud."MY CHOCOLATE!"
I'd completely forgotten about it!
I ran to the kitchen cupboard, feeling confused.
To my surprise, I discovered an enormous stack of Lindt chocolate bars.There were about eight of them!
Apparently, I'd continued buying chocolate every time I went grocery shopping.
Eggs? Check.
Milk? Check.
Bread? Check.
Chocolate? Check.
It had become such an automatic part of my shopping routine that I continued buying it without noticing I wasn't eating it anymore.To this day, I have absolutely no idea how I failed to notice the growing stack in my cupboard.
But I genuinely hadn't.
And here's the really interesting part.
That was in early 2018, and I never returned to my previous daily chocolate habit.
I still love chocolate, particularly Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt.
Every few years I'll buy a bar, enjoy a couple of squares, and put it back in the cupboard.
But more often than not, I forget it's there.
I've even had to throw chocolate away because it sat in the cupboard for so long that it became old and discoloured.
For someone who previously made sure there was chocolate available everywhere I went, that was a remarkable change.
I hadn't even been trying to give up chocolate.
It was simply something I noticed had changed.
And that experience helped shape my curiosity about how our habitual responses to stress might shift without us consciously trying to change them.
My chocolate experience isn't the only time I've encountered reports of unexpected changes in habits.
Over the years, I've heard from people who described feeling less drawn toward behaviours they'd previously relied upon to manage stress or discomfort.
Sometimes those behaviours involved food or shopping.
Other times, people described changes in their relationship with alcohol or other substances.
What I find interesting is that some people describe these changes as happening without the conscious effort they might previously have needed to resist an urge.
Rather than feeling that they were constantly fighting a craving, they noticed that the urge simply wasn't as compelling.
Another area where I've heard encouraging reports involves concentration and learning.
Some people describe finding it easier to stay focused, organize their thoughts, or complete mentally demanding tasks.
I've also had families rent NeurOptimal systems for their children.
One of the things I sometimes suggest is experimenting with kids doing homework while connected to the system.
Because NeurOptimal doesn't require someone to consciously concentrate on the feedback, there's no need to sit quietly with your eyes closed or to focus upon anything in particular.
You can read, play a game, or work on something while the system runs.
Some families have reported that homework seems to go more smoothly when their children use NeurOptimal at the same time.
I occasionally connect myself to NeurOptimal when I'm working intensively on something that requires sustained concentration.
For example, if I'm developing a presentation and know I'll be spending a significant amount of time organizing information, writing, and thinking, I might decide to have a session while I work.
There's something rather appealing about being able to continue with an activity while the system provides feedback in the background.
With NeurOptimal, you don't have to stop everything you're doing and focus on the neurofeedback.
And for someone who tends to become deeply absorbed in interesting projects, that's a feature I appreciate!
Another significant change I noticed after beginning NeurOptimal involved migraines.
Before using the system, migraines had been a recurring problem for me, partly in relation to my brain injury history.
After I began neurofeedback, I noticed that they became considerably less troublesome.
I also experimented with using NeurOptimal when I felt a migraine developing.
On many occasions, I found that the migraine resolved during a session.
If it didn't, I would sometimes run a second session immediately afterward.
In my experience at that time, the migraine didn't persist beyond the second session.
This was a dramatic and very welcome change - and one that a number of my neurofeedback clients have reported too.
Having said that, migraines are complex neurological events, and their frequency and severity can fluctuate for many reasons.
My experience doesn't establish that NeurOptimal treats migraines, nor would I recommend that someone rely on neurofeedback instead of appropriate migraine care.
But it was certainly one of the changes that made a strong impression on me.
Later in 2018, I was involved in an accident that resulted in a significant concussion.
By that point, I already owned a NeurOptimal system and was familiar with using it.
I chose to continue neurofeedback during my recovery, including on the day of the accident, with my physiotherapist's approval.
It is important to note that a suspected concussion requires appropriate medical assessment, and recovery needs to be guided by the individual's symptoms and clinical circumstances.
During my recovery, I used NeurOptimal quite intensively.
I was generally completing two sessions per day.
I was also on medical leave for six weeks.
But NeurOptimal wasn't the only support I needed.
I also developed symptoms associated with displaced calcium carbonate crystals in my inner ear - it resulted in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), a condition that can cause dizziness or spinning sensations when the head changes position.
I worked with a physiotherapist who helped address these vestibular difficulties.
And this is an important distinction.
Neurofeedback doesn't physically reposition displaced crystals in the inner ear.
That's a mechanical problem that requires an appropriate intervention, such as specific repositioning manoeuvres performed or taught by a qualified clinician.
However, my physiotherapist was surprised by how quickly and extensively I improved.
She commented that my recovery was progressing much better than she'd expected.
Since then, I've worked with other people who have histories of brain injury.
Some have reported improvements in areas such as concentration, cognitive functioning, and everyday stress tolerance.
Occasionally, the changes they've described have been quite dramatic. The mom of one teen client who had had a concussions several months prior and had suffered with being unable to feel emotion since, said within a few days of starting NeurOptimal, we finally have our girl back.
Brain injuries, however, vary enormously.
The location and severity of an injury, the time since it occurred, and the person's overall health can all influence their experience.
NeurOptimal hasn't been established as a treatment for traumatic brain injury, and it shouldn't replace medical care or rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, some people with brain injuries have been interested in exploring it as an additional wellness approach.
Some of the people who've rented NeurOptimal systems from me have been living with complex chronic health conditions.
One client with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) rented a system for approximately a year.
She reported substantial improvements in the neuropathy symptoms she was experiencing.
Of course, one person's experience can't establish that NeurOptimal improves neuropathy or POTS.
Still, I think these experiences are worth acknowledging as individual observations.
Some people find that a relatively short period of NeurOptimal is enough for them to explore what they're interested in.
Others prefer to revisit it periodically.
And occasionally, someone finds the experience worthwhile enough that they choose to rent a system for several months.
There's no universally established number of sessions that produces a particular outcome.
I think it's particularly important to be thoughtful about how we discuss neurofeedback in relation to autism.
Autism isn't something that needs to be cured.
An autistic person who uses NeurOptimal will still be autistic afterward.
However, autistic individuals may experience difficulties with sleep, stress, concentration, or emotional regulation, just as anyone else might.
Some may be interested in exploring whether neurofeedback could support their overall well-being or make certain aspects of everyday life easier.
That doesn't mean changing who they are.
It means exploring whether there are ways to support their functioning and quality of life.
Not everyone who explores NeurOptimal is dealing with a complex neurological condition.
Sometimes people are simply feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or mentally exhausted.
One of my rental clients had previously relied on travelling as an important way of managing stress.
When the pandemic arrived and travel was suddenly no longer possible, she rented a NeurOptimal system from me on several occasions.
She described the experience as giving her a similar sense of relaxation and helping her feel as though she'd had an opportunity to reset.
I thought that was an interesting way of describing it.
Of course, NeurOptimal isn't a substitute for a holiday!
But for her, it seemed to provide some of the sense of relief she'd previously associated with getting away.
And because she could rent a system for home use, she could explore it without adding appointments or travel to her already stressful schedule.
One of the things I've learned over the years is that people vary considerably in how frequently they prefer to use NeurOptimal.
Many people find that they can comfortably have sessions on most days.
The NeurOptimal company indicates that some people may use the system up to twice daily, provided they're responding well.
But that doesn't mean everyone needs to use it that frequently.
Some people seem to prefer having a day off between sessions.
Others are perfectly happy with a couple of sessions per week.
And some choose to use it more frequently for a period and then take a break.
One of the things that appealed to me when I first discovered NeurOptimal was the ability to use it at home.
Home rentals allow people to explore NeurOptimal without having to travel to an office several times a week.
They also offer flexibility and a dramatically lower cost to having fewer sessions done in office with a practitioner.
You can choose when to have sessions, whether that's in the morning, during a quiet afternoon, or in the evening.
You can sit in your favourite chair, have your pets nearby, and create an environment that feels comfortable.
And because NeurOptimal doesn't require individualized training protocols, multiple people in the same household can use the same system.
For families, that can make renting particularly appealing.I've had clients rent systems for relatively short periods, others who returned for additional rentals, and a few who continued renting for several months or longer.
What makes sense depends on the individual, their circumstances, and whether they feel the experience is worthwhile.
I offer NeurOptimal home rentals in Canada for individuals and families interested in exploring this form of brain training.
You don't need previous neurofeedback experience, and there's no requirement for brain mapping or individualized training protocols.
I provide the equipment and instructions needed to get started, along with support for setting up and operating the system.
If you'd like to understand more about the technology itself, you can read my companion article:
Neurofeedback at Home: What Is NeurOptimal and How Does It Work?
And if you're interested in what scientific research tells us about NeurOptimal, I'll also be exploring the available evidence, its limitations, and the questions researchers have yet to answer in an upcoming article.
NeurOptimal is intended for general wellness and brain training. It isn't a medical treatment and shouldn't replace appropriate medical or psychological care.
Whether you're interested in concentration, stress management, or simply curious about neurofeedback, home rental offers an opportunity to explore NeurOptimal and discover what the experience is like for you.