Why We're Different from Other Brain Therapies
It’s no surprise that with the volumes of information emerging today about how the human brain functions, there are many, many opinions on how to best change the brain. We think these debates are healthy – and that they will only serve to increase our understanding and ability to arrive at optimal health and functioning.
Clearly, as consumers we have many options. There is no such thing as a single answer. We’ll address some elements of the debate here, but we believe strongly that the best way – and really the only way – to truly understand how Brainwave Optimization works is to experience it yourself. We encourage you to do so.
With nearly 50,000 client brain patterns in our system (and growing) – the largest relational database on brain functioning available today – what we share here is founded on hard data and scientific evidence.
First, we can share with certainty that our modality stands in opposition to a culture that too quickly prescribes pills to alter behavior. Over and over, studies are revealing the inefficacy of the quick-pop pill, especially when it comes to addressing cognitive and behavioral functions. Traditional medicine contends that chemistry drives function. We believe that function drives chemistry and that all function begins in the brain.
When we’re asked how Brainwave Optimization™ is different often the person is asking how we compare to biofeedback or neurofeedback. It is important to understand that neurofeedback can be effective for some people. Both processes are aimed at altering brainwaves. Our modality takes some dramatic departures from neurofeedback.
Download a document detailing the differences between Brainwave Optimization, neurofeedback, and biofeedback by clicking here. The same information is also available below.
Neurofeedback depends on training the person to change their brain. Brainwave Optimization trains the brain to change itself.
Brainwave Optimization collects energy from brainwaves. The energy is transposed into data that is converted into sound. During brain training, the brain’s own sounds are played back to the brain, causing it to seek its own, natural level of health. In neurofeedback, brainwave data is collected and transmitted to a neurofeedback interpretation center. At the center, the data is compared to brain patterns considered “normal.” Then neurofeedback protocols are delivered to force brain patterns to match pre-determined patterns for normal.
Neurofeedback depends on operant conditioning; forcing brainwaves into new and prescribed patterns. Brainwave Optimization induces the brain back to its own healthy state.
Brain changes happen much more quickly and permanently when the brain trains itself rather than when a person is being asked to train their brain. Results happen more quickly and sustain much longer when the brain seeks its own “normal” and is not forced to match a pre-determined pattern of “normal.”
Brainwave Optimization is based on the belief that brainwave disturbances are a result of physical and emotional traumas. Neurofeedback is based on the idea that brainwaves are dysregulated, and training can regulate them.
Through the Brainwave Optimization process, we are able to identify how trauma is affecting brain function. We are able to arrive at a more precise understanding of how that trauma is affecting brain patterns. Armed with that understanding, we are able to directly target the areas of the brain that require re-balancing and harmonizing.
Neurofeedback treatments require a much longer time before results appear.
Although every person’s experience is different, neurofeedback typically requires 40 to hundreds of sessions or more for the average person to experience results. With Brainwave Optimization, clients typically commit to a one-hour process for the initial assessment and then participate in 10-12 sessions in the space of one week. Whereas our clients often report results within three or four sessions, it may take 20 neurofeedback sessions before it can be determined that any positive effect is taking place. For many, this can be precious time wasted. For children, it can be nearly impossible.
Neurofeedback is based on Newtonian physics. Brainwave Optimization is based on Quantum Physics.
Newtonian physics is based on a 17th century notion that the universe is made up of solid objects which are attracted towards each other by a force called gravity. Brainwave Optimization is on based quantum physics, which contends that the universe is a dynamic web of interconnected and inseparable energy patterns. A fundamental concept in quantum physics is “that which is observed is changed.” With Brainwave Optimization, the brain observes itself in order to return to healthy functioning.
