I’ve just experienced a powerful new therapy that corrects imbalances in the way the brain functions. It’s called neurofeedback, or brain training.

With hypnotherapy and NLP coaching we aim to alter the conscious and unconscious programs that determine how we experience the world – in other words, we work with the ‘software’ of the brain. Neurofeedback, on the other hand, actually alters the brain wiring itself – the ‘hardware’ of the brain.

I began by going for an assessment with a Brain Harmonics practitioner in Rondebosch. She applied some sensors to my head and then I just lay back and relaxed while a computer played sounds and images and measured my brain’s response. The end result was a report outlining where my brain was producing either insufficient or excessive brainwaves of a particular type. I wasn’t surprised when my report showed too much Beta activity towards the back of the brain, which explained my problem with sleeping. There was also an imbalance that explained my habitual low moods.

Dynamic feedback

I decided to continue and do the full brain training course. In this process, the sounds and images played by the computer are dynamic – meaning they actually respond to your brainwaves, giving your brain immediate feedback on how it is doing. In this way the brain learns to adapt and change itself, without you consciously doing anything.
I found the process quite powerful, with a definite period of adjustment in which my mood seemed to actually get worse. However, I was told that this was a common experience, and that this would sort itself out – which it did. I am experiencing much more stability in my mood and general outlook on life, and I attribute this to the brain training.

Mental defence mechanisms

What’s most interesting to me, as a therapist, is that neurofeedback shares a similar insight with hypnotherapy and coaching – that our ill-health and emotional problems are often caused by early traumas that cause us to adopt mental defence mechanisms. What I didn’t know before experiencing neurofeedback is that these defences actually alter the ‘hardware’ functions of the brain. I had assumed the defences were purely thought-based. So neurofeedback offers a powerful alternative or complementary way of getting at deep-seated defence mechanisms and resolving them so that we can regain true health and emotional freedom.

For more information, visit Brain Harmonics.

The two providers I recommend both produce effective self-hypnosis sessions at a reasonable price. I have tested examples from each of them and found them to be of a suitable standard (This does not amount to a guarantee – it’s merely an opinion and a general recommendation).

Browse downloads from Hypnosisdownloads: Self Hypnosis MP3s

Browse downloads from Hypnoticworld: Self Hypnosis MP3s