About the Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS)
Lens Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback that works with a person’s brainwaves. It acts like a catalyst that activates the brain’s own capacity for self-regulation and self-healing to restore optimal brain function. It facilitates changes in people of all ages with a wide variety of presenting issues. Addressing the brain in its own electromagnetic language, LENS opens the way for the brain to ‘defragment and reboot’, allowing it to get past frozen, dysfunctional patterns.
How Does it Work?
Sensors are applied to the scalp to record brainwave activity. The signals are processed by specialist software and key signals are gently fed back to the brain at a strength hundreds of times weaker than a cell phone signal. Very low energy, very precisely timed, is the heart of the LENS. This signal causes a tiny fluctuation in brainwave patterns that permit dysfunctional brain patterns to correct themselves. LENS is like pushing the re-start button on your brain, returning it to its original, healthy state.
Treatment itself is very brief (just a few seconds at each site treated) with the rest of the 25/50 minute session spent talking about the effects the person has noticed since the last treatment so that it can be tailored to best suit the individual’s needs.
Results can be seen quickly, sometimes from the first session, and, where brain dysregulation is the key issue, are lasting. On average, 20 sessions are required. However, some people require as few as 3 sessions, and others require a longer period of treatment where issues have a genetic component.
What can I expect?
You will be asked to complete some questionnaires prior to your first appointment. This assessment session will last for about an hour. Following an initial discussion about current symptoms and functioning, historical symptoms and client sensitivity/reactivity, treatment may start in your first meeting with me. A mild abrasive gel is used to prepare the scalp site and a conductive paste is applied to 3 sensors. Two of these sensors are gently clipped onto the person’s earlobes, and the third sensor is moved around specified sites on the head for a few seconds at each location. The number of sites treated at each session will depend on the sensitivity and reactivity of the client. Based on the recordings at each site, the LENS uses a very low power electromagnetic field to deliver a tiny, battery-generated feedback stimulation. In such a way, it mirrors back the brain’s own patterns, prompting it to re-balance and adopt a more functional state. Most clients feel nothing at all during the process, others who are very sensitive may notice a very mild tingling or fluttering.
Between sessions, people are asked to observe closely and note any effects (positive or bothersome) so that treatment can be adjusted to provide a successful outcome and ensure the treatment is a comfortable experience for them. Symptom ratings are recorded following each session to track changes (progress and complaints) during treatment. The actual neurofeedback aspect of the session usually lasts from a few seconds to a few minutes, with the rest of the session spent talking about what effects, if any, the feedback has had on you since your last treatment. Sessions usually occur on a weekly basis.
Who can benefit?
LENS has been used with more than 500,000 patients with a variety of symptoms, both physical and emotional, that are associated with central nervous system functioning problems. It can improve functioning in the following areas:
• Mood
• Anxiety
• Cognition
• Movement and sensory integration
• Available energy
A controlled study of 100 subjects with different diagnoses – including head injury, ADHD, and mood disorders – showed that 90% of them did better after LENS.
Benefits may include an end to the problems affecting a person since a head injury or psychological trauma and an end to the problems that had been interfering with their ability to function in their work or personal life. The return of clarity, energy during the day, sleeping at night, a sense of humour, motivation to get things done, ease of getting things done, memory, ability to read and listen with little or no distraction, and the absence of depression, irritability, impatience, and explosiveness, have been observed repeatedly.
Areas of applicability include ADHD, ASD, depression and other mood disorders, anxiety, irritability and explosiveness, head injury and post-concussive problems, migraine, PTSD, chemical dependence, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The LENS does not cure any of these problems, but will often increase functioning for somebody with symptoms associated with these problems.
How Many Sessions will I need?
The average duration of treatment across all problems is approximately 20 sessions. It is difficult at the outset to predict how many LENS sessions will be required. However, some problems resolve more promptly (mild head injury in around 6 sessions, and stress disorders in 3 sessions) and others require significantly more treatment (autism, severe head injury and stroke). Problems with a sudden onset where the person was functioning well beforehand require less treatment. Genetic problems (where family members have similar difficulties), and lifelong multiple problems where the persons is very sensitive to the feedback usually require over 40 treatment sessions.
While many people feel energy, ease, clarity, and calmness after a LENS session, these positive feelings may initially wear off between sessions. This “wearing off” of the good feelings may cause clients to become discouraged and doubtful about their ability to finish treatment. The wearing off appears to be the brain’s way of struggling to remain in the old, familiar, and dysfunctional state.
As people continue with the LENS, the period during which the positive feelings occur becomes longer and the “wearing off” periods become shorter until they no longer occur. To date, there have been no exceptions to this pattern. It should be noted however, that new insults to the central nervous system after treatment, may produce new problems.
Many of those who have received LENS report continued improvement long after LENS has ended.
What is different about LENS?
In traditional neurofeedback, brainwave information collected via scalp sensors is translated to images on a computer screen or sounds. Clients endeavor to train their brainwaves by making certain effects happen on the screen during sessions lasting 45-60 minutes. No signal is transmitted back to the brain. There is a requirement that the person sit quite still during sessions to avoid muscle activity that would interfere with the measurement of signals from the brain. This kind of neurofeedback typically requires substantially more sessions to see changes than the LENS.
With LENS neurofeedback, clients simply sit quietly with eyes closed for a few moments. A brief, tiny signal feeding back to the brain does all the work. As such, it is much more accessible to clients who cannot sit still or focus for long.
Unlike traditional neurofeedback, LENS clients generally notice changes immediately or within the first few sessions. Fast action, limited number of sessions, overall cost, and the ease and simplicity of treatment all distinguish LENS from traditional neurofeedback.
Is it Safe?
LENS is extremely safe. In over 500,000 clients treated with LENS, there has not been a single reported case of someone being worse off from having been treated with LENS. LENS has been used by practitioners for over 15 years and has grown to 500 practitioners internationally.
Are there any side effects?
While many people feel energy, ease, clarity, and calmness after a LENS session, some may experience some other effects. Although no significant negative side effects have been observed so far, the non-significant ones are listed below. Your understanding of them will help you work with us to provide successful treatment.
Brief Reactions: There are some potential risks of discomfort involved in participating in this treatment. When the feedback is too intense or applied for too long, you may feel uncomfortable, irritable, tense and/or anxious, “wired” or tired. This may last for a few hours to a few days. When this happens, please inform us, and the settings can be changed to reduce the treatment dose, ensuring you are once again more comfortable.
Some people report a change in functioning temporarily as their system re-balances (eg word finding difficulties, or mild co-ordination issues). These issues resolve after a brief period.
Return of Symptoms from the Past: occasionally people experience a return of previously resolved symptoms temporarily (eg cluster headaches, migraine, tics, seizures). Often these are of a fraction of their former intensity, and are therefore more manageable for the person than in the past. This occurs because the LENS is a destabilizing intervention, and inevitably leads to the release of suppressed symptoms. With ongoing treatment these released symptoms go away again and do not return, alongside the persistence of higher functioning.
Adjustment Issues: LENS treatment can have a significant effect in just a few weeks. For some, this can lead to adjustment issues, especially in those prone to anxiety – it can be unsettling to find yourself without symptoms that have framed your life for so long. In such instances it can be useful to have a therapist available, or to have reduced doses, or less frequent sessions to go at a comfortable pace for you.
LENS requires a degree of commitment for those undergoing treatment but results can be significant and enduring.
WHEN IS LENS NOT SUITABLE?
There are some situations when LENS is not appropriate:
• When there is an underlying chronic condition such as Lymes disease, heavy metal poisoning, mould exposure, gut dysbiosis (“leaky gut”) – these should be treated first.
• When a person has recently started a new medication or treatment regime (eg acupuncture, homeopathy, diet, anti-depressants) – it will be difficult to establish what effects are produced by the LENS in guiding treatment. Stabilize on any other treatment regime first before starting LENS.
• When people are medically unstable – again, stabilize first, before starting LENS.
• Physical illness. If you are very unwell, your system is already under stress, and the additional “pull” on your physiology of the LENS will not be helpful. Wait until you are recovered before receiving treatment.
Practitioner: Dr Tamsin Arnold
Charges:
Initial Assessment Session (1 hour): £70
45 minute follow up session: £50
30 minute follow up session: £35
For more information and to book an appointment please go to www.bathneurotherapy.com