Perception - Enhanced

Have you ever wondered how your life might be different if you could concentrate better, get a full nights sleep, or even managed your temper?  What would it be like if your child could start to succeed in school without Ritalin?
​ Brain-training (also called neurofeedback) is neither a magic wand nor a fantasy.  It is backed by decades of experience and research and while a lot more exciting research is being done there is clear evidence and support for the effectiveness of brain training for a variety of conditions (see research articles). Common issues that are treated with brain training include ADD, ADHD, PTSD (trauma recovery), depression, anxiety, addiction, autism.
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​​​What we see - shapes our Choices, How we see - shapes our World.
The MindGym’s mission is to help your child see in real time how to shape and develop their brain and body's ability to Focus, Center and Unleash creativity.  Combining proven brain and biofeedback technologies in a supportive team environment to help them literally change the way they see the world and enhance their ability to respond proactively and creatively.  

• See their brain work in real time - learn how to switch on - and switch off
• Become more present, calmer and creative
• Reduce feelings of stress, anxiety and depression
• Enjoy better health, improved relationships and productivity

​​Focus - HEG

Imagine taking your child’s brain to the gym - because this is literally what Focus- HEG technology allows them to do.  
Focus - HEG helps us train the front of our child’s brain – the prefrontal cortext (PFC). The PFC is the executive centre of the brain responsible for:

• Focus
• Attention
• Task Switching
• Impulse Control
• Mood regulation
• Working memory
• Language processing

​What could Focus-HEG training do for your child?
Focus- HEG helps with ADD/ADHD. ADD/ADHD  is a real neurological disorder and typically results in dysregulation of the PFC. Brain scanning studies have shown different activity in the PFC of children and adults suffering with ADD/ADHD. These scans have demonstrated a deactivation of the PFC during tasks requiring concentrated attention, for which you would normally see an increase in PFC activity. This deactivation results in the symptoms commonly seen with this condition.
Focus-HEG helps with Peak Performance.  The PFC is the engine that runs your brain – increasing your blood supply in this area is the equivalent of turning your mini into a V8.  Additionally learning how to intentionally lower PFC activation is a critical part of stress management allowing us to recuperate and repair. In conjunction with Centre-HRV and Unleash-AlphaTheta training MindGym can help your child live a fuller and more connected life.
In summary, the PFC controls attention, blocks distractions in the environment, controls physical and emotional impulses and supports focused attention.
How Does it Work?
When you go to the gym and exercise (exert) a particular area, blood rushes into the area to meet the extra energy requirements and repair stressed tissue and organs.  Repeated exercise will cause the body to start building more capillary beds to hold more blood so the area can perform better for longer. 
The brain is a voracious user of blood, and where in the brain that blood supply goes will shape our experience significantly.  As we mature we should be more able to use the front of the brain to think our actions through and make more informed, integrated decisions.  However our body also tries to conserve energy and use our autopilot to save energy demands and pruning under-utilised areas. Later in life this may lead to age related cognitive decline which accelerates rapidly after the age 50.  In the worse cases this leads to Alzheimers and dementia.
How do you do it? 
Focus - HEG involves placing a surface sensor on the forehead. This sensor will read the blood flow to the PFC and display that signal on the computer screen. You quickly learn to increase your capacity to both increase, decrease and maintain your score. With practice clients can increase bloodflow up to 30% in the PFC and maintain this for over 10 minutes.
What Results should Focus-HEG training produce?
Typically raises IQ about 10 points - results can be more dramatic for children
It makes other forms of training more effective and lasting
Lasting results except where there is a degenerative brain disorder
Excellent for reducing migraines
Does Focus- HEG help with Migraines?
Yes!  Dr. Jeffery Carmen developed HEG specifically to treat migraine headaches. He treated 100 migraneurs with HEG over a four-year period. Over 90% of the subjects that completed at least 6 sessions reported significant improvement including substantially reduced pain levels. Typically, both pain levels and frequency of migraine improved. Dr. Carmen’s theory for the efficacy of HEG for migraines is that HEG training strengthens the PFC’s inhibitory control over some part of the brain that is thought to generate migraines.​​

​​​Centre- HRV

​For centuries the heart was seen as central to human's well-being. Centre-HRV training lets your child learn how to shift from fight-flight stress response to the rest-repair recovery cycle.
Centre-HRV Training helps us track the beat rhythm of your child’s heart and shift the pattern through breath and emotional focusing.  Centre-HRV training makes your child:

• Calmer
• Sleep Better
• More Appreciative
• Happier
• Communicate more effectively
• Healthier
• Better Brain function
• More Energetic

How does it work?
Our body is constantly scanning our environment looking for signals about safety.  We were designed to function well in an environment that was mostly safe, but our fight/flight system was designed to trigger all available reserves and resources to protect us in time of physical and or emotional threat.  Living in a modern technologically connected society exposes your child to an unrelenting stream of stimulation and stress often without the buffering effects of loving touch and connection. What this means is their body gets no chance to shift into rest/repair mode.  Over time this causes a series of negative impacts including:

• Feeling Stressed
• Getting Sick
• Emotional Overreactions
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Massively elevated risk of heart disease

Additionally, because we are social creatures the stress of others automatically triggers our own fight flight systems.  Practices such as meditation, prayer, dancing, holiday, sports etc are ritualized ways that society developed to help each other shift down into the rest and repair cycle.  However, for peak performance, inspirational leadership and personal wellness learning to manage our own responses is a critical skill. By learning how to consciously shift our psychophysiological we can quickly re-regulate ourself after a stressful event conserving our energy, regaining our equilibrium and ready to respond appropriately to the next challenge.
How do you do it?
Centre-HRV involves clipping a sensor to your child’s earlobe.  The sensor measures their heart rate and calculates the beat to beat variation in their heart rate and displays that on the screen.  Your child will learn to shift and regulate the pattern utilizing a variety of strategies and learn to accurately tune in and read their own body state.  With practice they will be able to shift rapidly from a stress state into a place of alert, centered responsiveness.
What results should Centre-HRV produce?
Centre-HRV training will help your child become more centred, calm and grounded.  It should significantly improve sleep patterns and support less reactive behaviour.  Other common impacts include a reduction in high blood pressure and heart rate. Learning to communicate in a coherent heart state is allows deep intimate and safe sharing even around difficult topics. In short it produces the benefits experienced by long term meditation practitioners in a much shorter time.
Does Centre-HRV help with Anxiety?
Absolutely Yes!  Anxiety is the result of the sympathetic nervous system (fight-flight) being triggered.  Centre-HRV training helps you see and experience in real time the impact of changing this.  Centre-HRV training is ideal for people experiencing anxiety as it helps demystify the underlying physiological triggers for their experience.
Does Centre-HRV help with Depression?
Yes! Depressed people are often quite disconnected from their emotional and/or physical body state.  Centre-HRV helps you dial into your experience.
Is Centre-HRV training good for peak performers?
Absolutely!  Peak performers are typically very good at engaging their entire nervous system towards their goals.  Because their energy level and the expectations of themselves and others demands can be quite high it can be easy for them to rapidly or gradually shift into an overworked/ chronic fight/flight state.  This predisposes them to a variety of chronic health conditions. Centre-HRV training helps peak performers learn to dial down and rest. However in the high performance zone state the heart is also in a coherent rhythm indicating that more than just a relaxation it is a key ingredient in sustaining long term peak performance.
Does Centre-HRV help children and teens?
Sometimes.  Children are typically very good at re-regulating themselves although the younger they are the more they rely on parents and caregivers.  For this reason if you have a stressed younger child it is better for you to do the programme yourself so you can tailor it for your child.  Between the ages of 11 and 15 teenagers go through an extremely significant brain pruning process as their brains preps them to prepare for adulthood.  This process is extremely stressful with common effects of anxiety, depression and emotional volatility. Centre-HRV training can help them regulate the often, chronic levels of stress they experience.  
Does Centre-HRV help with Leadership?
Absolutely Yes! The pattern of your physiology affects those around you.  Research has shown that the electromagnetic resonance can be measured well outside the body and attuned communicators demonstrate an ability both to respond to and impact the wellbeing of others. 
What are the side effects of Centre-HRV?
Absolutely none – physiological coherence is all good news unless you want to be irrationally angry or violent.

​Unleash-AlphaTheta

​​Imagine if you could sculpt your brain in a targeted specific way to reduce your anxiety or depression, or seizures from epilepsy, imagine if your ADD or ADHD child could learn to sit still and focus in class imagine if they could harness the power of their keen and active mind undulled by stimulant medication.  

When I heard what results people reported from EEG neurofeedback I was initially highly sceptical.  However as I reviewed literally decades of research and the reports of thousands of practitioners and saw that it had been approved by the finicky US FDA I decided it warranted further investigation.  My personal experience and that of my clients has reinforced a number of things clearly.  Firstly EEG Brain Sculpting works - powerfully.  Secondly we are only beginning to tap the potential of this technology to change people's lives for good.

Perhaps what is most exciting is that we can help people shift radically in relatively short periods of time (a couple of months) and these gains are maintained and even strengthened once clients finish.  It is literally like learning how to ride a bike, once the brain learns it it automatically applies those skills every time it is relevant,  so a good pattern becomes stronger and even more effective over time.