LENS, or Low Energy Neurofeedback System, is a unique form of neurofeedback treatment. It is quick, efficient and addresses many of the issues arising from our busy, modern lives. LENS works by essentially ‘resetting’ the brain and nervous system. This reset allows the brain to find a new baseline to operate from by breaking up patterns of habitual reactions and responses to environmental and internal stressors. Interrupting the habitual patterns can help free one from anxiety, attention deficit issues, and PTSD-like symptoms. This in turn allows for better stress management.

Many of us are exposed to ongoing stressful situations throughout each day. Medical conditions, poor sleep, unhealthy eating, lack of exercise, overwork, and poor stress management can cause stress to accumulate in our systems. Over time, this accumulation can cause one to become stuck in habitual stress response patterns. If you have a history of trauma with physical, mental and/or emotional abuse, this may prime you to have a less manageable stress response than those without a history of significant trauma.

Our nervous systems have very limited ways to work with ongoing stress. The branch of our nervous system that is mainly affected by it is the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS has two parts — the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic is the ‘get up and go’ system and it roughly governs the fight, flight or freeze reactions. The parasympathetic is the ‘rest and digest’ system and governs relaxation.

Over time, with ongoing stress, we can get stuck in a fight, flight or freeze pattern — the sympathetic nervous system reaction. Sometimes a collapse into apathy may happen — the parasympathetic nervous system reaction. These patterns can manifest as anxiety, insomnia, migraines, ADHD, PTSD, being ‘wired but tired’ and having impulse control issues.

The LENS treatment can help one to break out of being stuck in one of these response patterns; it allows the nervous system to relax out of a sympathetic response or energize the system out of a parasympathetic response pattern.

The resetting into a new baseline of functioning allows the body as a whole to let go of habitual stress responses and maladaptive reactions to our environments that have been learned throughout a lifetime. To be clear, those responses and reactions don’t disappear, they tend to become more conscious, tend to lose the power to overwhelm, and pass through the psyche with greater ease.

The results are very promising. Over the course of treatment most patients report feeling calmer, becoming more able to focus and make decisions, feeling less anxious, and just plain feeling better.

The new baseline takes a relatively short amount of time to achieve. On average, eight to ten weekly treatments are needed and then a few more treatments spaced apart from two to four weeks. For some patients it may take longer depending on the unique issues that person brings. For example, those with a history of head injuries and concussions generally take more weekly treatments than those without that history.

If you would like to learn more about the LENS treatment or would like to schedule an appointment please call Emerge at (360) 787-3615.