Nicki Anderson: Expert uses neurofeedback to help clients focus
By Nicki Anderson
I have always thought of myself as brilliant at doing more than one thing at once. However, through the years, I’ve come to realize that my multitasking talent was just a euphemism for an overactive brain. Some might call it ADD; I call it terribly inconvenient — especially when I’m putting together my weekly column!
Recently, I met Debbie Vyskocil, formally an electrical engineer, and now a biofeedback/neurofeedback expert. It seems that biofeedback/neurofeedback can go a long way in helping people (like me) improve their focus so they can achieve optimal performance in life, work or play.
Vyskocil was introduced to biofeedback when her mother was suffering with a non-treatable cancer. “The doctors at Mayo clinic recommended biofeedback,” Vyskocil said. “The results my mother saw were amazing, and her fellow cancer patients told similar stories.”
With biofeedback, Vyskocil’s mom began sleeping through the night, her pain lessened, stress became more manageable and her quality of life improved. “It was then that I realized how this process could change the quality of people’s lives,” Vyskocil said. “So, I decided I wanted explore the field further.”
Debbie Vyskocil, a biofeedback/neurofeedback expert, helps a client improve her golf game.
Vyskocil went back to school and became board certified as a neurofeedback specialist. “Biofeedback literally means using machines to ‘feed back’ information on how your body responds to your thoughts,” Vyskocil said. “Changes in thinking, behavior and emotions are then used to make physical changes, giving control of the autonomic nervous system.”
It seems the brain can become out of balance (reasons unknown) resulting in a variety of physical and psychological effects. “With neurofeedback, we try to help our clients regain that balance,” she said. “It is a totally noninvasive process enabling sensors to listen to their brain firing and providing almost instantaneous feedback of what is happening so necessary changes can be made.”
Whether you’re trying to improve your golf game, become a more comfortable speaker or improve your athletic performance, focus and relaxation are key.
Vyskocil said most of her clients have a hard time with one or both. “On the field or in the office, your focus needs to be on the goal,” she said. “So, if it is a screaming crowd, 500 stockholders, or getting into ‘the zone’ to hit the ball exactly as needed, you need to quiet your thoughts and your body enough to perform optimally.”
To help her clients, Vyskocil starts by identifying what goals they want to reach. Once that’s established, she connects them to the biofeedback machines to see exactly what is holding them back.
“We know our clients already have the physical skills to play, so they need to work on what is happening in their head that is affecting their body/performance,” she said. Bottom line, typically people can’t quiet their mind long enough to allow them to get into a flow, or there is trouble switching back and forth between focus and recovery.
Her diverse client base includes those who struggle with sleep issues, stress, lack of focus, menopause and chronic pain. Many times the anxious or ruminating thoughts are the root of the problem. There is no shortage of distractions in our technology-filled world. There was a time where you could go on vacation and be completely unavailable. Today, we are constantly distracted and always accessible thanks to cell phones, which not only bring in phone calls, but access to emails, Internet and the latest stock market updates. Our minds are always running.
To say that my mind is overactive is understated. While sitting down to write, I find myself distracted by incoming emails, Facebook posts, Pinterest repins, and on and on it goes.
Meeting Vyskocil and learning how the brain can actually be “retrained” to be more focused and “quiet” inspired me. I know that with a little training, I could actually learn how to stay more focused and ultimately more productive. Hmm, I wonder if she can help me shave some time off my next 10K!
Learn more about Vyskocil’s practice at www.optimal-ep.com