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Several weeks ago, Zach and I asked Leah Zinnert to join the Premier team. When we hired her, we knew we had found a personable, intelligent, therapist AND trainer (she holds a doctorate in Physical Therapy and is an NSCA certified strength & conditioning specialist). What we didn't know is that we were also getting a thoughtful writer. After sending Leah off to become a Neuro Therapy master for 2 weeks in Arizona, we were pleasantly surprised to find she took the time to put some thoughts down on paper regarding Neuro Therapy and a little exploring she did through the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Read on to learn more about how Leah compares Neuro Therapy to some of the most beautiful, jaw droping sights in the US. And after you're done, please join us in welcoming Leah to the Premier team by commenting below or emailing her at leah@premierneurotherapy.com. You can also learn more about her by reading her bio at: www.premierneurotherapy.com/premier-team.html We're so happy to have you on our team, Leah! Part 1: Exploring the depths of your nervous system While in Arizona for Neuro Therapy training over the weekend, I decided to take a very long day trip. An adventure to say the least. I drove 4 hours from Mesa to the Grand Canyon, 2 hours from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, and then 2 hours at the end of the day back to Mesa. Coffee was my friend. As I sit here and reflect upon my travels, I can’t help but relate the experience to the Neuro Therapy process (of course).  If you have ever been to the Grand Canyon, you may understand that overwhelming feeling of astonishment and wonder as you gaze out over the beautiful rocks. It's the first feeling that you get looking out over the Canyon. You’re flooded with a variety of emotions. It’s difficult to comprehend what is happening, how it’s happening, and how something so massive freaking got there in the first place. That experience is a lot like how the sensation hits you when going through Neuro Therapy treatment. And that massive thing in the distance is your compensatory movement patterns, which contribute to your nagging aches and pains. But as that intense first feeling starts to wear off, you can begin to explore further. The more you learn and experience, the more you want to get closer to that edge, hike the trails, travel deeper into that canyon. It becomes an unforgettable immersion of the senses that live on with you. Metaphors aside, Neuro Therapy is much like this experience. It’s an amazing opportunity for discovery of your nervous system and the way it impacts your movement patterns. To bring your compensatory patterns to the surface and sustain meaningful lasting change, we must overload the system. In other words, you’ve got to get closer to the edge. Part 2: The Snoopy Rock, Perspective, And The Little Things That Contribute to the Big Problem of Persistent Pain My experience in Sedona was nothing short of breathtaking. The views were incredible and unlike anything I had ever seen. Let’s just say - you can’t get this type of scenery in Baltimore. In the short time I spent there, I booked a Pink Jeep Adventure Tour to explore the Broken Arrow Trail. I was ecstatic to see things up close. Equally excited to go off-roading in a jacked-up Jeep that climbs 35-degree angles in idle (C’mon, that’s freaking cool)! Along the way, our guide, Doug, pointed out Snoopy Rock. It looks like Snoopy on his back with Woodstock, his little bird, sitting on his nose. See Below.  What he said next threw me. Woodstock, the small rock on Snoopy’s nose there… is 18 feet tall. My jaw dropped. Granted, from a distance everything looks smaller than it really is. But to the side of that seemingly tiny 18-foot rock, take a gander below at the monstrous structure that sits next to Snoopy.  Which brings be to my point... it’s all about perspective. From a distance, these things may look insignificant, but once you get up close and personal, they’re massive.
The same can be applied when thinking about any old injury or change in movement pattern that seems too little to be the cause of your pain or poor performance. As Neuro Therapists, it is our job to bring your awareness to these seemingly LITTLE things that may be having a BIG impact on your day to day function. Once we have perspective, we can bring your awareness of these things to the forefront and correct them. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer Are you ready to change your perspective? Come see us! Questions for Leah about her Neuro Therapy training process or trip to the Grand Caynon and Sedona? Shoot her an email at leah@premierneurotherapy.com.
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Several of our clients have recently asked how Neuro Therapy is different than something else they had heard about, biofeedback therapy. If they had that question, I thought some of you may also be interested in learning more about the differences between the two. In some ways, Neuro Therapy is similar to biofeedback, but in other ways it is very different. When the body is under stress, the following response can occur: increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, aches and pains, increased muscle tension, inflammation, and decreased recovery rates. Sometimes, the nervous system can get stuck in the "stressed state", even when there's no true threat, causing this response to last longer than necessary (i.e. persistent pain). Both biofeedback and Neuro Therapy aim to re-train the nervous system's response to stress, but in slightly different ways. Biofeedback therapy basically consists of two things: -A quantitative measurement of your body's stress (ex: blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, etc) -Manual techniques to bring these measurements into a more normal range  As an example, you might sit in front of a computer screen (above) that is showing a readout of your blood pressure. Your biofeedback instructor might teach you a specific breathing technique to help you relax the nervous system and bring your blood pressure down. The data on the screen would help you see whether or not the breathing technique is working. Over time, and with consistent practice, your body may learn to relax the nervous system, helping to control blood pressure better, even when you're not using the breathing technique. By providing a visual readout of data, it gives you and your nervous system the ability, consciously and subconsciously, to learn how to control the parameter (even under stress).. really cool stuff! From a high level overview, Neuro Therapy works in a very similar way. We are also re-training the nervous system to respond differently to stress. The biggest difference is that we are not using a visual readout that provides quantitative data. Rather, we are using your qualitative response to the stress (how intensely you are feeling the current). See the video below for a visual of how/why the body responds differently from a qualitative standpoint. We then use movement/exercises to help the body to start re-interpreting this stress (the current) and re-train the nervous system to stay relaxed, even under stressful conditions and positions. Simply put, biofeedback allows you to visualize the stress response through data, while Neuro Therapy allows you to simultaneously feel and control the stress response.
In both cases, the goal is to transition the nervous system from being stuck in that "stressed state" (which can be a contributor to persistent pain) to a more relaxed state, which minimizes persistent pain and promotes tissue recovery. More questions about Neuro Therapy or biofeedback therapy? Shoot me an email at: support@premierneurotherapy.com or comment below!  My wife and I just bought our first home and with buying a new home, comes customization. We decided to update the standard light fixtures to something a little more our style (I’m not claiming to have style). We picked up three light fixtures from Lowe’s and off we went to replace three light fixtures at home - 2 in the hallways, 1 in the dining room.
I am not an electrician by any means but by profession, electricity is something I work with every day. I have also never changed a light fixture. The most I’ve ever done is change a light bulb actually. I’m not sure if that is that embarrassing to admit or not? So this was definitely a new experience and one that was pretty exciting (as far as home customization goes) because I can’t stand those standardized “nipple” lights and it’s kind of like taking work home with me - I have the opportunity to take something that needs fixed and I can use electricity to help it become better. 4 hours later we had 3 new light fixtures installed (4 hours... that sounds embarrassing too). I yell down to Jenna to flip the breaker and let there be light! But wait, the dining room light didn’t turn on. Hmmm. By this time it was already dark outside and getting late so we decided to call it quits for the night and come back to it another night later in the week after work when there was time. This would also give me time to think about the instructions, all of the pieces to the light fixture, and try to problem solve why we were only 2-for-3. 48 hours rolled by and the only thing I could think of was that I didn’t splice the wires enough when connecting the light fixture wires to the house wires. Essentially, we needed more electricity, or stimulus (there’s the foreshadow to the title of this blog). Jenna hit the breaker and off I went to pull apart the fixture where it connected to the ceiling. The next step was to undo the wiring to splice the wires, and then of course, yell down to Jenna to turn the breaker back on. Finally - light in the dining room. So, why am I telling you this and how does it relate to Neuro Therapy? Well, at Premier we are constantly looking to push clients higher and higher on the output power (stimulus via electricity into the body). Based on years of clinical experience, we know that if we can push a high enough stimulus of electricity into the body, we can create an environment where the body eventually creates an adaption. This change leads to client results. But what if there is not enough of a stimulus in the first place? Well let’s compare that to the light fixture. The exchange of electricity between the light fixture wires and the house wires were very weak at first. Sure, there was a small amount of electricity being exchanged but not enough to yield the result of the lights actually turning on. However, after splicing the wires to allow more of an exchange, Jenna and I could achieve our goal - the light fixture can now provide light to the dining room. So why do we need to turn up the output power during your Neuro Therapy sessions? We know that in order to achieve the result you want, a higher stimulus is needed. |
About the AuthorEvan Lewis is a nationwide leader in Neuro Therapy and founded the Baltimore area's only specialist Neuro Therapy facility. 
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