It was a pleasure Julie. I am thrilled to have you on board.
Important info is that Julie is about 10-20 min ride from most
westchester areas, that area is a bit short of znc practisioners.
BTW Val is not at all pompous, he just does really good mirror :-)
so I always look at the source.


Meg


--- In neurofeedcommunity@yahoogroups.com, "Julie Weiner"
<jweiner123@...> wrote:
>
> Meg, you can take credit. It was your enthusiasm and willingness
to teach
> that led me seriously to explore ZNC.
>
> By the way, my practice is in Riverdale, not Yonkers. Express
buses from
> midtown Manhattan stop within a block of my office.
>
> Julie
>
> On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:09:20 -0400, parisprints2002 <megp1@...>
> wrote:
>
> > Thank you Julie for using your extensive knowledge of biofeedback
and
> > neurofeedback to get across some very nice points. Bravo and
thanks.
> >
> >
> > Meg
> >
> >
> > --- In neurofeedcommunity@yahoogroups.com, "Alan Bachers"
> > <abachers@> wrote:
> >>
> >> Here is a recent post from another list from Julie Weiner, a
Zengar
> >> NeuroCARE user in Yonkers, NY, posted with her permission. This
is
> > in
> >> response to an inquiry as to others' experiences with various
> > systems and
> >> whether they would recommend them.
> >>
> >> Alan Bachers
> >>
> >>
> >> Like many other very experienced neurofeedback practitioners, I
have
> >> switched to Zengar NeuroCAREPro. It is simple to learn and to
use
> > once it
> >> is correctly installed on your computer, and it very reliable as
a
> >> clinical tool because it feeds back to the brain information
about
> > signal
> >> variability, which was years ago identified as a key measure of
> >> self-regulation, rather than specific amplitude or coherence
> > measures.
> >>
> >> I tried for years to use symptom and QEEG-based protocols, but
the
> > problem
> >> with those is how plodding a way of working they are. As with
> > medication
> >> trials, it can take hours, days or weeks to "get it right."
During
> > that
> >> time, it is easy to lose the client's confidence because of
> > setbacks,
> >> interruptions to or lack of progress.
> >>
> >> Zengar NCP is reliable because it leaves to each brain the
question
> > of
> >> exactly what needs to be corrected. The brain is a far more
> > efficient
> >> correlation machine than you or I can possibly be no matter how
> > expert we
> >> become in referring to databases of QEEG norms or EEG-
equivalents of
> >> neuropsychological symptoms.
> >>
> >> ZNCP simply triggers the brain's own "orienting response"
whenever
> > any of
> >> the brain's self-regulatory mechanisms go off-line. The brain
> > checks out
> >> what the problem is within itself, and begins to self-correct.
How
> > the
> >> program knows when a self-regulatory mechanism goes offline: by
> > measuring
> >> changes in signal variability (more detail on which, below).
How it
> >> triggers the orienting response: by creating a very brief pause
in
> > a
> >> musical phrase when variability changes. (The client or
therapist
> > chooses
> >> the music being played from either a CD or music files on the
> >> practitioner's computer.) The unexpected break in the rhythm or
> >> continuity of phrase triggers the orienting response, upon which
the
> >> brain automatically scans itself (as it always does when
something
> >> unexpected happens; after all, self-scanning is the only way
brains
> > figure
> >> out what's going on in their environment, since all sensory
> > information
> >> about the outside world is represented inside as neuronal
changes).
> >>
> >> How ZNCP measures and feeds back signal varibility: it
continually
> >> measures, from the center of both left and right hemisphere (C3
and
> > C4,
> >> the central placements over the sensory-motor strip), the signal
> > amplitude
> >> of eight different frequency bins, and certain of the
relationships
> >> between left and right (e.g. difference, I presume, although the
> > exact
> >> parameters of the four "Zengar" protocols are proprietary), and
> > derives
> >> variability measures over a moving time-window. Whenever there
is a
> >> change in signal variability above or below the recently previous
> >> differences measured, the music (and/or visual signal; one can
use
> > a movie
> >> or AVI file or G-force abstractions) is stopped for a brief
instant.
> >>
> >> The therapist's role, at present, is simply to be present with
the
> > client
> >> as witness to their journey, and to maintain the parameters of
the
> >> feedback so that the stops do not become too regular and
frequent,
> > which
> >> would cause the brain to habituate to and ignore them, nor too
> > long, which
> >> would make listening to the music annoying because of all the
> > pauses, nor
> >> too seldom, which might provide too little information for a
> > session to be
> >> meaningful.
> >>
> >> The down side of NCP is that it requires a high-end computer
> > because of
> >> the graphic, audio and rapid, concurrent calculation demands,
> > adding to
> >> the expense. And some people find the personality of its
inventor,
> > Val
> >> Brown, pompous. But he really has come up with a brilliant
system,
> > and
> >> perhaps deserves his pride of leadership and frustration with the
> >> obtuseness and hostility of some of his critics. I have followed
> > the
> >> development of what is now Zengar NCP over many years. It grew
> >> organically, through Val's systematically integrating several
> >> then-established (or neglected) but competing neurofeedback
> > protocols
> >> (e.g. beta, SMR, alpha-theta and the then-frequently-ignored
earlier
> >> discoveries about 40-Hz and single-Hz frequency bins; Val
himself,
> > as far
> >> as I know, developed 7/14/21 Hz work from Mike Tansey's
> > observations about
> >> the emotional concomitants of particular single-Hz bins);
exploring
> > the
> >> strengths of Thought Technology's original Biograph program (
e.g.
> > its
> >> ability to feed back, with a variety of both visual and auditory
> > signals,
> >> more than the three threshold settings and frequency bins that
were
> > then
> >> standard; to set moving thresholds; to allow the therapist to
view a
> >> full-length, two-channel "frequency mirror" or other technical
> > signal info
> >> on one screen while giving the client simple visual images of
> > specific EEG
> >> frequency-bin changes on the other; to track variability; etc.);
> > finally
> >> inventing his own program when he had fully tested the limits of
> > Biograph,
> >> and increasingly automating NCP "journey" choices to free the
> > therapist to
> >> be more psychically present with the client. Other instrument
> >> manufacturers are now inadvertently flattering Val by
incorporating
> >> derivations of variability (e.g. "Z-score" or variability
feedback)
> >> capabilities into their programs, automating protocol choices,
etc.
> >>
> >> So, I've finally officially joined the NCP bandwagon. If I were
> > still
> >> using QEEG-based protocols (as I suppose I will eventually again
if
> > some
> >> client in the future isn't satisfied with the effects of NCP), I
> > would go
> >> with Thornton's Activation QEEG (provided my DOS-based W98
computer
> > and
> >> Lexicor equipment hold up), Peter Van Deusen's similar mini-Q
> > procedures
> >> for testing under cognitive challenge, or Sue Othmers' symptom-
based
> >> protocols, patiently derived from the original simple SMR and
beta
> >> protocols of Sterman, Lubar and Tansey and alpha (or alpha-theta)
> >> protocols of Kamiya, Fahrion and Peniston/Kulkosky over many
years
> > of
> >> experience with a wide variety of severely disabled clients. (See
> >> http://www.eegspectrum.com/Applications/Intro/UltimateSelf-
> > Help/HistoryofEEGBiofeedback/
> >> for a good summary-history of neurofeedback).
> >>
> >> Anyway, if you can invest the bucks in a fancy new computer, I'd
> > vote for
> >> Zengar. Especially if you're new to neurofeedback, it is truly
> > turn-key;
> >> there is less to learn to get up and running (though eventually
you
> > might
> >> want to learn more mathematics if you're curious about some of
the
> >> instrument's assessment capabilities) and you can be doing
amazing
> > work to
> >> help your clients without having to know a lot of
neurophysiology,
> > without
> >> investing in QEEG equipment and learning how to paste 23
electrodes
> > in the
> >> right place with the right impedances, and without sending
clients
> > out for
> >> a $1200 QEEG evaluation before you work with them.
> >>
> >> Julie
> >>
> >
> >
>