Customer Reviews
Chronicles the development of neurofeedback 
2008-08-12
Stephen Larsen, Psychology Professor Emeritus at SUNY, chronicles the development of neurofeedback - an electronic feedback of brainwave frequencies that elicits amazing healing responses in people with post- concussion syndromes, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, ADHD and more. Larsen focuses largely on the methods developed by Len Ochs, PhD, an innovative explorer in these realms.
The earlier approach of EEG biofeedback entrained the brain rhythms for alpha or theta frequencies, producing relaxation and enhancing meditative states. Ochs discovered that by feeding back to the brain the frequencies that the individual was producing at the moment produced much more rapid and profoundly effective results.
People with brain injuries who suffered chronic headaches, confusional states, emotional lability and instability and people who had long-standing psychological problems that had resisted conventional and unconventional therapies could respond very rapidly to this treatment. The amazing thing is that the feedback stimuli required to produce these changes are very delicate and brief, yet extremely potent. Initially Ochs used stimulation with flashing lights, but he serendipitously discovered that radio frequencies could produce the same changes more gently.
Ochs wisely does not promote neurofeedback as a cure-all, and often recommends this in combination with supportive and explorative psychotherapy, acupuncture and other therapies to help people process the emotional materials that are released by the neurofeedback.
This is an exciting new field that promises to help many people who otherwise are beyond helping within conventional medical care. Larsen's style is both informative and engaging, detailing both the excitement of scientific explorations at the leading edge of treatments for difficult problems, and providing heartwarming stories of dramatic successes in a broad spectrum of people with serious disabilities.
LENS: Worth Reading Worth Learning 2008-05-14
I read this book before taking the training to become a LENS practitioner. The books offers hope for very difficult conditions that regular "talk therapy" can begin to approach. I have been practicing Neurofeedback for three years and wanted to understand and learn an approach where the client does not have to work so hard and where the results are similar or better.
I recommend this book and the LENS approach to all clinicians wanting to add a tremendous resource to their therapeutic "toolbox". For people who have persisting condititions that are difficult to treat, I encourage you to read the book and find a trained clinician.
Oops 2008-02-13
I misread the information about this book, and didn't realize until I received it that it is for therapists who have the technology to implement the methods talked about in the book.
LENS feedback system 
2007-05-13
I am a Family Physician in group practice for the past 25 years and have used traditional neurofeedback since 2003. Since 2006 I have used the LENS system, described quite well in Stephen Larsen' book. The LENS technique is effortless for the patients and much faster in time and number of sessions needed to train compared to traditional neurofeedback. We are not programming the patients, as the feedback given is their own EEG pattern, at a slightly different frequency. Homeopathy on the scalp? Perhaps. The signal sent to the brain is weak- yet the brain responds to the signal, and changes can be seen immediately. I liken it to a conductor giving the orchestra a tone to get in tune or a mirror being held up to the patient.
I am wary of new age treatments and their various claims, yet switched to the LENS technique based on recommendations from fellow neurofeedback practitioners, as no double blinded studies exist to prove its efficacy. Out of the 35 patients I have trained with sofar, 20 have had astonishing improvements in daily life functioning after minor to major head injuries, seizures, ADHD, Tinnitus, Aspergers syndrome, Retts syndrome, CFS, anxiety and depression. They generally report that they can resolve issues with much less worry and consternation and their sleep improves. Time will show if it is a placebo effect that will wear off. So far the effects have been lasting after an average training of 10-12 sessions. One of the 35 patients has had abject reactions to the treatment, and I have learned why -too much stimulation given by me - so yes, it requires patience and skill from the provider- LENS isn't a system that a lay person can purchase and hook themselves up to.
Training patients with LENS at the end of the day is a treat! I highly recommend this book.
Steven Crozier MD
Norway
Not about neurofeedback 
2007-05-03
LENS is a technique of using short duration, low intensity radio waves at the same frequency of the brain, or with a specific offset, applied through an external scalp electrode to break up stuck brain patterns. The brain adapts and assumes a more flexible or more functional pattern, and the patient gets better. This book is about the results of a specific neurotherapy technique. It's not neurofeedback, although the author seems to think this verbal slight of hand is OK. The author claims that LENS is neurofeedback because it takes a signal from the brain and "feeds that same signal back to the brain." Under this definition, we should now call homeopathy a type of biofeedback.
I am not in a position to definitively say what neurofeedback is or is not. Anyone, including the author, is entitled to define what neurofeedback is. All I can say is that his definition is, at the very least, at the periphery of what the self-regulation disciplines of bioefeedback and neurofeedback are about at their core. Neurofeedback provides feedback to the person so that they can change a behavior or response. The LENS technique makes no attempt whatsoever to include the person in their treatment. It is something that is done to them, not with them.
It is not a "how to" book by any measure. It is an "about" book, from start to finish. The writing is light and easy to read, with only minimal detail about the specifics of the concept, and almost nothing about the actual implementation of the concept. So you won't learn much, other than LENS is wonderful and can help with many intractable conditions.
I believe the book has been given an inappropriate title. In fact, the proper titles are alluded to many times in the text itself, as well as the fact that LENS is a third or fourth generation acronym for the process. Some of the previous names describe it accurately by including the phrase disentrainment technique. The author refers to this throughout the book, so it remains a mystery as to why the technique has now been renamed LENS. Maybe he wanted a sexier title. Maybe he wanted to honor his mentor with an acronym that mimics his first name (Len). Who knows. In any case, I found both the title and subtitle misleading. The process is not neurofeedback. It is a type of electronic homeopathy. Second, the subtitle says "technique' but the book completely ignores the how to of LENS. It is almost entirely about the effects of LENS as presented by anecdotes of individual case studies.
I think this title creates more confusion than clarity, as does the subtitle. But it may be that the author believes it most closely resembles neurofeedback, or that their most likely group to recruit for this specific technique are those who are interested or practice neurofeedback, because they can most readily recognize how or why it would be helpful. But they are philosophically very different in one very critical aspect. In LENS, it is the operator or clinician who is making the choices and going through a learning process. The patient is 100% passive to the process. In biofeedback and neurofeedback, the patient or trainee is actually trying to learn something, or more accurately, to surrender or direct themselves in a way that something their brain is already capable of can more readily or more appropriately happen. With LENS you just get better. The downside of this is that you also become more dependent on a clinician with his black box and proprietary software. If it doesn't work, or if you get worse, then it's back to the clinician for more treatment, which is fundamentally the opposite of learning to self regulate. Yes, it is true that LENS is a method for regulating the brain. To call it self-regulation, when the word `self' refers to the patient's brain, as opposed to the patient who participates in the process of self regulation, is misleading.
This is another "aren't I wonderful, please come to my clinic" book. That's fine, sales and marketing are legitimate business functions and these sorts of books seem to be very popular in alternative medicine circles. But my preference is for books that provide me with useful skills. This book is merely an interesting read about a powerful new technique that is not accessible to the lay person. Neurofeedback, on the other hand, is accessible to the lay person. There are books, training is available, and I can buy hardware, software, and instructional materials so I can do it myself. LENS is only available at special clinics.
Do I think the technique is good? Yes, clearly it is widely beneficial. But this extended sales brochure is neither informative to someone who wants to learn how it is done (that's another seminar / book); nor is it informative to the potential patient who wants to fully understand what is being done to him by the clinician. But it sounds like a very good process, and if I were willing to pay $200+ per hour, wanted to travel somewhere far away, and didn't know what to do with myself for 15 hours of treatment, I would seriously consider it. As of the book's publication in 2006, there were supposedly 200 practitioners worldwide.
The author openly states that those who criticize LENS (Len?) are jealous of his process because they can't figure out how low intensity doses of radio waves for an average of less than 6 seconds per treatment (1 - 5 sites on the scalp) can be so helpful. I hope they are wildly successful, but with the total treatment time so extraordinarily short, they could just as easily make it available to 3 or 4 clients per hour, for 10 minutes of evaluation and 6 to 30 seconds of treatment. I think it is a probably a revolutionary, albeit (author agrees) not new treatment. Approaches to healing that are homeopathic in style have been around for a long time.
The book is simply the author's way of promoting their work, without actually saying much about what they do. Magical proprietary software and hardware do that. LENS' entry onto the alternative therapy scene will be slow and limited, the same as most other alternative therapies that are rolled out in this fashion, available to a select bunch who shell out big bucks for the real training, as opposed to the introduction that you received by buying the book. I strongly believe that if someone goes to the trouble of writing a book, he should also go to the trouble of empowering people to the greatest extent possible. This author doesn't necessarily fail this test, because after all, you now know there is a wonderful new therapy out there, you are creating the demand that future credentialed practitioners need to support a full time practice. But it doesn't pass the empowerment test, either.
Is the author a good guy with good intentions? I'm sure he is. Is the book well written, given what it actually covers? Yes. But is the topic worthwhile, worth sitting down, buying this book, and reading through it? Depends on what your goals are.
healing power well worth it 2007-02-26
An introduction to the innovative therapy that restores optimal functioning of the brain after physical or emotional trauma
• Provides an alternative to the more invasive therapies of electroshock and drugs
• Shows how this therapy helps ameliorate anxiety and depression as well as childhood developmental disorders
• Includes extraordinary case histories that reveal the powerful results achieved
According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year 260,000 people are hospitalized with traumatic brain injuries. The Brain Injury Association reports 1.5 million injuries, many of which go undiagnosed but which lead to all kinds of cognitive and emotional impairments. While neuroscience has learned an enormous amount about the connection between brain trauma and personality changes, the methods proposed for resolving these alterations are generally limited to drug therapy or surgeries.
This book explores a much less invasive but highly effective technique of restoring brain function: the Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS). Developed by Dr. Len Ochs in 1992, it has had extraordinary results using weak electromagnetic fields to stimulate brain-wave activity and restore brain flexibility and function. The treatment works across a broad spectrum of human activity, increasing the brain’s abilities to adapt to the imbalances caused by physical trauma or emotional disorders--both on the basic level and in the more subtle areas of cognitive, affective, and spiritual processes that make us truly human. While the treatment has had remarkable results with individuals who have experienced severe physical trauma to the head and brain, Stephen Larsen sees it also as an important alternative to chemical approaches for such chronic behavioral disorders as ADHD and monopolar and bipolar depression.
Valid Approach or Infomercial? 2006-08-15
I purchased this book based upon its title, "The Healing Power of Neurofeedback," while noting its subtitle, "The Revolutionary LENS Technique. . ." To be honest, these are misleading as they should have been inverted. It would have been better to have named the book, "The Lens Technique: One Approach to Neurofeedback." The book, sadly, reads like an infomercial for the "LENS Technique" created by Len Och and was written by one of his disciples, Stephen Larsen, who expounds upon the wonders of this interesting, but certainly controversial approach to neurofeedback that uses extremely low-level radio ways to help "drive" each individual's EEG. Dr. Larsen constantly refers throughout his book something to the effect that "Len Och says this" or "Len Och says that." It almost seems as if Len Och should have written the book, rather than Stephen Larsen. Interestingly, "treatments" are often no longer than one second (!) in length which would appear to be almost nothing.
While the book contains some truly amazing stories where the LENS treatment has allegedly worked wonders, it does, as noted above, read like an advertisement for this approach. Unless this approach does provide a panacea for treating so many illnesses and disorders (which, for all I know, it may do), it would have been appropriate for Larsen to to adopted a more academic tenor as this is the introductory book on LENS.
Another disturbing factor is that neurofeedback DOES seem to offer many, many benefits that are not yet fully (or rightfully) recognized as a genuine treatment modality for a variety of health issues. It is for this reason, alone, that books that focus on various methods of neuro/biofeedback need to be extraordinarily cautious in reporting on their benefits. While Larsen, generally, attempted to do so, he did stray into areas that raise BIG RED FLAGS to those that are skeptical of Neurofeedback. Specifically, he discusses how the LENS allegedly helped bolster a patient's "chakras," may enhance "ESP", and references questionable sources such as, "Vibrational Medication," by Richard Gerber. Having just read Gerber's book, my suggestion is that readers should RUN not walk from anything written by Gerber as he appears to be a real quack. It doesn't serve the Neurofeedback community well to reference such New Age mumbo-jumbo.
While the book is, overall, quite interesting, I would very much like to see others conduct genuine studies on the efficacy of the LENS approach.
A valuable resource for those researching neurotherapy 2006-07-08
I have been a layman advocate of Neurotherpy since the mid-nineties. My youngest son was a low performing high school student who had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. All total he had approximately 40 treatments of eeg-neurofeedback using the EEG Spectrum protocol after trying Ritalin, which he could not tolerate. After neurofeedback treatment, but still with very little confidence, he reluctantly entered college. One day in an algebra class he realized that for the first time in his academic life that not only was he paying attention, he was following what the professor was saying, and he then realized that the change was probably due to the neurotherapy treatments. He is now a confident, capable college graduate doing a complicated job that he loves and went after himself. He is a highly funtional person and I am a proud father.
I became somewhat obsessed with keeping up with this field and all the variations of treatments, and I have directed many people to various practioners in my state. I have attended multiple conferences as a layman just to keep up with advances and spin-offs from this treatment. My bookshelves at home are full of publications on this subject because I so strongly believe in the physiological principles being discovered in this area. This book finally explains in clear, understandable language what Len Och's protocol does, or at least what is known up to this point. Most importantly,it brings together a comprehensive view that needs to be understood both by the public and practitioners of the trade. Chapter Twelve discusses all the other modalities of treatment of disorders and how all of them are important and how possibly none of them alone is the only answer to many complicated disorders. This field of treatment addresses many things that mainstream medicine presently is not addressing, and this book offers other avenues to explore. I think the author explains that enigma as well as anyone I have read. For anyone practicing, or for anyone trying to decide if it is a protocol that might improve their lives or a loved one's life, this is a must read.
***** A Master Shaman Meets a Medical Magician ***** 2006-07-03
As a clinical hypnotherapist, and a former sufferer of anxiety/panic/bipolar and PTSD, I consider myself fortunate to have found this treatment protocol for my own troublesome disorders. Indeed I have no doubt that this technigue -- LENS --is right on target scientifically and spiritually. That is, by whatever means and name, one must shift the brain-heart's electromagnetic field patterns that have become phase-locked into dysfunctional rhythms in order to invoke a healing that lasts long-term. Whether this is accomplished by a supplemental biofeedback device or a native healer's energetic resonant relationship with the patient, the result can be the same: instant conversion to a state of balance, stability, wellness. I highly-recommend this book as one offering the best of the best ideas focused on faster relief of chronic psychophysiological conditions that have resisted "talk therapy" as well as pharmacological correction heretofore.
Dr. John Jay Harper is author of Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century at johnjayharper.com and a former mental health counselor with the US Department of Defense.
LENS Practitioner from Michigan 2006-06-13
As a Psychotherapist in private practice, I struggled along with clients who seemed to plateau with traditional talk therapy. I incorporated the LENS technique to my practice over the last year and am thrilled with the results. The case vignettes in this book are reflective of my clinical experience. Dr. Larsen's book is certainly a worthwhile read and LENS is a treatment modality I heartily recommend!
