On the Life and Mission of Sue Othmer: February 1, 1944 to February 3, 2023

by Siegfried Othmer | February 8th, 2023

S usan FitzGerald Othmer died on February 3rd after three years of declining mental health, two days after her 79th birthday. This was Sue’s 38th year of involvement with neurofeedback.

A lover of nature who became a neuroscientist in the observational, naturalistic tradition of Oliver Sacks, Sue Othmer was a mother of three children, a teacher and community organizer, a gifted therapist and clinician, and a pioneer in neuroscience. Her life is best understood through the impact she has had on those around her. Unflappable, calm in the face of hardship, Sue navigated life with an even keel, a happy disposition, a unique self-sufficiency—steadying and nurturing those around her.

Read More »

A Case of PTSD and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DIDNOS)

by Siegfried Othmer | November 3rd, 2020

A dramatic case report has just been published on the extraordinarily quick recovery of a woman diagnosed with “severe and complex” PTSD and unspecified Dissociative Disorder. The author is trauma therapist Anna Gerge of Sweden, and the method was ten sessions of Infra-Low Frequency Neurofeedback, in combination with a single session of EMDR. Substantial resolution of PTSD symptoms and essentially complete resolution of dissociative events was achieved, and confirmed in four-month follow-up.

Read More »

Neurofeedback: The First Fifty Years

by Siegfried Othmer | February 5th, 2020

This weighty book of 500 pages has just reached us, and the editors deserve our gratitude and appreciation. Their labor has been a service to the field: Jim Evans, Mary Blair Dellinger, and the late Harold Russell. No neurofeedback denier could read this book and remain resolute in his convictions. As it has evolved over the decades, the field is too diverse and multi-fold to have emerged out of mere imaginings into a grand delusion. This is not to deny, however, that grand delusions have also been a motive force. And the disagreements among us have always played a much greater role than whatever beliefs we shared.

Read More »

Disposing of the Placebo Model of Neurofeedback, From Operant Conditioning to the Associative Learning Model

by Siegfried Othmer | October 15th, 2019

Overview

Some academics still consider the placebo model of neurofeedback to be a hurdle to overcome. At this point I question whether to even take up this issue, because as far as we are concerned these people are beating a dead horse. It honors the question too greatly even to discuss it once again. The appearance of the paper last year titled “The Fallacy of Sham-Controlled Neurofeedback Trials 2018,” by Cannon, Pigott, and Trullinger shifts the balance of the argument because it rests on assumptions about neurofeedback that are themselves questionable. Taking up this topic then serves as a springboard to call the entire operant conditioning model of neurofeedback into question, and to propose the more inclusive model of associative learning. We navigate this labyrinth step by step.

Read More »

Journey to India

by Darla A. Meulemans, MA, CADC III, OMC | April 29th, 2019

The Backstory

Nestled in a valley of the Himalayan Mountains in Northern India is a small Tibetan Colony called Bir, just 31 miles south of Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, the city of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in-exile. Bir is home to many Tibetans and several Buddhist Monasteries, but is also world-renowned for Paragliding. In November, 2018, Bir hosted the World Cup Qualifiers and was also a landing point for me and Virginia Rojas Albrieux, as we embarked upon a journey to support change in the Tibetan Children’s Village of Chauntra, neighboring Bir to the South.

Read More »

Infra-Low Frequency Training for PTSD: A personal story

by Peter B | January 15th, 2019

My name is Peter B. I have worked the past eight years as an Emergency Department staff nurse. About eighteen years ago, I was attacked by unknown assailants and struck in the head repeatedly with a telescoping steel baton. Showing what I now know to be signs of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and skull fracture (Battle’s sign, raccoon eyes, and a massively swollen occipital region of my skull), I lay in bed for a week recovering, and eventually returned to my life. This event was followed by a series of concussions over a period of a year and a half. Even prior to the attack, I had already been suffering from anxiety and PTSD.

Read More »

 

Subscribe to Email Newsletter

The EEG Info Newsletter circulates via email at least once a month. A variety of topics related to the Neurofeedback / EEG Biofeedback field are covered in over 300 articles.