We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elia Nikolaev a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

The pandemic lockdowns of 2020 gave me the opportunity, and even the necessity to reconsider what skillsets may be of greatest utility for the direction that public health seemed to be heading at the time. It was not long before I found my mentor Dr. Andrew Hill, a public advocate and prominent figure in the field of neurofeedback, and founder of Peak Brain Institute. My training as a neurofeedback technician included a multidisciplinary approach that included QEEG brain mapping, cognitive performance testing, neurofeedback software systems, and neuroscience. It was under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Hill that I then opened Brain Excel Neurofeedback in the summer of 2021. With this new office and business model I began to see clients of all ages and varying cognitive goals. The mission of Brain Excel is to empower individuals to have a more active relationship with their brains, not just with neurofeedback, but with the application of daily respiratory, movement, and meditation practices of yoga. This synergy enabled my clients to maximize the gains they made with neurofeedback and the results were both remarkable and hopeful. Clients as young as 5 and as old as 85 years were able to affect their cognitive health and overall well-being to levels that even they did not anticipate. The shared goals between yoga therapy and neurofeedback shows exactly how similar both approaches are, which is reassuring that the human condition is more malleable than anything I could have ever imagined. I see the slowly emerging field of neurofeedback as hope that humanity needs right now perhaps more than ever.

Elia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My entré into the field of neurofeedback was indirect and really began with an interest in the field of health & wellness in my early twenties, as a side effect of my interest in philosophy and yoga, which soon became a career path in the field of yoga therapy. This work initially took the form of teaching general all-levels classes at first, and as my education in anatomy and physiology evolved I was able to transition to a private practice, and eventually grew into organizing accredited courses in yoga therapy both domestically and internationally with my colleague Dr. Alison Mclean. The outcome of my educational experience as a graduate from 2 different Indian schools of yoga therapy, as well as clinical internships in the field of yoga therapy through Loyola Marymount University, was the realization that the mind and brain played such an important role in my client’s ability to incur better health results. The bidirectional influence between physical health and cognitive and mental health became ever more clear and led me to seeking out accreditation in hypnotherapy. Through becoming a hypnotherapist I was able to see how powerful of an influence the mind can have over the body. The more I continued to learn the more I saw that the brain itself would make an ideal target of intervention and soon discovered that neurofeedback is the modality that did exactly that. If neuroscience as a field of study is predicated on the relationship between brain anatomy and the mental and cognitive health then the ability of neurofeedback to influence activity of specific brain sites seemed like the logical conclusion in the pursuit of well being I have personally and professionally been on all along.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

What I feel now is the most helpful in my field is not only to be concerned with the technical aspects of neurofeedback and understanding the neuroscience behind it, but to be open and creative about educating the public that neurofeedback is even an option. In my experience about 1 out of 20 people have even heard of the term, and even fewer have an understand of what it is and how it works. This means that there is a lot of opportunity to market neurofeedback. Its broad application to peak performers as well as anyone impeded by the obstacles of such conditions as ADHD, Anxiety, and other mental health conditions makes neurofeedback relevant to nearly anyone. It is important for anyone interested in this field in a professional capacity to understand the revolutionizing difference neurofeedback could have on the lives of individuals, many of whom do not have any other clinical options.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Absolutely! I consider this to be the most interesting work I could possibly engage in. My entire professional and educational history is based on the improvement of the human condition. Neurofeedback gives my clients the ability to influence the brain as the ultimate domain of life quality. The brain is the most complex and enigmatic part of the human body and sits at the core of everything we know about ourselves and the universe we live in. Neurofeedback technology is a presage to how people will come to understand themselves and their challenges better. I think that the future of the human race will see an end to such issues like ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, and the multitude of other cognitive and mental challenges that the current medical model is minimally effective in solving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brainexcelsd.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainexcelsandiego/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brainexcelsandiego/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@brainexcelsandiego

Image Credits
Soul of Photography, Studio Luniste