How I Healed My Fight-or-Flight system (a detailed review of DNRS)

Annie Hopper, the creator of the DNRS, explains the science behind how acute and prolonged environmental stress (a pathogen, injury, stress, environmental exposure, etc.) can impair the brain’s limbic system. 

The program presents compelling evidence that chronic illness is driven by limbic system sensitization.

The program is based on the concept that our conscious minds can be used to shift subconscious aspects of the nervous system to reduce the brain’s fight-or-flight response, nudge our bodies into a parasympathetic recovery response helpful for healing, and generate new neural pathways.

When our fight-or-flight system gets stuck in overdrive, it can block our body from properly healing and lead to chronic illness.

This does not mean our very real hypometabolic and neuroimmune condition is “in our head.” 

However, I learned my thoughts and imagination can be used to help heal my dysfunctional autonomic nervous system. 

The program interweaves external video footage of expert scientific talks and studies, including a segment that features wounded war veterans and stroke patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) using visualizations as part of their rehab to regain mobility. It also include’s Annie Hopper’s own inspirational healing journey and includes inspiring testimonials. 

Unlike the name sounds, “Dynamic Neural Retraining System,” it does not involve complicated mental gymnastics. It’s also not about trying to trick yourself to go past your current energy zone with positive thinking. 

DNRS rather provides a simple yet substantial template to calm the limbic system. On top of that, unlike some similar programs, the last part involves creating new healthy neural pathways.  

You do this by remembering and imagining yourself on peaceful and joyful adventures – so simple, yet so powerful when practiced consistently.

More than positive thinking, it involves making positive feelings come alive in your mind and body.

It provides a nice structure, some tactical advice, and excellent lifestyle recommendations/boundaries which were really helpful to me.

What the Dynamic Neural Retraining system actually is (updated):

• The new DNRS 2.0 is an online program with 12 hours of instructional video content. It costs $349.95 USD / 465 AUD / 255 pounds for 1 year access and lifetime access to their private global community forum. It groups the program into 3 “days” of material. I took 5 days to complete it and know people with reduced mental capacity who took a few weeks to finish it. I did the online program. There used to be a DVD option which offered subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, and Finnish (it’s no longer sold). (Note: I did the original online version, which was 14 hours. DNRS 2.0 is apparently more streamlined.)
• There is an interactive element. Specifically, there are short prompts throughout the program to complete. These prompts and your responses get emailed back to you for you to keep. I appreciated this as it helped me apply/remember things I was learning. You can also purchase an add-on physical workbook to accompany the program. There also is enjoyable and helpful “homework” task associated for each “day.”   
• The DNRS “rounds” themselves which are 9 talk-aloud steps and take 15 minutes each (you can do them shorter, but remember it’s what you put into it).
• The 5 pillars of DNRS: Recognizing limbic impairment. Interrupting patterns of limbic impairments. Doing an hour of DNRS rounds per day. Incremental brain retraining. Elevating emotions during retaining.
• Helpful guidelines/boundaries for lifestyle and communication. These guides have improved my life, and I still abide by them simply because they now come naturally. It also includes a list of POPs to recognize and rewire (the program explains what these are). 
• It encourages a commitment of an hour a day for a minimum 6 months (whether or not you have fully healed by then).

Optional DNRS add-ons:

1-2-1 Coaching (via phone or Zoom)

They offer optional one-on-one coaching with understanding trained people who successfully completed DNRS, available after you complete the program. I did one session with a DNRS coach who was friendly and gave helpful advice. 

Several people I know swear by their coaches and say their coach gave them great advice and helped them stay accountable. I know a couple people – both type A people with the tendency to push themselves – who found their coach helpful at first, but ultimately found their coach too regimented (which added to the pressure they already put on themselves). One switched coaches and another stopped seeing her DNRS coach and found additional mind-body modalities supportive to their nervous system, specifically somatic practices to process/release trauma and to be in state of self-love and acceptance.

Last time I checked it was $155 USD for 60 minutes and $80 per 30 minute follow-ups, and is discounted if you buy in bulk.

Living DNRS, a 12-week group coaching program (via Zoom)

They also recently started to offer a much more affordable add-on weekly group coaching program via Zoom called “Living DNRS” for support and encouragement along the way. 

It is a 12 week program that meets each week for 1 hour with an instructor and is $230 ($19 per session). I’ve heard good things. 

A free moderated private global community forum 

The community forum lets you connect with others and get inspiration. 

You can request access to the forum after 30 days and show confirmation that you have fully completed the online or DVD program. In the forum, you can connect with DNRS practice buddies* if you want to. I remember the free forum being clunkier than other parts of their website, but it may have been updated.

*Update April 2021: There is now a premium forum membership for $10/month where you can get access to guided visualizations, inspiration, and more.

An in-person seminar you must apply to (on-hold due to the global situation)

These seminars held at various locations in the US, Europe, and Canada for people who have completed the online or DVD program to get a more in-depth experience. They find hotels that use friendly cleaning products and cater to current dietary requests. The cost is around $3200 or so, depending on location.

I didn’t go to one, but I’ve heard that they are very inspiring, helpful, and transformative. These have been on hold since early 2020.

*What’s are practice buddies?

A practice buddy is another person who completed DNRS you can recite your full rounds to via voice chat or video chat – whatever you and the other person decide on. I decided to give this a try long after doing it just on my own. You can connect with interested people in the DNRS community forum.

I went through quite a few (don’t continue with a buddy out of guilt if you don’t vibe with them) and stuck with 1 awesome buddy. He sticks to the DNRS rules, and has really makes the five senses come alive in his visualizations. Every Monday morning, we take each other to a new adventure from backyard BBQs, African safaris, whale watching in Vancouver, surfing, mountain lakes, Italy, wake-surfing, beautiful hikes, Antarctica, the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, you name it. I swear he researches the breeds of penguins and the landmarks. 

What I also appreciate is that he incorporates powerful and vivid healing metaphors at the beginning and end of each “round” beyond the contents of what DNRS teaches.

One concept of DNRS explains how the limbic system can subconsciously scan the environment for danger and make associations to protect us. 

The limbic system is the part of our brain that regulates our autonomic nervous system function and endocrine function in response to stimuli. 

Even after I moved out of my water-damaged home to a healthy home, my capacity was strangely sharply reduced on foggy and rainy mornings, before I could even look outside.

Here’s what I personally interpreted was happening based on general concepts I deduced from the program. My body’s external sensors must have sensed humidity, my subconscious brain remembered humidity = mold, my brain associated humidity = danger, and that may have perpetuated a stress response to humidity reducing my energy capacity, before I could even notice the clouds.

I certainly didn’t decide to turn down my capacity dial.

But I did sense that my fight-or-flight center was dialed up to level 11, which was blocking me from recovering from exertion.

From my personal experience, a plant needs to be in healthy soil for it to grow. 

(Read Vera’s story about how she reclaimed her health, after leaving a toxic home environment.)

Before I began DNRS, I did the following things:

– I took my gut to calmer waters by eating foods my body could best metabolize and kept my blood sugar levels stable based on listening to my body.

– I had long quit my job (I was previously hanging on by a thread working part-time from home)

– I reduced the highly-elevated levels of mold out of my body and the mercury, both in a gentle way and moved to a sunny healthy home. Looking back, the complete elimination and avoidance approach I took to getting out of the mold actually caused some future setbacks (for instance, I would have taken greeting cards with me from our old place to our new place in a plastic bag for future brain retraining).

– I saw a mindset and NLP coach, who helped me identify emotional triggers, limiting beliefs, and unhelpful patterns and roles I was playing in life. I reassessed old patterns to prove myself to others and of trying to rescue others. 

– I did work to process my emotions, feel my feelings, and let them go.

– I established healthy boundaries after a mindset shift that my health came first (which my coach helped me with). After countless fails, I became good at saying “no” and leaving without needing a “valid” excuse. 

Having healthy boundaries before starting DNRS was essential for me, because I believe a reason my body originally said “no” was because I didn’t know how to. I had to learn this before I could then expand my capacity. I see people who are people pleasers and martyr types (zero judgement) experience resistance to DNRS and similar programs because they haven’t yet created healthy boundaries in their life (and in my experience, our limbic systems know this). 

Boundaries are just a word, and they really come down to two things: Beliefs [ie “I must show I’m a good/worthy/not a burden etc.] and patterns [do you take a break after physical activity or do you go right to the dishes]. I know for many people mindset and pacing coaches can help in this regard.

– I had a supportive and calm home environment (my now husband).

– I had 0 pressure to recover by a certain time due to family or finances or some self-imposed deadline. I think this is particularly helpful for type A folks and school age youth.

If one of these things isn’t an option for you, it absolutely does not mean you can’t heal. Rather, it means you have a resilience building opportunity that will make your recovery story even more powerful. 

These things were just helpful to me and why I think my recovery with DNRS was relatively faster than most.

Based on what I’ve personally observed, any strategy that involves calming the brain to help increase capacity is probably not going to be as effective if the body is in actual danger.

I knew though I didn’t want to live in a bubble forever, though, with my supplement baggie, avoiding exertion, avoiding mold, and avoiding entire food groups.

I took my body to calmer waters, then DNRS helped me strengthen my sails.

I could also see how doing DNRS consistently could build resilience to overcome existing everyday minor stressors without having to first eliminate them. 

And I could see how doing some of the things I did before I began DNRS, while simultaneously doing DNRS, like learning to set boundaries and having a coach (which DNRS also provides), would work for people, too. 

[As a friendly reminder, nothing in my post is meant to be prescriptive, we all must decide what path makes sense for each of us.]      

I began DNRS after a setback had me needing a wheelchair to make it to the airport gate.

That Christmas 2018, my now husband and I did not fly home to my parents on the East Coast for Christmas like I had done every year. I was too weak, and I vowed to focus on my health (and not repeat the epic health disasters of the prior two years.) 

We flew to the Southern California desert, a much shorter, calm trip. I brought a hilarious book with me. We stayed at a place with a full kitchen and stocked the fridge with groceries from the nearby Whole Foods.

My goal was to do nothing. I put my phone away, and just read my book by the pool.

Then my dear 95-year-old Grandpa passed away on Christmas Eve. I knew Grandpa was looking over me when the day after Christmas, I clicked on a link on my computer that would change my life. It was to a health conference related to mold, and one of the speaker bios led me to DNRS’s neuroplasticity program. 

I had a Perfect Storm of health events that led me to develop ME/CFS.

I realize, looking back, that with some help from God and the universe, I created the perfect healing rainbow there in the desert. (A bit cheesy, yes, but true.)

Doing DNRS rounds, which are like joyful vacations for your brain, lying in the sun, with nothing to do…. no phone…meditating…enjoying the sauna (I had already gradually increased my body’s ability to enjoy the sauna in the two months prior at a local salon)…no TV except a light Netflix show in the evening…going to bed early with blackout blinds and enjoying the quiet desert mornings…my body experienced significant healing.

It’s amazing what our bodies can do when they’re in the right environment. 

I could really feel the healing happening.

Three weeks later, I easily walked back through the same San Francisco Airport, rolling my own luggage (my husband went back to work earlier). No wheelchair assist this time.

It rained almost every day for the next 3 weeks in our Bay Area city apartment, but as I continued to practice DNRS, I continued to improve and my walks became longer and longer. 

I was no longer confined to a 0.7 mile radius on a “very good day”… I can now laugh at this and how I knew the exact distance of everything in my neighborhood.

I had a setback at one point a few months in, but it only lasted several days unlike previous crashes which were usually a minimum of 10 days. 

This is when all my mindset work kicked in. While doing DNRS, I also was introduced to the book The Energy Codes. It explains why bad things happen, and reframes them as opportunities.  

I looked in the mirror, acknowledging my fears and despair, and told myself it was okay. I was strong, that my immune system can clear what it no longer needs, and I took myself on those vacations in my mind. 

I used my setback as a resilience building opportunity.

I told myself that this was an opportunity to show myself how resilient I am. And I bounced back.

By mid-March, I was back in fully “shimmy strength” dancing in front of the mirror, shaking my body to the rhythm of the music. For most of the prior 3 years, except for a handful of “very good” days, I could only dad dance, rocking my weight back side to side. 

View this post on Instagram

I’m back.. and so is my favorite backup dancer. #wildthing

A post shared by Liz Carlson (@lizcarlson9) on Mar 2, 2019 at 10:49am PST

You could say my “dancing in the mirror” in full force to Wild Thing wearing my best friend’s sweatshirt was the moment I knew I was better. But I think it was the moment I could pinpoint as my recovery was a moment I had with myself in the mirror after the blip I had.

It was staring into my own eyes in the mirror, saying “You’ve got this Liz.” It was about the bounce back.

Starting to up the exercise

In April, I began to start upping my exercise by going to the community swimming pool, beginning at 12 laps. Up to that point, I had been just going on longer walks and a few mirror dances. 

View this post on Instagram

I have discovered my community pool and it’s AMAZING. Just swam an easy 12 laps. #thatsthewayilikeit

A post shared by Liz Carlson (@lizcarlson9) on Apr 18, 2019 at 1:20pm PDT

I had no worries — I had put a pause on this blog (it was just a series of Google Docs back then), and my July 2019 wedding was still a while off.

At some point, I stopped DNRS and began to significantly up my exercise. 

The program recommends a minimum of 6 months, but I thought 4 was enough. 

By early May 2019, just over 5 months in, I was walking 3 hours a day, swimming 20 to 40 laps in the community pool, and then I tried to also include the elliptical in our apartment complex’s little gym (which felt high-resistance even on level 0).

I was significantly stronger than I ever had been in my entire life. The brain fog and flu-like symptoms were completely gone. 

I was doing 3x more physical activity than I had typically ever done in my life. 

For context, before I got sick I was walking 30-45 minutes a day (I have a unique heart so I never ran or did intense exercise). 

Looking back, I wish I told myself: “You’re not trying to win the best beach body competition. You just want to be healthy, strong, and enjoy life. Don’t forget about your neuroplasticity and self-care.” 

Katie and Vera, who have their own powerful ME/CFS recovery stories which they both shared on my site, have reminded me that health is created every day.

Health is created every day.

But I ignored the “stress creep” and let the self-care slip:

By late May, I began to feel the “stress creep.” I was certainly experiencing more stress, but also seemed to be experiencing an exaggerated response to it like in the past. My sleep got worse. This was a sign of autonomic nervous system dysfunction.

One day, after very minor mold exposure (someone’s sweater), treadmill walking, swimming, and working out on the elliptical (a sibling had told me “if I really wanted to be good for my wedding, I’d need to do at least 45 minutes on the elliptical”), and the stress of the wedding planning, I crashed. 

I bounced back mostly, but I didn’t get fully back into DNRS. I got caught up in the details of wedding planning for a destination wedding, and wasn’t fully 100%. 

I became comfortable with the 90%.

I nevertheless was able to dance the night away at my wedding.

In the past, every testimonial on the DNRS website seemed to be a person who did the online or DVD program who then went to the in-person seminar. DNRS used to offer these about a dozen times per year or so at various locations in the US, Canada, and Europe before the pandemic.

It seemed that most people did it themselves – though not always fully correctly – and then had an “aha” moment at the in-person seminar, got amazing at DNRS, and stayed committed for the next 6 months to 2 years.

Then there was me. I did it right and pretty awesome (I felt) in the beginning, then I quit. This was the complete opposite of most of the recovery stories.

Did this mean I’d get stuck at 90% or am a failure?

All these people seem to have done DNRS every day. Can I pick it back up a 2nd or 3rd time? 

And I wondered — would I really be healed if I didn’t do this magical seminar where people have these a ha moments, and DNRS is ingrained?

But it also didn’t seem right for me to go to an in-person seminar, since I had already come so far.

And I also know from experience that when you make it to full health or near full health, that others can look to you as a guru to lift them up or troubleshoot their issues, and I didn’t want that at the time. The program probably has rules about this though.

By August 2019, I returned to DNRS.  I wanted full, continued health, and I knew a calm and joyful brain was key for it.

I remembered a DNRS success story testimonial from an older woman named Linda who said she didn’t feel anything in the first 30 days of DNRS, just “a bit more hopeful” yet 2 years later after doing it every day, there she was in a hot air balloon living out her dreams.

The turtles. The turtles win the race. I recommitted to DNRS with the spirit of a turtle.

I got back to 100%. And then on my honeymoon in November 2019, I paddleboarded, which had been one of my health dreams I had envisioned perhaps a hundred times. 

In my vision it took me a few attempts to mount the paddle board. But I did it on the first try while my husband struggled.

I was one with the board and the ocean. The sun was beginning to set hitting my shoulder.  The current was strong on the way back to shore, but I was stronger and paddled my way back with strength and ease. I sat on a beach chair at the beach club (a quiet time before the happy hour began and after the cruise people left), and cried tears of joy. Tears of everything. That I had done this. That I had gone through. That person staring up at the cracks on your ceiling feeling things a body shouldn’t feel flashed before my eyes. That I was on the other side. That I did the work. That my brain had healed. That my body had healed. And I felt so good. 

You think these miracles happen to other people. But then it happens to you. And that they can happen to anyone.

I detailed my timeline fully above. But if you’re looking for a quick answer: I experienced significant healing in the first few weeks though it took a while longer for me to fully heal from ME/CFS. It wasn’t without a bump or two.

DNRS strongly recommends dedicating 1 hour per day of practice for at least 6 months (even if you reach 100% sooner) to engrain healthy neural pathways. I’ve met people who couldn’t commit this long. I’ve also met multiple people who committed to 1 hour for a full year. They then often transitioned to 15-30 minutes per day for sustainability.

Some people experience very rapid healing and others I’ve met have taken 3.5 years. The majority of people who find success with brain retraining, seem to take 3 to 18 months of consistent practice to reach 90% to 100%+ (my observation, not fact). It’s common to heal certain issues faster than other issues (what stuff heals faster is different for everyone). We all heal at our own pace.

My advice is to allow yourself to believe in the possibility and magic of fast healing, while also removing any pressure or expectations for fast results. Every seed you plant today may not give you immediate results, but just trust that the work you’re doing will pay off in the end. 

I really admire the “turtles” who took longer, all the work they did has clearly made them so resilient. My spirit animal:  

What I also personally found inspiring was seeing recovery stories from all ages and years of chronic illness before beginning DNRS.

DNRS 

[Note: 1. This section includes ‘its’, a general replacement word for diagnoses. I wanted to let brainer retrainers, who are currently focusing on other things, know this in case they wanted to skip this section. 2. Most of the info below on DNRS was previously mentioned in this post, but here is an overview for people considering their options.]

DNRS 2.0 is a 12 hour online program which focuses on healing limbic system injuries. It requires the most follow-up daily commitment than other programs, specifically an hour a day of proactive “rounds” on top of interrupting POPs (which you’ll learn in the program). It encourages a minimum commitment of 6 months. 

It is tailored for any type of limbic system injury including but not limited to ME/CFS, POTS, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, PTSD, Anxiety and Depression, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, and countless related symptoms and diagnoses. It’s more than just neurolinguistic programming (NLP) or any other acronym, yet it’s not anything complicated.

The person who started it, Annie Hopper, had severe MCS and fibromyalgia and had to camp outside, though there are amazing recovery stories from all mentioned conditions. 

DNRS includes recommendations and boundaries for limbic-system triggering things to avoid, which I feel is extremely beneficial during the rewiring process and has had a positive impact in my overall life. 

The program is usable in the way it’s organized. Here are some DNRS success stories for inspiration.

Price: $349.95. 

Add-ons: DNRS also offers coaching (individual or group), which I have only heard positive things about. I did one session with a DNRS coach and she was really supportive and helpful. Before the pandemic, they offered a week long in-person seminar which you can apply to after you complete the online program. 

From personal observation, a good amount of people who do the program incorporate a higher power into it, though God or anything spiritual is never mentioned anywhere in the program itself. 

ANS Rewire 

ANS Rewire by Dan Neuffer focuses on healing autonomic nervous system dysfunction. It is specifically tailored for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia and downstream issues like digestive issues, chronic pain, and much more. Dan himself healed from severe ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, and POTS. 

ANS Rewire, unlike most other neuroplasticity programs, is a holistic program that contains a lot of solid diet and lifestyle advice. The 40+ videos it contains, which are about 30 minutes each, are packed with lots of scientific information about ME/CFS, POTS, and Fibromyalgia. 

With ANS Rewire, it’s not about just calming the nervous system – and actually talks about the harm of an avoidance only approach. It’s about balancing the nervous system so it can respond to stress in a healthy way.

The rewiring rounds themselves are solid and simpler than DNRS. They do not include steps to grow joyful new neurons like DNRS does. It does really help you redirect things, though.

Unlike top-down only brain retraining programs, ANS Rewire also uses a bottom-up approach Dan Neuffer terms ‘somatoneurological’ brain training that looks at how you engage with your physical body to change the messaging to the brain.

Dan’s YouTube channel CFS Unravelled, offers wonderful recovery stories (some of which used ANS Rewire, and the rest who used other programs or healed on their own). His channel is one of the first things that gave me hope recovery was possible. 

Price: ANS Rewire costs ~$318 USD ($457 AUS). The Australian-based founder Dan offers 1-1 coaching as an add-on for $120 ASD ($83 USD) per 1 hour session. He is a great guy. 

The Lightning Process 

The Lightning Process (LP) is a 3 half-day in-person seminar taught by a highly trained practitioner with available follow-up coaching from the same practitioner. Most practitioners are currently using Zoom due to current events. There are 5 hours of educational audio files that are required listening before taking the course.

The LP goes over role of the nervous system in our health and wellbeing and how it can get stuck in fight-or-flight mode after real physiological triggers, leading to chronic conditions. It emphasizes the power of language and identity and helps people unlock their natural ability to heal. 

It employs the research behind psychoneuroimmunology. This field of research was new at the time when the program was created in the 90’s (though it was based on centuries old wisdom), and over the last decade is now gaining a great deal of traction. It is the OG brain retraining program (the founder of DNRS actually went through it herself).

The technique taught in the Lightning Process combines awareness, breathing, gentle movement, NLP (like a mantra), and visualizations. The core of the process is understanding the root cause, redirecting unhelpful thoughts, and activating positive emotional states to improve your physiology.

The LP actually teaches people to be their own coach and own best friend. That said, people often do find follow up coaching from their practioner helpful for accountability and support.

From feedback I’ve gotten, it seems like it’s beneficial for people to vibe with their practioner. While the practioner won’t do the work for you, practioners do help guide people to “go there” and tap into peace, joy, and vibrance and other positive emotional states that promote healing and thriving.  

It is tailored for people with ME/CFS, post-viral syndrome, and also MS, chronic pain, anxiety & depression, digestive issues, and more. Note: While the program uses a mind-body approach, it is clear they understand that ME/CFS is a serious, physiological illness.

The program encourages people to engage in increased physical activity only when they feel good and are in an elevated state rather than pushing through, and it includes self compassion. I have heard from many sources (from the community and coaches) that the coaches today really screen participants to ensure they’re a good match. In the early days of the program (90s, early 2000s), I was informed that this didn’t always happen and things were less easeful.

People who are ready for a new approach can contact any LP practitioner to learn more, like Jodie Goss who shared her own inspirational CFS recovery story with me. I have also heard good things about LP practitioners Ian Cleary, Sam Judah, and Laura Stoney.   

Price. It costs $750-$3200 USD depending on the practitioner and if you do an individual session or a group session (group sessions are cheaper) and the amount of follow-up coaching. There are coaches in the US, UK, France, and more.  

The Gupta Program

The Gupta Program is a video-based brain retraining and holistic healing program for healing from ME/CFS created by a founder who healed from it himself. It includes 15 videos on NLP, calming meditations, timeline therapy, breathing techniques, pacing advice, visualizations, and more with interactive elements.

The founder himself fully recovered from ME/CFS and it caters to this and similar conditions, like those mentioned with the other programs.

You can do it either online or they’ll mail you a USB with the video and audio files.

It’s recorded in the mountains in Switzerland. Like DNRS, it also offers a free positive online healing community (they do a Facebook group) and add-on one-on-one coaching with trained practioners.

It is focused on calming the limbic system and is apparently very meditative. While there is a wealth of material, it is less structured than DNRS (ie it doesn’t strongly encourage the 1 hour daily commitment). The cost is $349 USD. The price includes the online program and a 12-week webinar with the founder. I have heard it is the “most gentle” program and is very thorough, which can be a good fit for many people. I’ve heard it really explains the role of the limbic system well.

Gupta and ANS Rewire come with nice complementary guided meditations. 

Dr. Cathleen King’s Primal Trust academy

You may have seen my powerful interview with Dr. Cat on my YouTube. She healed from over a decade of severe chronic illness including CFS and Lyme and transformed from a lifetime of trauma patterns. Her programs complement DNRS well and go deeper.

Dr. Cat’s new Level 1: Regulate program which launched October 2022, is a comprehensive top-down and bottom-up (somatics) nervous system regulation program.

In January 2022, my DNRS buddy (and a few other friends) and I took Dr. Cathleen King’s “Level 2: Primal Trust” 5-month mentorship course. 

Dr. Cat’s next Level 2: Integrate live mentorship will start April 4, 2023. It’s now required to go through her new Level 1: Regulate program first, whether or not you have previously completed a brain retraining program. All classes and Q&A’s are recorded.

In Level 2, you identify old patterns and take a deep dive into your core values (a process which you’re guided through) to carve the life you desire, while incorporating somatic practices and brain retraining. She also has her own signature attunements, similar to visualizations.

Level 3 is more of a community than a course.

Access to all 3 levels of Dr. Cat’s programs is $96 per month. This includes access to topical drop-in Zoom classes, in addition to the core  class content (videos, audio, handouts), live lectures, Q&A’s, and implementation sessions.

You can get the new lifestyle and nervous system regulation programs guide I made with Lindsay Vine for a comprehensive analysis of Dr. Cat’s programs and 20 others.

Lindsay Mitchell’s Vital-Side programs

I actually worked with Lindsay to help me with a specific rewiring goal (food) that I had put off while I was doing DNRS. I had no idea where to even start when it came to this. A month after our 4 hour-long sessions, I was eating many new foods and 2 new food groups. She is wonderful, encouraging, and helps you break things down so they are easy and enjoyable. 

In addition to brain retraining, she has a toolkit of techniques to stimulate the vagus nerve and create a parasympathetic state. She is very friendly, knowledgable, and has her own powerful healing story.

I have heard good things about her Vital-Side: Rewire membership program. I have heard that it is a more flexible alternative to DNRS and is also a potential fit for people who may have dipped their toes into DNRS and wanted extra tools, group support, greater access to the creator, and flexibility. However, I have heard the Rewire program is not a fit for people who extensively did DNRS or Gupta since they have a lot of similarities.

Lindsay Mitchell now has a new Elevate: Brain Retraining 2.0 monthly membership program for brain retrainers seeking to add self-discovery work to deepen their practice and a new affordable Regulation Station tool-kit monthly membership program with Bianca Spears. 

A detailed overview and analysis of the Vital-Side programs (price, duration, description of content, who it’s for / not for, what’s not included, about the creators, what sets it apart) is included in our new Programs Guide.

Lindsay Mitchell co-hosts a wonderful, informative podcast called Rewire: The Podcast with Cait Ross. 

One other takeaway:

Overall, it seems that people’s fondness of the program creator and/or coach does impact things. At the very least: Can you listen to this person talk for hours?  This seems to really matter. I highly recommend watching a few YouTubes or podcasts of the creator (if available) before joining their program. 

*New programs guide*

Update: Lindsay Vine of the Post Viral Podcast and I put together a detailed, independent Programs Guide.  

We analyzed 22+ lifestyle and nervous system regulation programs for ME/CFS recovery and related chronic illnesses. We factored real participant feedback from people who did these programs. It launched January 5, 2023. 

Yes. I am happy to be another DNRS success story.

Could I live the life I was living before the way I was living it in the place I was living it?

I believe my body said “no” to that life for a reason.

I have a wonderful new life with healthy boundaries, healthy patterns, and a sustainable lifestyle.

My diet is really continuing to expand (I put off retraining my food reactions for a long time), and my energy has been 100% for over a year.

It’s not just the big physical milestones, it’s the small everyday things like easily being able to unload the dishwasher at night and live life without my supplement baggie. PEM is a thing of the past.    

I know that a perfect state of health and calmness is within me and that I can always come back to it. 

I once read enough dis-ease research papers to qualify me for an honorary PhD. I spent many hours going into the forums and try to find people with my exact same symptoms to see the exact supplements and drugs they took that might help me.   

But this program was my full ticket out. And it’s based on science, offering a new paradigm for healing. 

Healing my limbic system helped me return to a parasympathetic recovery state so my body could do its thing. And it has brought so much joy to my life. 

I hope my story provides you encouragement. Whatever program or strategy you chose ultimately has to resonate with you. 

1. The Rewiring Wellness community is a grass-roots community of people doing or who have completed brain retraining programs. There is a blog and a Facebook group. It was started by a wonderful person named Ashley, and it is not affiliated with any program.

It’s supportive, uplifting, and people share tips and successes. Note: It’s not meant for people who aren’t familiar with neuroplasticity. It’s also not for trouble-shooting symptoms and challenges.

2. My friend Holly, comedian and entertainer, created a podcast Happy Chill Fun Time, which contains beautiful health visualizations (she did DNRS).

3. Below is one of my favorite health visualizations. I hope you enjoy it.