What happens when a mental-health professional trained inside the traditional system begins asking whether the system is looking at enough?

That question sits at the heart of this week’s Solex LLC weekly call, featuring Dr. Wes Center, one of the educators at the Solex University School of Naturopathy and a longtime practitioner in psychology, psychophysiology, neurofeedback, biofeedback and brain-focused wellness.

At AO Scan Global, I love pulling out the education from these Solex weekly calls that deserves a second listen—especially when it helps us understand the bigger philosophy behind the tools we use.

And Dr. Center’s story does exactly that.

His journey did not take him from “medicine” to one alternative modality.

It took him from looking primarily at symptoms to asking broader questions about the brain, body, lifestyle, behavior, environment and individual person.

Over time, that journey led to a beautifully simple philosophy:

Assess. Address. Reassess.

It also led him to something equally important:

Never underestimate the power of hope.

Watch the recap below:

From the Marine Corps to Mental Health Care

Long before Dr. Wes Center was teaching brain health or using neurofeedback, his career began somewhere very different.

He spent more than 20 years serving as a United States Marine officer.

Dr. Center describes that career as an opportunity to serve his country—service that he considered a privilege.

When military retirement approached in his early 40s, he knew he wanted his second career to continue involving service and helping people.

That path led him into psychology and behavioral health.

But as he progressed through graduate school while simultaneously working in a psychiatric hospital, something began bothering him.

There seemed to be a disconnect between what he was studying, what he was observing clinically and the questions being asked of patients.

Dr. Center became so frustrated that he remembers telling both university faculty and a medical director at the hospital that he wondered whether:

“The system is sicker than the patients.”

Strong words.

But what I find far more interesting is what he did next.

He kept learning.

He kept questioning.

And rather than simply rejecting what he had been taught, he started expanding the lens.

The Question That Changed How He Looked at the Brain

During this period, two professionals Dr. Center respected independently recommended the same book:

Dr. Daniel Amen’s Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.

Two trusted people.

The same recommendation.

Dr. Center figured he should probably pay attention.

Early in the book, he encountered a question that stopped him:

Why was psychiatry so often attempting to understand problems involving the brain without looking more closely at the organ itself?

For Dr. Center, that question opened a door.

But there was something else in the approach that may have been even more important.

It encouraged looking beyond the psychiatric symptom list and asking about the whole person.

Things like:

• What are you eating?
• How are you sleeping?
• Are you exercising?
• What is happening in your lifestyle?
• What health patterns exist within your family?
• What behavioral patterns have appeared across generations?
• What else is happening physically, cognitively and emotionally?

Dr. Center says these were not questions routinely being explored in the psychiatric ICU where he was working.

So he began asking them.

And according to Dr. Center, he started receiving information from patients that helped him see a more complete picture.

That became part of the shift toward what we would now describe as a more holistic approach to brain health.

The Brain Does Not Live in a Bubble

This seems obvious when you say it out loud.

The brain is part of the body.

Yet wellness conversations can become incredibly compartmentalized.

Brain.

Heart.

Gut.

Hormones.

Sleep.

Stress.

Nutrition.

Muscles.

Mood.

As though each one operates in its own private zip code.

It doesn’t.

Sleep influences how we function the next day.

Nutrition provides raw materials the body uses continually.

Movement affects physiology.

Stress changes physiology.

Our environment matters.

Our habits matter.

Our history matters.

And our nervous system is responding to all of it.

That does not mean every problem can be reduced to one hidden “root cause.”

It means that the more intelligently we assess the whole person, the less likely we are to miss useful information.

That idea became foundational to Dr. Center’s work.

Neurofeedback, Biofeedback and Learning to Measure More

As his interest in the brain deepened, Dr. Center began training in neurofeedback while completing his doctoral studies.

Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback involving measurements of brain activity and feedback designed to help a person learn to influence certain patterns of that activity.

From there, he added biofeedback equipment and eventually more advanced work involving quantitative EEG, or qEEG.

qEEG involves mathematical analysis of EEG-recorded electrical brain activity and can help trained professionals examine patterns in that information.

But the important part of Dr. Center’s story is not the number of technologies he collected.

It is why he kept adding them.

He wanted more information.

More ways to evaluate.

More options for intervention.

And more ways to determine whether something had actually changed.

That philosophy became the operating model in his clinic.

Assess. Address. Reassess.

Three words.

Assess.

Gather information.

Look at the person.

Look at patterns.

Ask better questions.

Address.

Determine which intervention—or combination of interventions—makes sense for that individual.

Then:

Reassess.

What changed?

What didn’t?

What do the measurements show?

What does the individual report?

What does the family notice?

Do we continue?

Do we modify?

Do we try something else?

That last step matters.

Because the body is not static.

Neither is the brain.

Neither is our environment.

And neither is our life.

This philosophy is also one of the reasons I find AO Scan technology so interesting.

AO Scan is not intended to be a one-and-done diagnostic test.

It is an educational, non-diagnostic frequency wellness technology that allows users to explore energetic information and then scan again over time.

Look for patterns.

Make observations.

Consider what else is happening.

Then look again.

Sound familiar?

Assess. Address. Reassess.

Sometimes Change Happens Before We Recognize It

One of the most fascinating parts of the Solex call came when Dr. Center discussed the difference between objective measurements and subjective experience.

Imagine completing an intervention and saying:

“I don’t really feel any different.”

That matters.

How someone feels matters enormously.

But what if other information has changed?

Dr. Center explained that his clinic can compare measures such as brain maps and neurocognitive performance before and after interventions.

He discussed areas including:

• executive function
• short-term memory
• processing
• sequencing
• verbal memory
• visual memory
• other aspects of cognitive performance

Sometimes those measurements may improve while the individual says they do not feel particularly different.

Then family members begin reporting things.

They are leaving their room again.

They are more social.

They laugh more.

They are exercising.

They are participating in activities they previously abandoned.

They seem more engaged in life.

It raises an intriguing question:

Can change sometimes begin before our conscious perception catches up with it?

One Young Woman’s Story

Dr. Center shared a memorable example from his own practice.

A young woman had recently graduated from a highly regarded university after studying in two areas.

Shortly after graduation, however, her functioning declined dramatically.

Her parents found her isolated in her room, profoundly withdrawn and struggling even with basic activities of daily living.

They ultimately brought her to Dr. Center.

He described working with her intensively using multiple approaches, including neurofeedback, biofeedback and cognitive-behavioral work.

That point matters.

This was not a story of one device producing one magical result.

It was a multimodal approach.

Over approximately eight weeks, Dr. Center observed significant changes in her daily functioning.

She began bathing and grooming herself again.

She dressed herself.

She did her hair.

She wore makeup.

She became increasingly engaged.

Eventually, she announced plans to pack her car, move to California and pursue the career she had envisioned after college.

And then she told him:

She didn’t think the therapy had really worked.

Months later, she called him from California.

She wanted to know whether he could recommend someone near her who offered neurofeedback.

Not for herself.

For a friend.

When he reminded her that she had once thought it had not helped, she laughed and acknowledged that perhaps she did feel different now.

The lesson is not that neurofeedback guarantees that outcome.

It doesn’t.

The lesson is that human beings do not always recognize change the moment it begins.

That is another reason reassessment can be valuable.

Dr. Wes Center: “Be a Shameless Hope Promoter”

Then came my favorite phrase of the call.

Dr. Center described one of the most important jobs in his clinic as being a:

“Shameless hope promoter.”

I love this.

Because hope does not mean making promises.

It does not mean telling someone something will definitely work when you cannot know that.

Dr. Center was very specific about that.

Hope needs to be grounded in sound reasoning.

It can simply mean:

This one thing didn’t work. That does not mean there is nothing else to explore.

Maybe one approach does not fit.

Try another.

Maybe heart-rate-variability training is not connecting for someone.

Perhaps breathing work is worth exploring.

Maybe neurofeedback.

Maybe biofeedback.

Maybe lifestyle changes.

Maybe another technology.

Maybe several tools together.

There are more doors.

That is hope.

When All You Have Is a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail

Dr. Center also referenced the familiar idea:

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

That statement may describe one of the biggest differences between rigid thinking and holistic thinking.

If we only have one tool, everything begins to look like a problem for that tool.

Dr. Center took the opposite approach.

As his practice grew, he continued adding technologies and interventions that he believed could give his team another useful option.

Neurofeedback.

Biofeedback.

Brain mapping.

Neuromodulation technologies.

Light-based approaches.

Breathing and nervous-system tools.

And, among the technologies he specifically mentioned during the Solex call:

AO Scan.

Not because every person needs every tool.

Quite the opposite.

He explained that there is not one perfect combination for everyone.

One individual may benefit from a few approaches.

Another may require something completely different.

The value of having a bigger toolbox is not that you use every tool.

It is that you are less likely to insist that every person must be the same nail.

Where AO Scan Fits into the Solex Wellness Toolbox

This is an important distinction for anyone exploring AO Scan.

AO Scan is an educational, non-diagnostic frequency wellness technology.

It is not qEEG.

It is not medical imaging.

It is not a laboratory test.

And it does not replace appropriate medical or mental-health evaluation.

Its role is different.

AO Scan provides another way for individuals and practitioners to explore energetic patterns and frequency-based wellness information.

And because scanning can be repeated, users can observe information over time rather than assuming that one snapshot represents a body forever.

That is particularly interesting when viewed through Dr. Center’s larger philosophy:

Assess. Address. Reassess.

For wellness practitioners, AO Scan may become another informational tool alongside the other modalities already used in a practice.

For personal users, it can encourage more curiosity about patterns, lifestyle and the changes occurring within a dynamic body.

If you are curious about AO Scan but have never experienced it, you can request a FREE AO Scan demo through AO Scan Global.

Why Solex Education Matters

This is one reason the education available throughout the Solex community is so valuable.

The technology matters.

But learning from people who have spent years asking questions, working with clients, evaluating different approaches and changing their own thinking matters too.

Dr. Wes Center serves on the faculty of the Solex University School of Naturopathy, where students have access to education across a wide range of wellness disciplines.

You can learn more about Solex University School of Naturopathy and its educational opportunities.

And if Dr. Center’s perspective interests you, do not miss his earlier Solex education on sleep, restoration and AO Scan.

These weekly Solex calls are one of the places where product education, practitioner experience, technology, wellness philosophy and real-world application come together.

And that is exactly why I continue pulling out the portions I believe are most useful for the AO Scan Global community.

The Bigger Lesson: Ask Better Questions

Dr. Center’s journey did not teach him that everything he learned traditionally was wrong.

It taught him that sometimes the picture becomes clearer when we expand the questions.

Look at the brain.

Look at the body.

Look at sleep.

Look at nutrition.

Look at movement.

Look at behavior.

Look at patterns.

Use objective information when appropriate.

Listen to subjective experience.

Have more than one tool available.

And then:

Assess. Address. Reassess.

But perhaps the most human lesson of the entire Solex weekly call was even simpler.

Keep hope in the room.

Because one closed door does not mean there are no other doors.

And sometimes the willingness to look again is exactly where something new begins.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AO Scan?

AO Scan is an educational, non-invasive frequency wellness technology designed to provide information about energetic patterns. It is used by individuals and wellness practitioners around the world as an informational wellness tool and is not intended to diagnose disease.

How does AO Scan relate to brain health?

AO Scan includes frequency-based wellness information that users may explore as part of a broader whole-person wellness approach. It is not brain imaging or qEEG and should not be confused with either.

What does “assess, address, reassess” mean?

Dr. Wes Center uses the phrase to describe an ongoing approach: gather information, determine what is appropriate to address, and then reassess to see what changed before deciding what comes next.

What is neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback that uses measurements of brain activity to provide feedback intended to help individuals learn to influence patterns of brain activity.

What is qEEG brain mapping?

Quantitative EEG, or qEEG, uses mathematical analysis of recorded EEG electrical activity to examine patterns within brain-wave data. It is different from AO Scan technology.

Who is Dr. Wes Center?

Dr. Wes Center is a practitioner and educator whose work includes psychology, counseling, psychophysiology, neurofeedback, biofeedback and brain-focused technologies. He is also an educator with the Solex University School of Naturopathy.

What is the Solex weekly call?

The Solex LLC weekly call brings the Solex community together for company updates, product education, practitioner insights, wellness education and training from Solex leaders, educators and guests.

Want to Experience AO Scan?

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Be Well & Do Good Things

 

Paige Maurer Wheeler

AO Scan Global

Independent Quantum Living Advocate

About Paige Maurer Wheeler

Paige Maurer Wheeler is a wellness curator, biohacker, purveyor of goodness, AO Scan Global Team Leader and Expert Trainer, and Independent Quantum Living Advocate. She helps individuals and practitioners around the world learn to use AO Scan technology with confidence while sharing education, wellness tools and emerging approaches to whole-person living.

Visit AO Scan Global for AO Scan education, training and a FREE demo.

Educational Disclaimer

AO Scan is an educational frequency wellness technology and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. Information from AO Scan should not replace appropriate medical, psychological or other licensed professional evaluation or care.

The clinical experiences and patient stories discussed in this article were shared by Dr. Wes Center during an educational Solex presentation. Individual experiences vary and should not be interpreted as a guarantee of results from neurofeedback, biofeedback, AO Scan or any other modality.