Meet Elia Nikolaev | Neurofeedback Provider & Yoga Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elia Nikolaev and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elia, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
As a yoga therapist of over twelve years, I have always been interested in the mechanisms of health and wellbeing. Up to about 2020, I have learned and administered only those techniques that work in a bottom-up fashion, meaning that by recruiting physical techniques such as posture, movement, and breath, they exert an influence on the brain and mind. As for many others, the Covid pandemic made making a living difficult, and the future of my profession uncertain. This naturally caused be to look outside the teaching route I was on, and consider what else I could add to my repertoire of services. Due to the large explosion of mental health issues that arose during the COVID pandemic in 2020, I became much more interested how the mind/brain may be accessed more directly. Up until then, the only direct method of interacting with the behavior of the brain that I knew of was through pharmacology, and only open to practice by medical doctors. When I discovered the pain-less, non-invasive, and drug-free method of neurofeedback, and how much this is needed in our modern world, it became clear to me that this would make a great addition to my practice as a yoga therapist.
I sought out one of the country’s top experts in the field of neurotherapy, Andrew Hill, Ph.D, and underwent a mentorship that gave me the skills to offer it to clients.
After about 8months of consistent neurofeedback training myself, I decided to combine my knowledge of anatomy, movement, and health, with neurofeedback, and open a neurofeedback center, Brain Excel.
This center is actually the realization of a lifelong dream to open a business that offers various approaches under one roof.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am most proud and excited about how the field of yoga therapy has opened so many doors for myself, and by association, my clients. It was only through the avenue of yoga, and my aforementioned mentors that I was able to discover the potential and power of neurofeedback. By nature of being curious it was easy for me to learn this new method brain training, especially since I already had so much interest in the mechanisms of the nervous system, and its relationship to human wellbeing. However, opening my center, Brain Excel, that offers this service, was a whole different set of responsibilities that I could not anticipate. This was by far the most complex and demanding professional step I have ever taken. My ability to manage it, all while still showing up for my work as a yoga therapist, I doubt would have been as graceful without the application of neurefeedback on myself. The ability to be more resilient and persistent was often even surprising to me. It is actually a kind of poetic story, that neurofeedback was so influential in my ability to open up a neurofeedback center. The other factor that I am passionate about, is fusing its application within an entire, more holistic service that encompasses the best of both physical health and fitness as seen through the lens of yoga, along with the brain training component. Brain Excel is the first neurofeedback center in the country that also provides yoga classes, and private fitness coaching. This is exciting because it reflects how the body works, in the sense of all systems with in it, being able to drive and influence the function of other systems. Since neurofeedback works on the brain, its improvement will depend on the quality of its biological functions, such circulation, nutrient delivery, and waste removal. These biological functions are supported the health of the physical body. Without sufficient hydration, nutrition, sleep, or exercise, the ability of the brain to meet the demands of neurofeedback will be diminished. I am especially excited about seeing how the peak performance industry, professional athletes, and even artists embrace neurofeedback, and gradually begin to expose more people to its array of clinically verified benefits.
If there was any reputation that I would like to see Brain Excel build, is that it is a human performance center, that can truly explore the potential of human wellbeing. By using the combination of both a body-based, and brain-based approaches, Brain Excel will be able to offer some of the most impactful and significant improvement for all comers.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Absolutely. I think that first and foremost my yoga therapy teachers, Larry Payne, and Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, deserve a lot of credit for opening my eyes to the inclusivity of the entire field of Yoga. As the years went on, I became increasingly more interested in how central the brain and nervous system is in the entire operation of human wellness. This momentum eventually brought me to the doorstep of Peak Brain Institute, founded by Andrew Hill, Ph. D. He has worked in the field of mental health for most of his adult life, and is one of the worlds foremost experts on neurofeedback and peak performance. Being personally trained by Dr. Hill and the Peak Brain neuroscience team, is a privilege that I am constantly experiencing, and the key to what has allowed me to serve my clients so well.

Website: https://www.brainexcelsd.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainexcelsandiego/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brainexcelsd

Image Credits
Teresa Conahan Decking, of “Soul of Photography”