Training Your Brain and Nervous System with Neurofeedback: Laura's Story | Healing Heroines

For most of her life, Healing Heroine Laura Mahoney knew she experienced the world differently. Highly sensitive, deeply perceptive, and constantly adapting to fit in, she spent decades searching for answers - turning over every stone in an effort to understand herself. It wasn't until she discovered neurofeedback that everything finally clicked. 

In this conversation, Laura shares how retraining her brain helped quiet a lifetime of hypervigilance, reconnect her with the present moment, and transform the way she relates to herself and others. She and Chandler explore masking, trauma, neurodivergence, nervous system regulation, and why understanding your brain may be one of the most compassionate things you can do for yourself. You'll also hear Chandler share her own neurofeedback journey and the remarkable shifts she's experienced in sleep, anxiety, and everyday life after just a few weeks of training

What You Will Learn

• [00:10:00] What it was actually like growing up as a child who could feel and perceive things others around her could not
• [00:16:30] When masking started — and what it was quietly costing her
• [00:20:00] How anxiety showed up in her body as a child and why she describes herself as having been "armored"
• [00:30:00] Why she stopped needing a label to validate her experiences
• [00:34:00] How neurofeedback works — measuring the brain's electrical activity and training it toward flexibility and stabilization
• [00:46:30] What a neurofeedback session actually looks like in practice
• [00:54:00] Why she built Lux Neuro and what she believes people deserve when it comes to understanding themselves

Let’s Connect!

Laura Mahony

LuxNeuro | GET 10% OFF one month of remote training or counseling if you mention Healing Heroes

Chandler Stroud

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Mixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Transcript

Chandler Stroud: [00:00:00] Hey guys, before we dive in, quick question. Have you ever gone to bed completely exhausted but your brain just won't shut off? Or maybe you've felt that wave of anxiety where your heart starts racing before your rational mind can stop the spiral? That's exactly what led me to Lux Neuro, and neurofeedback has genuinely been a game changer for me.

Chandler Stroud: What I love most is that everything is personalized to my brain, and I train virtually from home while watching TV. The [00:00:30] biggest shifts for me have been better sleep and actually being able to access calm in my body. If you also experience anxiety, have a hard time focusing, sleeping, or simply want nervous system support, head to luxneuro.com to learn more and book a free consultation.

Chandler Stroud: And as a Healing Heroes listener, you'll get 10% off one month of remote training or counseling if you mention the show. Okay, now let's get into today's episode. Hey guys, [00:01:00] it's Chandler and welcome to the Healing Heroes. I promise you. We're only human

Chandler Stroud: I'm Chandler Stroud, an executive, wife, and busy mom of two who after years of living with anxiety, health struggles, and an unshakable feeling like I should be happier, made a profound discovery that changed everything. Join me on a journey where unexpected paths lead to healing and [00:01:30] more happiness. On this show, we'll explore unconventional ways to unlock more joy in your own life with the help of my very own healers and trusted advisors, the Healing Heroes

Chandler Stroud: Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Healing Heroes podcast. I'm your host Chandler, and today we are back with another Healing Heroine episode. As a reminder, these are conversations with women [00:02:00] who have navigated hardship, trauma, or a season of real personal struggle, and who have come out the other side not just surviving, but building something meaningful from what they have learned Today's conversation is one that I have personally been looking forward to for some time, and honestly, it feels a little different for me because this guest isn't just someone I admire from afar, but someone I've been working with for the last several months and who has helped [00:02:30] me on my own healing journey in 2026.

Chandler Stroud: If you've been listening to this show for a while, you've heard me talk about neurofeedback, this remarkable brain-based approach to healing that I stumbled upon and that has genuinely changed my life. And the woman behind my own experience is today's guest. But what I didn't fully understand when I first sat down in her chair is that the science she practices every single day is deeply [00:03:00] personal for her.

Chandler Stroud: She didn't just find neurofeedback, she was led to it through her own lifelong search for answers, through raising boys who mirrored her in ways she hadn't fully yet named, and through years of feeling brilliant and broken at the same time. Those life experiences and her differentiated expertise have led Laura Mahoney to become a renowned nervous system translator, a woman who spent decades [00:03:30] searching for a language that could explain how she experienced the world and who ultimately found it in the same science she now uses to help others.

Chandler Stroud: Today, you're gonna hear her story, what it was like to grow up as a highly sensitive, deeply perceptive child in a world that didn't quite have the vocabulary for who she was, what it felt like to spend a lifetime of masking, searching, and quietly aching for answers. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about [00:04:00] Laura's background before we dive in.

Chandler Stroud: Laura Mahoney is a licensed professional counselor, board-certified in neurofeedback, and holds a qEEG-D certification in brain mapping. She is the founder of Lux Neuro, a Denver-based practice that bridges mental health and neurophysiology in new and innovative ways. Laura does not think in diagnoses. She thinks in brainwaves.

Chandler Stroud: Her work centers on helping people understand what the brain is doing underneath the anxiety, the [00:04:30] sleeplessness, the burnout, and the sense that they know who they are but cannot seem to access that version of themselves consistently. She brings something rare to this work, deep clinical expertise and lived experience as an AuDHD, highly sensitive person who has navigated her own journey with anxiety, complex trauma, depression, and now menopause.

Chandler Stroud: Neurofeedback changed things for her in ways that decades of other work had not fully [00:05:00] reached, and that experience is inseparable from how she practices. "Understanding yourself," she says, "is not a side effect of this work. It is the whole point." Laura, welcome. I am so glad you're here, and honestly, I'm so grateful that you're willing to share not just the science with us today, but the story behind why this work means so much to you.

Laura Mahony: Thank you, Chandler. It's amazing to be here 

Chandler Stroud: Yes, it is. I just, like, love this environment for us. I was [00:05:30] saying before the call for our listeners that Laura and I talk weekly about my own brain mapping and neurofeedback journey and all kinds of other things because our work is so aligned. So this conversation to come together on the show like this is so much fun for me.

Laura Mahony: Yeah. It's... It sounds so stupid when I'm like, "Oh, I'm thrilled to be here," but it's, like, so fun because we just... I don't- there's not enough time for us to go over all the things and the insights, and so it's been amazing to, you know, get to know [00:06:00] you, and the alignment, and the discovery of all the things is, is amazing.

Laura Mahony: So, yeah. 

Chandler Stroud: Totally. I'm right there with you. I mean, we talk... Yes, we talk a lot of neurofeedback, but we also talk human design and astrology and tarot and all the fun stuff, too. Yeah. So this is really great. But- It 

Laura Mahony: all fits together. 

Chandler Stroud: It always fits together. I know. But I'm so excited to focus on neurofeedback today because I really do believe this has been so life-changing for me in [00:06:30] just a short six weeks that I have actually been embarking in this process with you, and we will get there toward the end of the conversation.

Chandler Stroud: But first, I wanna hear more about you, Laura, and your journey. But we have a little tradition here before we even get to that piece, which is just a few light warm-up questions to get us going today. So I wanna ask you to kick us off. What's something that's bringing you a sense of peace or joy this week?

Laura Mahony: Ugh. Couple of things. One was [00:07:00] Mother's Day. It was... It turned into a weekend. I felt so loved, valued, just from all areas of my life, and it, it was... It just felt stunning to me to just be wrapped in that. And then another funny thing, because it's like I'm s- I live, breathe, think this work so much that this one simple thing that I was reading was worrying does nothing for you.

Laura Mahony: And I come from kind of a family, a lineage of worriers, so to speak. Not warriors, [00:07:30] worriers. And, and it's like, it does nothing, and I was like, "Cool." That was it. I just stopped worrying, and it brought me- Wow ... a profound sense of peace. And it's... It was so obvious and so great. But so those are the, the two little nuggets I have.

Chandler Stroud: Well, thanks for sharing those. Yeah. Very, very powerful stuff, and I'm glad you had a great Mother's Day. Yes, please. Thanks for sharing that. Just to orient our listeners a little bit before we get into more of the [00:08:00] details and hear more about your story, Laura. For those who haven't heard me talk about Lux Neuro quite yet, can you give us the, like, 30 to 60-second overview of what you do and who you do it for?

Laura Mahony: Sure. So I work with both neurofeedback and counseling. I feel like it's important, there's an art in putting it together and folding it together. But really I'm looking at the energy of the brain, so we can think of the energy of the brain as like a battery. So when we have energy, we have a lot [00:08:30] of animation, we have a lot of thoughts, we can do things, and when we don't have a lot of battery, we are more lethargic and whatnot.

Laura Mahony: So I measure the electrical activity of the brain, and I correlate it with symptoms, and I work with people of all ages, from very young kiddos on up through seniors, and it has benefits across all populations. 

Chandler Stroud: That was perfect. Thank you. W- I do wanna just, like, go even a level deeper for listeners. You say benefits for all populations.

Chandler Stroud: Like, what kind of benefits [00:09:00] are people seeking when they come to Lux Neuro for your help? 

Laura Mahony: We work with sleep. Sleep is a cornerstone- Mm ... of mental health. If you're not sleeping well, you're gonna lo- some people look very ADHD just because they have insomnia, so they're not gonna focus, concentrate. Trauma, trauma will make you do things like work constantly, trying to outrun your past, so to speak.

Laura Mahony: Mm. Um, and so high performer burnout. We work with [00:09:30] neurodivergence. That includes autism spectrum disorder, as well as ADHD. I include highly sensitive people in that, and also menopausal women, perimenopausal women. I have personal experience with this- Mm-hmm ... at this point. Anxiety, depression, really the brain touches so many aspects of our life, uh, that, you know, we just wind up working with learning challenges and, and so we wind up working with very diverse populations for that reason.

Chandler Stroud: [00:10:00] So Laura, now I'd love to just start at the very beginning. You have, in the past, described yourself to me as a child who was a bright light, someone who could feel and perceive things that others around her could not. What was that actually like growing up, in practice? 

Laura Mahony: It was amazing and, and very confusing all at the same time.

Laura Mahony: So I would just show up, and I had this wide-eyed presence, I guess. And but I [00:10:30] also had this wide-eyed almost fear. So when we get afraid, we open our eyes really big. Mm-hmm. And I would... W- if I didn't feel safe, I would become that shy, quiet person. Um, but also I was very chatty. My mom used to call me Chatty Cathy.

Laura Mahony: But it felt strange. I grew up in Indiana, so sometimes it, it felt strange to think about, why would somebody say that about that person? I didn't... It didn't compute with me. It didn't make sense if they commented on how they talked, [00:11:00] what the color of their skin was or... I just always saw the best in people, and I still do.

Laura Mahony: And so I think I had a lot of struggle with having this inner knowing of the light of who people are and then feeling The, the external world felt different. Like, I, it, they didn't jive for me. So that felt strange- Mm ... from an early age. 

Chandler Stroud: Laura, can you take us back and share a little bit more about your story and what it was like growing up [00:11:30] in Indiana, in your household, going to the schools that you went to?

Chandler Stroud: Kind of what was your environment like? What was your experience and your inner world like? Just so that we all have that context and understanding before we get into some of the neurofeedback work. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. So I grew up in Indiana. My nervous system likes sameness, it likes predictability, it likes stability, and I think, you know, being born in '70, I had that.

Laura Mahony: I had multi-generational family members arou- [00:12:00] surrounding me, so I had so much love. I had so much attention. I had five older brothers. I was the youngest. It was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom four years and then me. So, you know, I always got a lot of attention and love, and I loved that. And I think that my Childhood was, and my upbringing was, like, these contrasts.

Laura Mahony: So, and it, and they're almost extremes because I had such extreme love. I had a- [00:12:30] amazing parents, and amazing brothers, and amazing family, amazing community. I went to a small private school. I was raised in the Episcopal Church. Now I'm more spiritual than religious, but it just was community, community, community everywhere, and I loved that.

Laura Mahony: I think that's shaped me quite a bit. And then I also had the contrast of, in my family, love was shown by teasing, so I had a bunch of brothers that were always, you know, [00:13:00] lovingly teasing each other. And, but to my, my bright light brain, I was like, "That doesn't make sense," and I would feel this wave of emotion hit me.

Laura Mahony: And I didn't know what it was. Nobody could explain it to me. I was told I was too much or too sensitive or crying too much. But the world just... Not understanding yourself leaves its mark, I think, and especially when you're little. You're like, "That's just not right," and I, I would just clam up and n- really not know [00:13:30] what to say sometimes.

Laura Mahony: It wasn't just that. It was, you know, some of the other things that I said. It, it wouldn't always make sense to me how people were to each other. I write about the untranslated child, and so I think I had a lot of sensory things. I have a very wide open sensory system that is broader and wider than other people, and that can knock you down when you don't understand it.

Laura Mahony: But what I've learned to do is make that my, [00:14:00] my gift, and once you understand it, then you can use it for you instead of deny it and have it knock you down. 

Chandler Stroud: What was it like, I mean, living with those five loving brothers who teased each other and maybe even sometimes you? I don't know. Uh- Oh, yes ... your par- I would assume, as the only girl.

Chandler Stroud: I mean... 

Laura Mahony: Yes. 

Chandler Stroud: And, and just thinking about how your parents navigated that with you, too. Like, what was it like to feel things so deeply in an [00:14:30] environment that didn't quite speak your language? 

Laura Mahony: Yeah, it's, it turns into survival, which sounds dramatic, but internally it's probably the beginnings of masking. So internally it was, you know, I was in chaos.

Laura Mahony: And when you have that many kids, I think many people in big families understand this concept. Some can do it and some it's just rough. And, you know, I thought about this this morning. One of the things is that, my God, what [00:15:00] my parents did. And neurodivergence, it's hereditary. And so I imagine my mom probably was some form of neurodivergence, autistic and/or ADHD, and she was brilliant and creative and funny and overwhelmed.

Laura Mahony: And when you get overwhelmed, you, it's hard to be present. It's hard to show up. And I can't even imagine what it would be like to have that many boys and then a [00:15:30] girl. And so I, I was thinking about this morning, you know, like time traveling and it's like if I could, man, if I could help my parents understand themselves in the way that I now understand myself and how I'm able to show up in the world and give them the neurofeedback and because man, they were the best parents and they were also tethered and not able to, to access themselves.

Laura Mahony: And I write quite a bit about that in my website and I understand quite a bit [00:16:00] about that and it gives me great empathy and compassion for people. And the cool thing is now we can do things about it because we understand the brain. We understand, or at least I do in the way that I do, I understand how the brain works and it informs the work that I do with people every day.

Chandler Stroud: There's a phrase that you used with me recently and that you also just cited in your response and it's really stayed with me: masking. You described spending so much of your life showing up as a version of yourself that [00:16:30] felt safe, the polished, the put together version of Laura. When did that pattern start and what was it costing you?

Laura Mahony: Yeah, so I think it's very smarmy. I don't know if that's a word, but it just kind of you heard it first here folks. 

Chandler Stroud: Wow. All right. 

Laura Mahony: It does. But that's, that's the... Words have feeling to me. Yes. It's one of my special somethings and that's the feeling that has it kind of sneaks in without you knowing it. So it's like you turn into a people pleaser.

Laura Mahony: I call [00:17:00] it al- I also call it mooning so it's like- Mm ... and chameleoning. So I show up as the version like, "Oh, you want me to be happy? Okay. You want me to be funny? I'll be funny. Oh you..." And it's almost that Jim Carrey like I, I have the ability to be Jim Carrey-esque. I'm very expressive and both vocally and probably in my facial expressions.

Laura Mahony: I wear everything on my face but it is exhausting to not be yourself and it can get you in bad situations. Like [00:17:30] it can get you into bad relationships. It can get y- d- relationships that don't serve you and it's like, "Okay, I'm gonna show up as that person." I'm very extroverted and you know I've had situations where I was, I was told I was too extroverted so I pulled back.

Laura Mahony: "Oh yeah, you're right." And you think you're being accommodating and you're not. It's... And then especially as you build time with those people then when it's like oh you know what it's really [00:18:00] tiring being Like self-editing all the time and being quieter and not being me and holding back my jokes, it's, it's really, it takes a lot of energy from the brain, quite frankly.

Laura Mahony: And then you become emotionally exhausted, physic- physically exhausted, and you stop it. And when you stop it, then that person's like, "Who are you?" And it's like, "This is who I am. I've been this person this whole time, and I did a disservice to myself by not showing up as that [00:18:30] person and thinking I was less than."

Laura Mahony: And when you're told that you're too much, you're this, you're that, you're the other thing, you do out of survival, you're like, "Okay." And some people do it by becoming perfect students. Some people do it by becoming the class clown. Some people, you know, it's whatever that nervous system values, you're gonna start becoming that.

Laura Mahony: And it's, it comes at a great cost, so I was also realized that I was always showing up happy. I can't show up if I'm not happy 'cause my in- my emotions were so [00:19:00] intense, highs, highs, lows, lows. But that was also because I was suppressing them. That didn't need to happen- Mm-hmm ... if I honored myself. So you show up with highs, highs, and it's, you know, I don't know, it, it just becomes something that doesn't serve you.

Laura Mahony: So I don't really remember where I was going with that piece of it, but I think the lows, lows is where you hide because it's like I can't show people my tears. I can't show people my sadness Because I was judged for it. Why are you so sensitive? Why are you [00:19:30] crying all the time? It's 'cause the world hurts, and nobody knew how to reflect that back to me.

Laura Mahony: Nobody translated me. So I've learned to become... That's why I call myself a nervous system translator. I don't think it exists, but I try to translate other people's nervous systems so they don't have to go through some of the things that I went through. 

Chandler Stroud: Was there ever a moment in your childhood where you thought, something is very different about me, I just don't know what it is yet?

Laura Mahony: I think my nervous system [00:20:00] thought that. 

Chandler Stroud: Hmm. 

Laura Mahony: I don't know if I consciously thought that. I would feel it in sensations. As you're describing that, I remember feeling these, like, zings or pings or... It's like adrenaline probably is what it was. It's like, oh, I said something. Oh, I did this, I did that. I, I said something and then people didn't react the way that I thought that they might, and I- 

Chandler Stroud: Hmm

Laura Mahony: I think that, like, sometimes I would feel misunderstood, and I would [00:20:30] feel like I was judged and told who I was, and that didn't match with who I knew I was. And my nervous system would react to that, and that would cause me to have a significant amount of anxiety, but I didn't know what the anxiety was.

Laura Mahony: And I think we've talked about sometimes the way that anxiety comes out is by stomach pain or constipation. It's like all the blood flow is going away from the, the central part, you know, because it's like I need blood in my limbs to run, to fight or flee. Hmm. [00:21:00] Or I need it-- I don't need it to digest anything.

Laura Mahony: And, and so that can create a lot of shame, embarrassment, and, and things like that. So I think that my... Bessel van der Kolk, you know, aptly says the body keeps a score, but it was like I was getting all these signals and I didn't know what to make of them. So it's just like, "Oh, you're wrong. Why are you doing that?"

Laura Mahony: So then I would... I just felt like this giant... I probably was just armored. 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like it. 

Laura Mahony: [00:21:30] Yeah. And, uh, just doing my best, but then, you know, once again, this life of contrasts. I had so much community, so much family, so many friends, and but yet I was suffering inside, you know? Mm-hmm. And it's, and that's gets back to the masking, so I'm just gonna be happy and funny, and I'll just go- Yeah

Laura Mahony: suffer by myself because it hurts me more to see you hurting because I'm hurting, so I w- I did desperately did not want anybody to see my pain because I didn't wanna be mocked for it. I didn't want it to [00:22:00] be misunderstood, and also I didn't want to see somebody I loved hurt because I could take it. I'm like, "I got this.

Laura Mahony: I can just feel like shit, and I can do that." And it, the depth of the pain is very intense. That's not in a victim way. It just is. It is what it is. But, uh, yeah, so I would, I would just hide that. 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah. I'm not surprised to hear that given everything you were going through. As you grew up, [00:22:30] you... I recall you saying to me that you described yourself as someone who overturned every stone trying to understand how you worked.

Chandler Stroud: What did that search look like? What did you try, what helped, and what did you find still left something to be desired? 

Laura Mahony: Oh, lordy. Think of things in energy, and it's like a tornado ... inside my head. It's like, you know, a lot of times with people with trauma, they're like, they're [00:23:00] scanners, and they're like, they're like a cyborg.

Laura Mahony: Hmm. And they're scanning for, like, "Okay, what's this person doing? What's that person doing? How do I fit in here? What do I need to do there?" And so one was just constant analysis. One, another is constantly picking myself apart. Another is once the internet hit, good God, I'm going to listen to everything, do everything, you know?

Laura Mahony: And I just, you know, I, I got into Joe Dispenza and meditation, and so as I [00:23:30] was, uh, meditating an hour and a half a day. I was releasing emotions. I was crying. I did releasing my pain body, you know, from Eckhart Tolle. And I was like, "Well, there it is. I can see it 'cause I'm spiritual," and there's this black, cr- hairy thing on the ground.

Laura Mahony: You know? I don't know. And getting, you know, getting into- Oh ... spirituality, and then also getting into the science. I'm so science and spiritual and psychology, and I [00:24:00] found bits and pieces everywhere that I could put together, but it, you know, it's like when you're reading the opener, it's like, "Oh, dear God, that's a laundry list."

Laura Mahony: But it is what it is, and it's like, now I'm through the laundry list, and it all led back to my nervous system and the brain. Hmm. And so, but what you wanna do is you wanna learn to... So that's the ADHD part of me, is that I can hyperfocus like a mofo, and it's like that serves me. [00:24:30] I get something done, I can do it, but I have to be careful not to over prove, over do it.

Laura Mahony: Then, then I learned about high performer burnout, so here comes this guy trotting in into my life, and I get to learn about that. Um, so I feel like I've, I've really learned a lot about everything because of that, but 

Chandler Stroud: Did any of it help? Like, what did that season of your life open up for you? 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. So the spirituality, [00:25:00] I got stuck in it.

Chandler Stroud: Hmm. 

Laura Mahony: So it's like I could get all... I could get a lot of downloads, I could get a lot of inner knowing, I could get a lot of signs from the universe. I could follow the signs, but I couldn't be present. I wasn't able to be present to access the opportunities. I mean, I did because they were coming in for sure, and it's what led me here.

Laura Mahony: And then I could hyperfocus, but there was this... I just couldn't access putting it all together because I [00:25:30] was stuck too long in the, in the woo, the spiritual, and it's like, oh, let me... Because sometimes spirituality can be anxiety, so it's like I learned to read cards, and it's like, okay, what do the cards say?

Laura Mahony: What do the cards say? What does the medium say? What does this say? What does that say? And that, you know, it's great, but it's like at some point you gotta connect with people, and then you gotta do the things. 

Chandler Stroud: Our hero Lee actually talks about that on the show a lot, about how there's this great, I think it's [00:26:00] an Einstein quote, about your rational mind versus the spirit-led intuition.

Chandler Stroud: And I believe even Einstein was like, the, the gist of the quote was like, "You can't lean 100% into your intuition and inner knowing." Like, you need the rational mind to go open the doors and take action on the downloads that you're being given. So the two need to work in concert together. 

Laura Mahony: 100%, because ideas are...

Laura Mahony: We have this meat sack for a reason. [00:26:30] The meat sack allows us to ac- actualize our ideas. Mm-hmm. And so we need an instrument to, to put them into the world. So I had probably, gosh, 15, 17 years of being that wide open. I had all these ideas, but I couldn't implement them. And that's, you know, where we want, we want mental flexibility.

Laura Mahony: You wanna get, you know, that wide open aperture of accessing spirit, getting your [00:27:00] downloads. Then you wanna be present to get your opportunities and connect with people and, and live the life that we're supposed to live here, quite frankly, and enjoy it. The present moment is where ga- gratitude lives. It's also where anxiety and depression don't live, and those can knock you down.

Laura Mahony: And then you go in, and then you get in that hyperfocus. I need that straw to exist because I have to filter out everything and hyperfocus so I can do things. And then I need to go back again, and then I need to totally, like, switch off and go to sleep. [00:27:30] So we need all the, all the speeds. But yeah, I just was...

Laura Mahony: I was a photographer at the time, and I had a lot of free time on my hands, and it... Because my work was very seasonal, and it lasted me all year, and it allowed me to hyperfocus and to really turn all these stones and to hyperfocus and to learn massive amounts of information. But also it kept me stuck because I, I couldn't...

Laura Mahony: I had too many ideas, and then I had this thing inside of me that was like, [00:28:00] I remember it was well over a decade ago, and I was like, "I have this feeling in me, and it won't go away, and it's big, and I don't know what I- I'm supposed to do." I w- and if I were handed that by a medium in a spiritual reading, like, "Yes, you will be this person who works with brains and mental health."

Laura Mahony: I didn't have my master's. I wasn't even in school then. And it w- I had these bolts of insight. It would be like, "You're already doing this. Get your degree." [00:28:30] Okay, and I'm not somebody who thinks I can't do things, so I'm like, "All right, I'll get my master's in my 40s." I did it. Wow. And then it's like neuro came in, and I got connected because I did card readings, and I got...

Laura Mahony: And I was really into combining minding body, mind, and spirit. And so I wanted to... I was like, "This is gonna be the thing." And then it was like, nope, that wasn't it either. I... And then I got on a podcast connecting my ideas with somebody who did [00:29:00] neurofeedback, and then I... It was brought in at exactly the right time for myself and my family, and then that helped me.

Laura Mahony: And then I was like, "This is the shit. This is it." Yeah. And this is the answer. And then it was like, okay, now I gotta mentor because you have to mentor in this field. So then, and then, and then, and then. Mm-hmm. But as each brick lit up, I stepped on it, and I, I still don't know what the next brick is. I'm still stepping on them as they, they come up.

Laura Mahony: But I, even, like, six months ago, I could have [00:29:30] never dreamed that I would have the content and the insights that I do now. 

Chandler Stroud: Mm. 

Laura Mahony: And it's coming in just like, just like wildfire. Um- That's 

Chandler Stroud: great. 

Laura Mahony: Uh, yeah. That's great. And it feeds me, so yeah. Thank you. 

Chandler Stroud: That sounds like it was the real turning point for you in your journey when you realized that you kind of had this realization or knew what you had to go do in that moment.

Chandler Stroud: It sounds like that podcast interview was really influential for you. 

Laura Mahony: Mm-hmm. [00:30:00] Yeah 

Chandler Stroud: As someone who calls herself a highly sensitive person, you felt all the ups and downs, possibly on the spectrum, ADHD, you felt it all, but without a formal diagnosis. At what point did you stop needing a label to validate your experiences?

Laura Mahony: Hmm. That's a awesome question that I'm very happy to answer. Great. One of, one of... I'm like, "Oh my God, I can't believe you asked it," 'cause it's, I never would've said this, and now I have the opportunity. [00:30:30] So what I believe that people who are HSPs, highly sensitive people, autistic, ADHD, ADHD, I feel like we have these gifts that we can't really name.

Laura Mahony: One of mine is knowing the truth in my bones, is what I say. 

Chandler Stroud: Hmm. 

Laura Mahony: I can feel it in the energy of Instagram. So Instagram can be difficult for me, and socials, because I can feel, just by going in that space, I can feel like [00:31:00] the, "Oh, I wanna do this, and I wanna be seen, and I wanna, you know, be validated." And I f- I also feel the stealing and like, "Oh, I'm just reposting this and it's mine."

Laura Mahony: And, and then I feel the authenticity and the people, the voices that might need to be heard. I, I just feel all of it. And, and then when people say things, it's like if they're saying, and this also goes back to trauma, so if they're saying with their words something and my body senses they're lying, I get [00:31:30] extremely dysregulated to the point where, remember we talked about like that psst, it's like a hot sauce gets...

Laura Mahony: A- and I used to ignore it, and now I'm like, "Heck no, am I ignoring that." That's like my intuition on steroids, and it's always been right. And so the reason was because I, I know that the work that I do and that I've developed, I have no doubt that this is my truth, the truth [00:32:00] that has allowed me to heal, feel seen, heard, validated.

Laura Mahony: And quite frankly, when I have people come in and talk to me, they're like, "This is the first time I've felt seen. I feel safe here. This is my place." And I know that feeling, and it, God, it gets me every time because I've spent a lifetime of looking for something that didn't have an answer, 'cause I was never wrong.

Laura Mahony: I was told I [00:32:30] was wrong. I knew I wasn't wrong, and probably that has a lot to do with it. I was told I was wrong, and it's like, "Nope, I'm not, but okay, we'll go with it, and I'll adjust so I don't get in trouble, and I'll adjust so you don't, so you like me." And now it's like, "Nope This is a gift, and the more that I follow it, the better my life gets.

Laura Mahony: It's not perfect, but, you know, it's [00:33:00] pretty damn good. And then I, I love the freedom of not looking for these answers that don't exist. Like, "Oh, why am I... Why do I need to act this way? Why do I need to do that? Why do I need to say this? Why do I need to act like that?" It's like What does your gut say, Laura?

Laura Mahony: Be... And when you are aligned, you're coherent, you're magnetic, and you are invulnerable. It's when we are believing somebody else that we become extremely vulnerable, and that's a life lesson for me, and also I think it's pertinent in the world today. 

Chandler Stroud: [00:33:30] 1,000%. Mm. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more.

Chandler Stroud: I think this is a really good segue into your work, Laura, and I wanna bring people along here because I know it's like a multifaceted topic. But when most people hear neurofeedback, I think they likely imagine something very complicated or clinical in nature. How do you explain what it actually is to someone who's never heard of it before?

Laura Mahony: So the translation piece is the biggest part about neurofeedback, I believe, [00:34:00] because really what it's about is, like I was saying earlier, measuring the electrical activity of the brain, thinking of your brain as a battery. When it has a lot of energy, it's, it's gonna be able to do a lot of things up into like even fighting or fleeing.

Laura Mahony: When it doesn't have a lot of energy, we feel depressed, we feel sad, we feel like lethargic, and I think our society teaches us that those are bad things, [00:34:30] but it's actually information. And so in the neurofeedback process, we, A, learn what is your brain doing? Is it overproducing energy? Is it underproducing energy?

Laura Mahony: Is it producing the right amount of energy? How is your brain serving you, and also what has it done to adapt that you no longer need? So quite often, I mean, it's learning, right? You're born trauma, trauma in the brain. You learn I cannot shut off. It's [00:35:00] not safe. I have to keep doing. I have to keep performing, whatever it is.

Laura Mahony: I just have to keep going no matter what because if I don't, somebody's gonna get me emotionally or physically. And then some other people, it's like I have so much chaos going on around me, I don't even know what's going on, so I have to learn to control everything. That can be OCD. That can be addiction, and that's in the front of the brain, and we see that brain wants to latch on.

Laura Mahony: I'm gonna, I'm gonna control [00:35:30] everything I can because my life was out of control. It doesn't serve you in the present probably, especially if you're coming in. Dissociation, protective. I am so disturbed and upset by my life, I don't wanna be here. And so you dissociate so you're not present and you escape.

Laura Mahony: That's why- Mm ... theory, a lot of people become woo. It's like I need to get back home you know? Yeah. It's like please, don't wanna be here. [00:36:00] Understandable, but We, we want to learn how to use that. So basically, we measure the electrical activity of the brain. We see where the brain is overproducing, underproducing, brainwave activities are normative, and then we correlate it with what symptoms are.

Laura Mahony: So I don't sleep well. I wake up in the middle of the night. I wake up too early. I'm anxious all the time. I have PTSD symptoms. I'm triggered by things I don't wanna be triggered by. Yeah. I can't read well. I'm [00:36:30] OCD. Really, like, it-- We are working on, you know, 20 to 40-plus symptoms on any one person at any one time Yeah, and we see it go down so 

Chandler Stroud: You can- I'm very comfortable if you wanna use me as a case study and my brain results, because I think it might add context to the conversation.

Chandler Stroud: But before we get there, in my experience working with you, the neurofeedback process kind of has two steps. The first is this qEEG brain map, and then the second is the [00:37:00] actual neurofeedback process. So can you just, like, quickly highlight the quick overview of both of those? 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. So there's a data collection that's in a one-hour appointment.

Laura Mahony: We were collecting the data. 10-minute data collection, eyes open, 10-minute data collection, eyes closed. That gives us very different information about what we wanna see in the brain. And then we have a follow-up appointment. I look at the morphology of the brainwaves. I'm... In between, I'm looking at the, the brainwaves themselves.

Laura Mahony: There's information on states. Like, is this a person who is hypervigilant? Is their brain [00:37:30] always on? Are they sleeping with their eyes open? Are they going in and out of a sleepy state? That impacts mental health incredibly. Are there things that are... You can see these disruptive brainwave patterns that can cause implosions, explosions that people don't want to do, people who have anger outbursts.

Laura Mahony: Mm-hmm. Many neurodivergent people have this certain morphology in their brainwaves, about 70%, and it causes disruption in the brain. So we're looking at that, then we're putting it through two normative [00:38:00] databases, um, in my clinic. And I use WinEEG, and I also use NeuroGuide. And so I get a holistic picture of what's happening in the brain.

Laura Mahony: I create the story of the brain. That is what I call it. I'm correlating the energy with what the person is experiencing. It is very detailed, and quite often people feel like I don't even... I mean, I don't even have to know you, and I can tell you just by looking at your brainwaves very detailed how you're showing up in your life.

Laura Mahony: Are you sleeping? Are you high performer? So cool. Yeah. [00:38:30] Do you analyze everything? Do you- It me ... hide. Yeah, I know. Um- 

Chandler Stroud: Sleep, analyze, hypervigilant- Yes ... terrible sleeper, all the things. Go, 

Laura Mahony: go, go, 

Chandler Stroud: go. All the... Oh, God. Oh, God. 

Laura Mahony: I don't even know what it's like to rest. 

Chandler Stroud: Oh, literally. But- Like, literally. You guys- Yeah ... I have to just give the plug here.

Chandler Stroud: I mean, we'll get to this in a little bit, but, like, since doing the neurofeedback piece, which she's going to explain momentarily- Mm-hmm ... like, I am sleeping harder than I've ever slept in my life. Like, I actually fall asleep and I wake up knowing that I have been [00:39:00] out cold. Like, someone could poke me with a stick and I'm not waking up- Yeah

Chandler Stroud: for the first time in my life, and it feels so different. It's like my body's catching up on years of that hypervigilant sleep of kind of like sleeping with one eye open because- Yes ... my brain was in such go, go, go mode. 

Laura Mahony: Mm-hmm. 

Chandler Stroud: So I'm... I mean, and that's just one example. I'm seeing it across-- I'm seeing the effects of my work with you across a number dif- of different dimensions in my life.

Laura Mahony: Yeah. 

Chandler Stroud: But the sleeping is so... To your point, it's a cornerstone of mental health. It is. Like, [00:39:30] it really is, it's such a game changer for me. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah, you don't even... Like, until you do this work, you're like Everybody cares about it. Everybody talks about it. If you start becoming like, it's like, "Oh, I didn't sleep well," or, "I woke up," or I- it's just ubiquitous.

Laura Mahony: Everybody thinks about sleep And they talk about it. It's, it's kind of strange when you start noticing, you know? It's kind of like what you notice- Totally ... you start noticing everywhere. But yeah, so [00:40:00] we do that hour-long brain map review where we def- you know, we go over all of the results, and I explain the person in great detail.

Chandler Stroud: And then we get to the neurofeedback piece. If they choose to embark on a neurofeedback journey, which can... How can that look? Just so people understand what's going on there. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah, so it's basically we're working the brain towards flexibility and stabilization, and the, the brain working coherently. Like, we, we all know, I think, what it feels like [00:40:30] to not have our brains be coherent.

Laura Mahony: So if you don't get a good night of sleep, your brain's not coherent. You're feeling sleepy. You're trying to stay awake. Or if you're amped up and you have to be on a podcast, you know, you don't wanna have pressured speech. You wanna have a s- you know, a slower brain. You know, so it's like right state, right time type thing.

Laura Mahony: So we're working towards the brain working like, "I feel like I'm bright-eyed, hitting on all cylinders." But then when I'm with my family and I just got, [00:41:00] you know, a whole, like a healthy compartmentalization, I had a lot going on at work. I can transition, and I can be, like, looking at my kids' eyes and seeing, like, what they might need, or empathy or compassion, or no- noticing microexpressions, things like that.

Laura Mahony: So we're going for that. The way we do it is through neurofeedback training. At its core is operant conditioning. Uh, so there's, there's a system, if you do a remote system, it's all amplitude [00:41:30] training, and what that means is we're working on the power of the brainwave. So think about an old stereo system where you're seeing all the bands going up and down in power, and, and that's what our brain does.

Laura Mahony: So, and that's what it kind of looks like on my end. So let's say you have some high beta, which is gonna be a, a really fast fight, flight, or freeze brainwave. It's gonna be- Like me ... ma- Yes. Max energy. That's what I have. Max output. Max energy. Yeah. 

Chandler Stroud: All beta. 

Laura Mahony: And it's, it's basically the brain [00:42:00] is doing constantly.

Laura Mahony: It's like driving down the road 100, 150 miles an hour. The world's just flying by you. That's what it can feel like to have all beta and no brake pedal. And so- 

Chandler Stroud: And I'm gonna add here that one of the reasons I came to you, which I was really excited about, is I, having been diagnosed with ADHD, I was on meds for that, and the meds were giving me worse insomnia.

Chandler Stroud: And it explains, now knowing my brain, being high beta, go, go, go, it was like [00:42:30] basically pushing a car down a hill with no brakes. So no wonder I couldn't turn off at night. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. 

Chandler Stroud: So this brake system, I think, is a really important analogy. It was really helpful for me in understanding what was going on. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah.

Laura Mahony: Yeah, and it's really hard to tell what is the right medication for people. That is not my lane. I'm just gonna put that out there. 

Chandler Stroud: It's good to make that clear. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. I am not a psychiatrist nor a prescribing physician, but we can see, you know, in the brain if you have plenty of gas pedal, I- [00:43:00] your high beta is like having an Adderall on board already.

Laura Mahony: It's a stimulant- Mm-hmm ... to the brain, and so there are, you know, a lot of different types of ADHD. One of them is the type that you have, so it's, you know, all gas pedal, no brake. And so that type of brain Would probably not respond well to a stimulant because you're giving... You like have a fire and you're pouring more gas on it.

Laura Mahony: Mm-hmm. And so it can feel like, like you're saying, [00:43:30] insomnia worsens, you might feel more reactive, more irritable. But you might be able to focus better. And so there's different types of medications, so there are better options if somebody needs some medication, and that's... So they have the information from a brain map, then you can take that and you understand it, you can take it and discuss it with your prescribing provider.

Laura Mahony: Mm-hmm. I'm very big on team approaches, being holistic, each person being, you know, the piece of the puzzle for the person. And so somebody wants a medication, here's [00:44:00] information where you can be targeted instead of guessing. So it's- Mm-hmm ... a great way to look under the hood. I'm passionate about you really understanding yourself in that way so you could be targeted.

Laura Mahony: If you, if you prefer medications, that's an option, you know? 

Chandler Stroud: Mm-hmm. Totally. And I think going back to the neurofeedback, just to make sure people are understanding what that looks like in practice. You kinda talked about like the brainwaves and seeing the electricity on the screen, but like what are you doing in that practice?

Chandler Stroud: What is a session like? I mean, I'm happy to [00:44:30] jump in here too, 'cause since I've been doing it now for six weeks, and this is one of the reasons I'm loving working with Laura and Lux Neuro in particular, is because I was able to take the system back with me from Denver to Connecticut. So now I do it, call it, what, four days a week.

Chandler Stroud: I'm at my computer. Mm-hmm. I'm using the protocols that you loaded into the computer, and you basically, you hook yourself up to the so- to the hardware, and you watch Netflix. I mean, truly, I watch TV- I know ... [00:45:00] while my brain is training in the background. I'm totally caught up on Queer Eye. I joked with Laura 'cause she put it on in her office when I was-

Chandler Stroud: like training. It is like, you guys, I'm crying so hard at all of these episodes. I feel so silly, but like- I know ... these guys are incredible. That's a plug for the show separately. But I literally watch Queer Eye on Netflix while my brain is training in the background, and what that in practice sounds like is just these sounds that are going off in the background that have no apparent pattern, but I can feel [00:45:30] my brain reacting to them as I'm watching the screen.

Chandler Stroud: Mm-hmm. But it's very passive in nature. I mean, it's really easy and enjoyable. Even the eyes closed. I like listen to a meditation and hook myself up. So it just, it's so easy to integrate into your day, and it can be kind of fun, because now I'm watching TV for an hour a day when I wasn't before. 

Laura Mahony: I know, and for a high performer, it's like, "You wouldn't do that."

Chandler Stroud: Never. It's 

Laura Mahony: like- 

Chandler Stroud: Oh my gosh. 

Laura Mahony: Oh my gosh ... I don't have time to watch TV, but- No ... you 

Chandler Stroud: know? I didn't before. Yeah. And I, like, [00:46:00] don't, but- Now you do ... it's so great. I know. And it's like feel-good. I mean- I know ... Queer Eye. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. So good. That's great. Yeah. My heart warms with that show, and I- I'm always like, "I wanna neuro those people.

Laura Mahony: Can you just add on a neuro? Can I be, like, the Fab Six?" Or in parentheses- Oh, they would love you ... "And Laura" You know? But- They would 

Chandler Stroud: love you. 

Laura Mahony: Oh my God, the changes I could do. But anyway, so yeah, so the-- I never finished. So it's operant conditioning, so it's just like Pavlov's l- dog learns to salivate when it hears the bell.

Laura Mahony: It's the same [00:46:30] thing. So you hear auditory feedback noises. They're band-specific, so I can say, "Hey, we don't want a lot of that anxiety brainwave, high beta." Every time that brainwave goes down below a certain threshold that we have in the system, you'll hear a feedback noise. And then the other one, which is the stabilizer, it's 12 to 15 cycles per second.

Laura Mahony: It's called the SMR. It's a sleep spindle. It is magic because it's too fast to be depression, because [00:47:00] depression is in the slower brainwaves. It's too slow- Mm-hmm ... to be anxiety. It's very stabilizing. It's what tells the brain to stay asleep at night. So if you wanna Google sleep spindle, we can train that up in the brain, and that's why it helps with sleep.

Laura Mahony: It also can give us this thing called the clear windshield effect, which is the world seems brighter, lighter, more vibrant. Background anxiety, background depression go away. And the first time I had that, because I was in the fog of, of my woo-ness and [00:47:30] my stuckness and my foot on the gas and foot on the brakes anxiety and depression and all the things, I was like, "What?

Laura Mahony: This-- What? You mean life is supposed to, like, look like this and feel like this?" And I was like, "What the hell?" And it was like, I just, I didn't know. It-- I just felt good. And I had read about the clear windshield effect in this book called "The Symphony of the Brain," which is a great book as a primer if anybody wants to read that, um, on what neurofeedback is, the history of it, and all of that.

Laura Mahony: But [00:48:00] I was like, "Holy moly," like- I, this is me. I just, I'm happy, content. So it's really great. I know I keep stray- straying from the training, but you hear this auditory feedback, so we can train up that brainwave. I was just, you know, uh, applauding. And, and then there's also a dimmer screen on there, so there's a visual component.

Laura Mahony: And then in the office, if you're actually in the Denver area, we have two other systems I won't really get into because it gets complicated to [00:48:30] explain them- Mm-hmm ... and explain them here. But basically, we're, we're letting the brain see itself, and you're getting anywhere from, I don't know, 900 to, like, 2,000 feedback noises.

Chandler Stroud: Wow. 

Laura Mahony: And it is pretty funny. It's like we tell some of the kids, "You're gonna heal by watching Netflix." And I... And it's not the show, it's the feedback. And it just- Yeah ... gives you something to focus on, right? You could... We have people meditating, [00:49:00] we have people doing, you know, other things, but Netflix works wonders to just watch a show.

Laura Mahony: And it's also, like, a lot of people don't indulge in that. They don't take that time for themselves. So It's a win-win. 

Chandler Stroud: It is. It's fun. Yeah. It's a win-win. And I will tell you, outside of my sleep being significantly improved, I'm already feeling the effects of just having a different baseline throughout my day.

Chandler Stroud: Like, my energy feels way less frenetic. Like, I'm still able to [00:49:30] focus, but I... You guys know on the show, how many times have I said now, I just felt like I couldn't access this meditative state, and now that's because I had, like, all high beta, right? Like, I didn't have those lower brain waves. And now that I've been training in the lower brain waves, I just feel like I'm way more chill than I used to be, in a good way, right?

Chandler Stroud: And, like, I'm able to drop in and relax when I need to, and it's [00:50:00] been incredible. I, like, I feel like I cleared out 90 to 95% of, like, you know, the belief systems, the limiting beliefs, the trauma, all the stuff with everything I've done the last two years and with the help of my heroes. But there were still some cobwebs in the corner, as I like to describe to you, that were...

Chandler Stroud: I was feeling in my every day, and I was on the hunt to figure out, like, how do I get rid of those remnants, those little pieces that are just, like, lingering and showing up [00:50:30] in weird ways, like my body betraying my mind. It's like I'd be in a situation and I'd feel this level of embarrassment where my head was like, "This isn't that big a deal.

Chandler Stroud: You're with friends. It's not that deep. Like, don't be that embarrassed." And then yet my body was, like, sweating and my heart was racing and, you know, like, that trigger, for example, was happening more than I wanted to admit. So I, I have really found that that has eased with the neurofeedback so far. Um, and I'm only five, six weeks in, so I'm really excited [00:51:00] to see how I feel at the end of two months.

Laura Mahony: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think you're bringing up an apoint- important thing to think about. So it's like, that is so common, where it's like my mind knows. My mind knows that these are my friends, but my body is going, "Pay attention. This isn't safe." It's like, "

Chandler Stroud: Come on, you fool." You know, and you're like, "Er, er."

Laura Mahony: So I'm gonna make your heart beat faster 'cause we are not... There's a threat, so you're... Like, it used to be, you know, this is so cliche, but it [00:51:30] used to be the lions, but it's true. And we needed to have that- Like instant reactivity over threats- Mm-hmm ... because we, we had to make sure that, 'cause the lion is gonna get you, the bunny won't.

Laura Mahony: But if it's the bunny, so be it. I, I had a fast heart rate, and I was ready to run, but it was a bunny so it's okay. But now we see the threat as like an email from your boss or, you know, maybe whatever you felt in front of [00:52:00] your friends. Like something, it was like a threat to like, oh, they might not be my friends.

Laura Mahony: Or even though your adult mind knows that, but you probably learned something and it's baked into your learning as a, a small kiddo. Mm-hmm. And so that's where ner- neuro is really shines is because developmental trauma, things that when happened that y- are pre-verbal, you can't talk about that. And sometimes it is so monumental and so much that it was just [00:52:30] ongoing.

Laura Mahony: Like the chaos that I lived in was ongoing every day, and that got baked into my nervous system. Mm-hmm. So it's like a hair trigger. Yeah. And so a lot of things were threat, threat, threat, threat. And yeah, and you, your brain also is prone to having... There's two kinds of alpha. I'm getting a little technical, but you have the- Okay

Laura Mahony: you have the analysis alpha which that tells you your processing speed, [00:53:00] and that's amazing because you have a really fast processor. So you learn well, you take information in, you are able to assess a situation and come up with a conclusion in seconds. That is like my first responders that I work with- Mm-hmm

Laura Mahony: they frequently will have that. But it, what it also does is you come up with, your brain thinks so fast it's like, "I got a B- on my math exam, I'm not gonna go to college." Mm. And it can happen that fast, that catastrophic thinking. And so it, without the brake pedal [00:53:30] on that, the analysis kinda c- becomes crippling, and so that's another type of anxiety.

Laura Mahony: Um- 

Chandler Stroud: Felt that. 

Laura Mahony: Yeah. Yeah, and so it's like it has its superpower, but we wanna offset it. So that's another thing we're doing by giving you that brake pedal. Um, so not only does it help you to meditate, it helps you to connect with other people, 'cause we connect in the slow. Mm-hmm. It's like you can think of the slower brainwaves as a, a glass of wine and low lights and you know?

Laura Mahony: It's [00:54:00] safe to be vulnerable. Vulnerability lives in there. 

Chandler Stroud: Oh. You know I'm big on that. So, yeah. Laura, you didn't just heal yourself with these practices. You built an actual business around it. Why? 

Laura Mahony: Because I have this core belief that people, they deserve to not suffer, and they deserve to live a life of joy and happiness, and all the things that they wanna...

Laura Mahony: They, they deserve to not be stuck. I actually shouldn't really say joy and happiness, because I really think that you [00:54:30] should be able to experience all the gear shifts, all the flavors of feelings, and not be stuck, not accessing yourself, and- Mm ... not being the parent that you want to be and not maybe being the spouse, the person for yourself.

Laura Mahony: You know, when you, you show up, like, I find one of the side effects of neuro is that we take a nervous system, we, we take it from being reactive to re- responsive, and when you act in [00:55:00] alignment, your self-esteem soars. Mm-hmm. And so it's one of the things that is really beautiful about neurofeedback. And when we feel good, we do good.

Laura Mahony: And I feel like this is my way of impacting the world right now, is by taking whoever wants to show up, I'm there for you a million thousand percent, and I will teach you all I know and share, and hopefully you'll align [00:55:30] with it. Then you can go out in the world, like, and be the best parent. You know? Like, I, I had one dad tell me that he used to be like, "I'm making dinner," you know like, to his kids.

Laura Mahony: And he goes, "And after neuro, it was just like, why didn't I just stop and say, 'Hey, give me 10 minutes. What you're saying is important?'" 

Chandler Stroud: Mm. 

Laura Mahony: And now he does that. And it's not that we are these people, it's that we can't access it, and it's like, what's the cost of your [00:56:00] nervous system being hair-trigger or on edge or, you know, you say things you don't wanna say.

Laura Mahony: You do things you don't wanna do. It's like, "That's not me. Oh, gosh. Hate myself." You know? 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah. "

Laura Mahony: What a jerk, Laura." And it's not true. Yeah. So, you know, and then you can take care of yourself and whatnot, but yeah. 

Chandler Stroud: Who is Lux Neuro for, and who is the person [00:56:30] that you most want to reach? 

Laura Mahony: I think if you haven't understood yourself, and you know that you're inside, and you can't access that person for whatever reason, that's the person, and that spans high performer burnout, people who can't sleep, ADHD, AuDHD, autism, highly sensitive people, learning challenges.

Laura Mahony: I mean, a, young, old- Anxiety, depression ... anxiety and depression for sure. I've had people who haven't been able to... It's very hard to get out of bed, and they are unable [00:57:00] to work, and now they're able to work because- 

Chandler Stroud: Wow ... 

Laura Mahony: we've sped the brain up, and it's not a matter of what they were thinking about. It was their neurophysiology was too slow for them to do anything, and that is...

Laura Mahony: I mean, talk about non-shaming. 

Chandler Stroud: Yeah. Wow. That's such a change. Laura, if you could sit across from the version of you who was a little girl, bright, perceptive, overwhelmed, and without a map, what would you tell her? [00:57:30] 

Laura Mahony: Oh, I feel like I'm on RuPaul's Drag Race, and this makes me so happy and almost teary at the same time.

Laura Mahony: I love this question. You were right the entire time. You, you were just right. There was nothing wrong with you. It's so cliche, but you're not broken. You are so big-hearted and [00:58:00] kind and loving, and you weren't wrong

Laura Mahony: And you learn to doubt yourself and to people please and do all the things. But also It's a... You're the person who would probably choose to be born into the, this world that way, go through all the things that you went through so that... I wouldn't be doing this work if I didn't go through any of these things.

Laura Mahony: And like I said, it's a laundry [00:58:30] list, and it's... I, I always tell my spirits, I'm like, "Ca- have I experienced enough?" I'm an experiential learner. I hate that and love that about myself, but once I experience something, okay, I got compassion in spades and I understand it and I can explain it to you, 'cause I'm not not gonna figure it out.

Laura Mahony: Yeah. And so I figured it out, and that's probably- Yeah ... what I would tell her. You're gonna be okay. You're okay. You're awesome. 

Chandler Stroud: Love that. 

Laura Mahony: So I just wanted to share. I get a lot of... [00:59:00] I call it luminal because the light shines in, and the liminal, and the liminal is the threshold. It's the in-between. So it's, it's...

Laura Mahony: My brain sometimes, a- at least high-performer brains can be hard to catch to get those downloads, even though I, you know, said that I'm pretty woo. But shower moments, I know we know what they are, driving moments, all that. So I had a shower moment this morning and I was just thinking about, like, my story really, when I tell it, [00:59:30] it sounds like, oh, this horrible...

Laura Mahony: Like, I know I say there's good and bad, but it, it really, the, the volume is turned up on how this dysregulated me. And I think that for a long time that volume was turned up, but then after I did neuro and I got into that mental flexibility, the volume turned down on that narrative. And what the volume turned up on was the amazing childhood that I had.

Laura Mahony: It was [01:00:00] like, because I just, I loved the chaos as much as it knocked me down. I loved my fam- I loved my brothers. I loved my family. I loved the community, all those things that I talked about. And then it's like, I can't even believe all the things that my dad did. And my dad made bullets, and he packed shells, and he became a photographer and developed color pictures and black and white pictures, and he worked on cars, and he woodworked and, and [01:00:30] my mom was amazing as well, and she just, she just was like so much like me in so many different ways.

Laura Mahony: But... And they gave me everything. Like, I went to a small private school. I had violin lessons, piano lessons, and I had a amazing community, and I didn't want for anything, you know? And yet here I was, so knocked down by, by this for a long time, um, despite having this... It was so invisible. And, [01:01:00] and when I had neuro, it was just this one day and it was a lot of neuro, and it just, all of a sudden I was like, "What the hell have you been doing?"

Laura Mahony: You've been wallowing in these other things, and yes, they mattered And yes, I researched them, but I didn't... I just-- And I called my dad and I apologized to him. And I was like, "I just have been more distant than I would've been." 'Cause I didn't have any problems with my dad, and my mom had [01:01:30] passed at this point.

Laura Mahony: But it was like, I just want people to also know that, like, the f- the light switch got popped on to the amazing things in my life, and it came back in this flood of memories of all the, the great things that I experienced. So I think that that's an important bridge. That's what neuro can do. I think that there's other modalities, and you've done them.

Laura Mahony: You know, EMDR might allow people to do that. It's, it's kind of the trauma turning off, but I like to think of... [01:02:00] Like, that's really important to me, is that it didn't have to be, like... Neuro allowed me to not live in, in that volume turned up on my past and focusing on that and being, being the victim. Yeah.

Chandler Stroud: Love that. Thank you for sharing that. Laura, what do you want listeners to walk away with, especially the ones who recognize something of themselves in your story? 

Laura Mahony: There are answers that make sense. I give [01:02:30] this metaphor in my work with people sometimes, and I'm like, "You have this balloon and you just haven't questioned things.

Laura Mahony: Like, you're in a bubble." But what I'm trying to do is push that bubble, push you into different ways of thinking and asking and thinking about things in different ways. Like, one of my taglines is, "Mental health is not what you think." And it's not. Like, depression can be, "I just, my brain is moving so slow that I don't have energy, and it makes me feel depressed."

Laura Mahony: I know not to go out in the world and look for answers to that [01:03:00] as to why I'm depressed and who doesn't like me and who does or what's wrong with me or whatever. Or, like, anxiety. I, they just all ha- they have, there's just so many answers to all of these things, and it's like anxiety means you need to do something.

Laura Mahony: Depression can sometimes you need to look at things, heal yourself or, or whatever. Challenge your thinking. There's different answers. It's written in the language of your brainwaves. [01:03:30] And think about how you can make what you consider your faults to be your superpowers. Love 

Chandler Stroud: that ... 

Laura Mahony: and follow yourself. 

Chandler Stroud: I think that's great.

Chandler Stroud: Laura, thank you genuinely for the work you do, for the way that you do it, and for being so willing to share a little bit more about yourself and who you are behind the work today. Getting to experience Lux Neuro for myself has honestly [01:04:00] been one of the most meaningful parts of my own journey, and I'm so grateful to you and to the work, and I really hope that this conversation opens a door for someone listening who maybe has been quietly searching for the same thing.

Chandler Stroud: So thank you. 

Laura Mahony: Thank you. 

Chandler Stroud: And if this episode resonated with you, please share it. And if you wanna learn more about, again, Lux Neuro or Laura's work, I'll have information in the show notes, and you can learn all [01:04:30] about the other modalities we share on the show and my heroes at thehealingheroes.com. We have resources.

Chandler Stroud: You can meet the heroes and submit your ideas for future episodes. Thanks for listening, everyone, and remember, be curious, be courageous, and 

Laura Mahony: be kind to yourself. You've got this