The Origin Story of Neurofield Neurotherapy with Dr. Nicholas Dogris

Your brain is powerful, but it’s also sensitive. So what if the best way to help it heal isn’t “more force,” but a smarter nudge that gives it fuel and lets it reorganize on its own? We sit down with Dr. Nicholas Dogris, licensed psychologist, neurostimulation pioneer, and co-founder of Neurofield Neurotherapy, to tell the true origin story behind a company built on gentle, data driven brain technology.

Dr. Dogris shares how Neurofield Neurotherapy began with a personal emergency: his son’s hypoxic brain injury and the terrifying realization that standard neurofeedback often requires a child to be old enough to follow instructions. That urgency pushed him into deep research on neurostimulation, including why traditional transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) felt far too aggressive for infants. What comes next is the kind of real world innovation story you don’t hear every day, a chance meeting with a radio frequency engineer after a guitar lesson, a prototype built in 30 days, and early testing that showed meaningful change at surprisingly low energy levels.

We also dig into how the tools expanded from PEMF to photobiomodulation (light therapy) and cranial electrostimulation, and why EEG brain mapping matters if you want truly personalized neurotherapy. The goal is simple: measure brain activity, connect it to symptoms, target specific regions, and support rehabilitation in a way that respects the nervous system. Dr. Dogris also explains how FDA clearances and validated analysis software help move neurostimulation and brain health treatment toward safer, more accountable care.

If you’re curious about gentle neurostimulation, EEG guided protocols, and where brain optimization is headed next, hit play. Subscribe, share this with someone who cares about brain health, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

To learn more about Dr. Nicholas Dogris with NeuroField Neurotherapy, Inc. visit: https://www.neurofieldneurotherapy.com/nicholas-dogris

To learn more about Transformative Neurotherapy visit:
https://www.TransformativeNeurotherapy.org
Transformative Neurotherapy
570 Lincoln Ave. 
Bellevue, PA 15202 
412-204-7397  

Transcript

Welcome To Transformative Neurotherapy

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with your host, Dr. Heather Putney, founder and executive director of Transformative Neurotherapy. This is the place where healing happens faster. Because let's face it, your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual until now. Here we take a holistic approach to brain health, bringing together science, mind-body harmony, and the tools you need to optimize your well-being. Whether you're a high performer, executive, athlete, longevity hacker, or just someone tired of your brain working against you, Dr. Putney is here to help you unlock your full potential. From brain fog to chronic stress, we're covering it all so you can finally experience brain health, mind harmony, and total well-being. Ready to get on stuck? Let's get started.

The Vision Behind Neurofield

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Before Neurofield Neurotherapy became the innovative company it is today, it began as a vision fueled by scientific curiosity and a drive to solve real clinical challenges and a commitment to helping people achieve better brain health. Today we're exploring how the company first came to life. Welcome everyone. I'm Dr. Heather Putney, founder and executive director of transformative neurotherapy, here in the studio with Dr. Nick Dougris, a licensed psychologist practicing at Neurofield Neurotherapy. But he's also a maverick and a pioneer in the field of neurostimulation. And I can't wait to pick his brain and explain and help him show everyone how exciting this field has become because of what he has contributed to it. So on that note, we're gonna we're gonna kick it off. Um welcome, Dr. Dobers, and thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Now, um we were chatting a little bit before this, and um you wear so many hats. I it was even too challenging for me to introduce. So I think it's for our audience, it would be super helpful just to kind of give them an idea of the scope of the work that you do. So could you just kind of give us a little bit of background?

A Son’s Hypoxic Brain Injury

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah, yeah. Um, I do wear a lot of hats. Um I, you know, I I I'm practicing at Neurofield Neurotherapy, which is our clinic in Santa Barbara, California. Um I am the co-founder and CEO of Neurofield Incorporated, which is a hardware software manufacturer where we build EEG devices, uh, cranioelectric devices, uh photobiomodulation devices, all these fancy devices to treat the brain. Um I'm the executive director of neuroscience at a facility called FHE Health in Deerfield Beach, Florida, uh, which is a uh inpatient-outpatient facility that treats mental health and substance abuse issues like opioid dependence, alcohol dependence. We have 185 beds inpatient, 250 outpatient. Uh 10 neurolabs that are working seven days a week and changing the face of uh the way we treat mental health problems and substance abuse rehabilitation. So yeah, I do a lot every day. Um and it's been fun. I've been doing it for gosh, like 30 years now. So it's kind of interesting to think about doing it that long.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Wow. And with that scope of practice, you've got just a wealth of knowledge of different ways that these innovations can be um applied to different populations and help them heal, correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, yeah. Over the years we, you know, we discovered that uh the technology could be applied to different things. Um, you know. But originally I I I actually invented the modality for my son uh who uh was born with a hypoxic brain injury. And um uh at that point in my career I had been practicing for almost twelve years. And uh he was uh severely injured at birth, which hypoxia is like a deprivation of oxygen that um uh you know obviously uh impacts the brain. And um he was severely injured uh in about two years of his life, first two years of his life was um uh delayed. Uh, you know, speech was delayed, walking was delayed, all those things. And um I I got the you know the um motivation, obviously, as a parent to want to find a way to help my kid. And uh I knew at that time that the the methods I was using uh in neurotherapy um weren't going to be adequate to treat him. And you know, typically in neurofeedback, in order to treat a child, they have to be old enough in order to follow the instructions and engage in the training. And um, I know that from experience, if somebody has an early life injury, it can take um, you know, uh a long time to get them to the place where they can do that, they can engage in that kind of training. And and so that terrified me. Um, I knew I'd be behind the eight ball by the time he would turn five. And so that led me to, you know, trying to find a way to help

Why Standard TMS Was Too Strong

SPEAKER_01 5:07

him. So I combed the internet and I combed the research and I went through as many different modalities as possible. And I finally came across a transcranial magnetic stimulation, RTMS. It's an FDA uh approved treatment for the treatment of depression. And I thought, oh, this is interesting, uh, an energy technique to be able to treat the brain. And I didn't know if it would be possible to use it on a child or an infant. And then when I looked into it, I was like, there's no way I would use this on an infant. It was far too strong, far too aggressive. So um I started to research um had anybody done this type of treatment at a low energy level? Something where it was like really, really tiny. And uh nobody had. And I was I at first I was shocked. I didn't believe that it was possible. And then when I found that it was possible, I was like, oh, I I I want to make my own device to to do this because there wasn't anything out there. Um, but I'm not an engineer. You know, I'm a neuroscientist, I'm a psychologist, and I I didn't know how to do that. Um, but I got incredibly lucky. Um after

The Engineer Encounter That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 6:15

I came up with the idea and kind of uh prayed for help, uh, I found uh um an engineer who I was actually uh the next student after I was getting a guitar lesson, and um the next student walked in and uh I was introduced. And in my in my uh intention, I was asking for a radio frequency engineer, specifically saying that those words. And uh after my guitar lesson was over, uh teacher introduced me to Brad, Nick, meet Nick, Nick, meet Brad, and I was like, oh, and he says, What do you do? I said, Um, and you know, neuroscience. And he says, I said, What do you do? He goes, I'm a radio frequency engineer. And time literally stopped. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe it. Um, and uh it was fascinating. And I said, I I I need a frequency generator. And he said, Well, for what? And I said, Well, I think we can help kids with like early life injuries and stuff like that, kids with autism, stuff like that. And he goes, I have an autistic son. And uh, and he said, Okay, you know, and we were, you know, we had an energy behind us that was just uncanny. It was a runaway train. I mean, 30 days later we had the first prototype bill.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Oh my. 30 days.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yeah, and it was um uh it was fantastic. We just had the synergy um where we programmed the software, he built a device by hand, and uh, and then uh for six months we tested it and used it, and it turned out that um it worked. And uh what was fascinating about it was the intensity level was less than what you would get putting your head in a refrigerator looking for food. So it was like it was like really, really small and dinky. And we're like, uh is this gonna do anything? And that that was the first question was like, is it is it gonna have any impact whatsoever? And it turned out that it did. And um all these years later, you know, it's been it's been uh uh you know what, 20 years. And um my son has graduated with a bachelor's of science in archaeology. And and he's a great kid, and I love him. Uh it's amazing uh, you know, to watch his life in the way the way it unfolded. Um But yeah, we we learned that you know from from that in endeavor, um my uh um supervisor that I was doing my board certification for back in the day, um said, You have an ethical responsibility to release this thing. And and I didn't want to do it. I was like, no, I I it's so much work, regulatory requirements, yada, yada, yada. And then he was like, You gotta. You know, you you can't just hold this back, you know, it's gonna help a lot of people. And so, yeah, that's that's kind of how it started.

PEMF And The “Less Is More” Idea

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Okay, so you started out with um what is now your pulse electromagnetic magnetic field equipment, right? Your PEMF.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

So yeah, the first device was uh uh a pulse uh electromagnetic stimulator uh called the X1000. We would end up having three iterations of that device. And then um and then added uh light to it, photobiomodulation. And those two modalities, what they do is they increase blood flow. It's a very in a very gentle way. It just slightly stimulates cells, and when it does, um, it doesn't force them to fire like TMS, it's not TMS. It's uh it's a very, very gentle, low energy approach uh that's not aggressive. And the brain's the best doctor in the room. So if you give it resources and you give it fuel, it'll repair itself. And and that's one of the things that you know I I teach my students all the time is that you know, in Western medicine we're we're very aggressive, uh, you know, using all sorts of modalities to try to force things to change. When in fact, uh less is more and uh just a slight, slight hint of energy can uh provoke the brain to uh go into action and to repair itself.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Wow, that's so incredible how you know it doesn't even have to be super intense. Like you said, it's it's no power more powerful than sticking your hand in the refrigerator and yet having that specified directed frequ targeted frequencies, it can make a world of difference.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yep. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

So where have you gone from there? Like uh you know, up until up until now. So we did Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

So yeah, it's been a uh uh it's been a fun ride. Um we have continued to innovate and um you know, kind of like the iPhone, we keep on coming out with something new and uh the next iteration. And it's because you know the brain is so complex and so fascinating. Um it's the most complex

Adding Light And Expanding Modalities

SPEAKER_01 11:00

noise in the known universe. It's uh, you know, it's something where we keep on kind of scratching away at it and we find that there's something new. And it's it's almost like walking down a beach with beautiful pebbles, and there's millions of them, and you you're fascinated with each one that you pick up and look at with un like wonder and awe. You know, it's it's that's that's my experience. That just doesn't seem to stop. Um but we keep on uh working and and making more devices, and so we made four different EMF devices. We made uh we added light to the solution, and uh and just certain whisps of light actually penetrate the skull and go into the cortex and increase blood flow in a really you know just safe way. Um then we created a cranial stimulator where we actually pass a very tiny level of electricity through the brain and we can drive it, like um be it on a treadmill, and we can slow you down, speed you up. And really, when we figured that we could do that, we were like, oh, well, how do we how do we know what to do? You know, that that was the interesting part. And so that's when we started to use EEG electroencephalography to map the brain and to actually measure the organ that we're going to treat and to target specific areas that correlate or match your clinical symptoms. So, you

EEG Mapping To Target Symptoms

SPEAKER_01 12:25

know, we we started doing that, and you know, and that process has become more and more um uh illuminating, if you will. Um utilizing, we we use uh metrics that are in and programs that are built at a uh the Schwartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at UC San Diego. And those tools are some of the most widely used uh neuroscience uh tools in the world. And um I'm I'm pleased to be part of that team and that innovation because we're really moving the needle in understanding brain dynamics and the way that things are changing and moving. Yeah, so for for years we we've been working on these uh analysis tools uh to help us better understand um uh what's happening in the brain and to correlate your symptoms to what your brain is telling us. And then we can, once we know we get a match like that, then we can target those regions and slowly and gently start to rehabilitate them. And that's what we've been doing, you know, for years.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Well, that's really exciting. So you started out just trying to help out your son, and um it's grown into more and more modalities to help the brain heal, and has been released to the world and has done great good out there, from whatever from what I understand.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, yeah.

FDA Clearances And Data Driven Care

SPEAKER_01 13:48

We we have uh three FDA clearances um now, uh one for our EEG device uh that measures the brain, one for the software that does the analysis and the interpretation and protocol generation, and then one for the cranial stimulator that actually uh stimulates the brain and it provides the treatment. So um, you know, uh we are we've grown to the point where uh the methods are scientifically valid and data driven. Um so that's the really exciting part now, which is you know what's happening here in the future. Want to know what's gonna happen in the future?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

All right.

What Comes Next Plus How To Start

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Well, I cannot wait to hear what happens in the future, and that's what we're gonna kick up the next episode. So if you're excited to hear more, stick around and we get to hear the about where the where this field is going with Dr. Dougris. So thank you so much for um for joining us today, Dr. Dougris, and can't wait to hear about the next steps.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

You've been listening to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with Dr. Heather Putney. Remember, your brain isn't supposed to hold you back, it's supposed to power you forward. So stop letting it crash your party and start letting it do its job. If you're ready to optimize brain health, sharpen your focus, and age like a fine wine, schedule your free consultation today at transformative neurotherapy.org. Or call us at 412-204-7397. Because here, healing happens faster. See you next time.