Clinical Reviews

Barak Slutsker, Medical Psychologist, Israel

I purchased the alive system 10 years ago. I'm still using it, and in my opinion, it's the best system there is when it comes to biofeedback training.


Natan Bergman, MSc Psychology

I am currently volunteering with people who have been through some terrible things, and am using my Alive system on an hourly basis. It's invaluable.


Anthony Alioto, Ph.D., BCB, Pediatric Psychologist, Clinical Director, Pediatric Psychology Specialty Care, Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children

I was so excited to have the opportunity to try out the new Alive software and hardware for Biosignals. I hope your company is proud of what you created. This system provides all of the features we need to provide clinical care to our pediatric patients. The best part is how user-friendly it is. I put it on the table for my trainees, disassembled, and without giving them any instructions, said “go ahead, set it up”. They were instinctively able to connect everything, and were off and running with Alive!


 

Stacey J. Huiras, Occupational Therapist, Forensic Mental Health Program, St. Peter, MN

I just wanted to thank you again! The Advanced Media Player add-on software is awesome and is going to be such a game-changer with our patients. I work at a mental health hospital with patients who have been committed by the courts as mentally ill and dangerous, so for security purposes, they do not have access to things like computers except with staff supervision. Music is a huge coping skill out here and to be able to train to YouTube music & videos is going to be so rewarding for them. We will definitely be getting another Advanced Media Player for our other biofeedback laptop in the future!


 

Tomo Nakagawa, Institute of Holistic and Integrative Medicine, Osaka, Japan

The Alive Pioneer New Features video looks great! Alive Pioneer definitely beats Thought Tech BioGraph for biofeedback now. I will use Alive Pioneer from now on and recommend it to my colleagues and clients too.


 

Jeffrey K. Ellens, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist, Private Practice

I have NEVER had a customer service experience that’s better than I’ve had with Somatic Vision each and every time I reach out with my IT ignorance. Thanks!

I just purchased Dual Drive II and I’m proud and happy to report ---- I WON MY FIRST RACE!

Thank you for continuing to make these ALIVE / ARCADE games so amazing!

My client’s are LOVING their biofeedback experience and, of course, loving their reduced anxiety and improved focus even MORE!


 

Yuval Oded, Ph.D., clinical psychophysiologist

Alive software is a breakthrough in the field of applied psychophysiology and biofeedback. My patients found the breathing coach an excellent tool for controlling their heart-rate variation. The set of animations and games is outstanding, enabling the user to advance at his own pace in the process of mastering self-regulation skills.

I find Alive useful in treating a variety of stress-related health and mental disorders such as: anxiety, psychosomatic problems, high blood pressure, sleep disorders and more. Alive is also very useful in training combat pilots, soldiers, and executives for peak performance under stressful conditions. I highly recommend this software to all my colleagues and I am getting wonderful feedback from patients.


 

Disclaimer

Any claims made by these practitioners, mostly licensed clinical psychologists, are based on using Alive with other standard psychological tools and assessments, and do not indicate that Alive can treat or help any medical or psychological illness under private home use. If you have a medical or psychological condition, please seek the help of a licensed specialist.
 

Ian Sweetman, Senior Clinical Psychologist, Australia

Alive - the Rolls-Royce of biofeedback software! I have been using Alive for many years with clients and myself. I am impressed at the sophistication of the program and continue to learn how to use it more effectively. Regular updates add new features and there are many add-ons available. Ryan answers my queries promptly and has effectively assisted me to resolve any difficulties. I recommend Alive highly and encourage others to buy it and use it. Warm Regards.


 

Ian E. Wickramasekera II, PsyD, Core Faculty of Mindfulness Based Transpersonal Counseling, Naropa University

Your system is perfect for my students. It's affordable to most of them and it does so much more than heart math that it's ridiculous! In particular, the ability to do stress profiling as well as biofeedback training is so crucial to the way I teach people clinical biofeedback.


 

S. Riley, O.T., B.C.N. - OT Solutions

The kids love these games. As a biofeedback therapist, I have many games for kids but they only choose the Alive games now — either Tropical Heat or Dual Drive. It's amazing how these games get them to pay attention to their breathing! Without realizing it, they are calming their nervous systems and learning the all-important life skill of how to chill.


 

Fiona Gilligan, administration manager

The games have primarily been used by the team at Galileo House (our child/youth centre). We have had young children, parents and carers, as well as SASS staff, trial the games — all have been amazed at the effects. I originally installed the games and was the first to try the fish game in Particle Editor.

Initially I got the fish only to the edge of the screen, but eventually had them all swimming across and the music playing. Then someone came into the room and mentioned a recent event that I didn’t think had affected me much, but when the issue was raised, all the fish sunk to the bottom of the screen and the music stopped!! It was a great visual to attach to my feelings about a particular issue and realize the hidden effects of stress/trauma.

DeLee Lantz, Ph.D., BCIA

Alive is terrific for kids and teens. So far I have used it primarily with 11 to 16 year-olds. With other systems, I could never get an accurate heart rate signal from many younger children because they were so wiggly, and I often had to have very short training sessions because of their short attention span. With Alive, these children sit quietly and don't want to stop, even after 55 minutes. To quote one young boy who caught on immediately: "I have to stay calm even when things get hard."


 

Tal Altuvia, biofeedback stress management trainer

I am writing to tell you how happy I am with your software and how much my patients love it!

With Alive, my treatments shifted to a more comprehensive, yet very enjoyable, training. We are now able to understand the psychophysiological aspects of problems in much deeper ways. The detailed progress reports and clinical views have a very strong impact on the patients, strengthening their self-efficacy.

Alive helps me plan interventions in better ways than before. At last, I can use biofeedback with younger patients without them quickly getting bored! They just love the car racing games.

Thanks so much!

 

Fred Pelletier, Psychologist

The Somatic Vision biofeedback software is the best of its kind that I have encountered in my clinical work.  My patients and trainees appear to have no difficulty with the operation of the software, and the biofeedback sessions are engaging, enjoyable, and productive.  The various games and activities are suitable for all age ranges, and the on-screen representations of SCL and HR are clear and intuitive.  I expect to be recommending Alive packages to many of my colleagues, particularly those who are assisting individuals with stress and anxiety issues.

The software has provided tremendous satisfaction.  In addition, I am impressed and amazed by the outstanding support and technical assistance that is available.  It has become clear to me that the Somatic Vision team understands the demands of consumers and clinicians.  The team's assistance with my installations has been provided in a prompt, conscientious manner.  I offer my thanks to them.

I look forward to implementing more of the Somatic Vision tools in my clinical practice.

 

Amy Hudson, Ph.D., LCDC, BCIA

Dreamscapes is UNBELIEVABLE!

I have barely gotten started. WOWWWWWWWW

I cannot wait to tell my biofeedback mentor Tony Hughes, who runs the general biofeedback education for Stens. He has moved to using Alive over the past few years because he said Alive can do so much more ---

He has no idea

WOW Thank you so much Ryan!!!!!!

 

Graciela Kaminsky, therapist

I recently started working with Alive, and I wanted to share with you my enthusiasm from this wonderful software. For me as a therapist and for my patients this software is really fantastic — absolutely addicting! Animations are great. I had one patient simply enjoying the feeling of bending the spoon, he felt so empowered by it.

The software itself is easy and fun to use and the graphs are excellent. I am eagerly waiting for for more upgrades and surprises from Somatic Vision. Thanks so much!!!

Richard Gevirtz, PhD

I have been using Dual Drive with my patients for some time and find it the most engaging of the available “games.” For children, it requires that they keep a calm focus to keep going and succeed — Dual Drive is so popular I often have a hard time getting the kids to go back to regular biofeedback once they have experienced it. I also appreciate all of the rich Dual Drive features such as difficulty levels and summary statistics.

Alon Stadler, stress management and biofeedback practitioner

Alive serves as an excellent working platform for the stress management trainer and as an excellent platform for achieving a real transformation for the client.

The quality and the variety of the graphing options, the clarity and the variety of data shown, the possibility of following the progress of the client in the different physiological channels, all make the Alive biofeedback system a great value.

The variety of training environments and workshops together with the advanced design make training sessions very enjoyable for the client. Alive is a wonderful, advanced “gamer-like” training platform that is both fun and very effective, increasing motivation to train and learn.

Alex Giorgio, psychologist

Somatic Vision has taken human development and understanding to a whole new level. As a psychotherapist who has worked with biofeedback and successful entrepreneurs for more than 25 years, it has been challenging to find a system like Alive that gently flows around the corners of a client's mind, enabling quicker and deeper access to unconscious habits and abilities.

Add to that the most beautiful graphics and you've got a tool destined to change the way our society thinks and acts. I highly recommend all the Somatic Vision products both personally and professionally. You just can't find anything better!

Michelle Wolfowitz, psychotherapist

Alive is the biofeedback system I have long been waiting for! It has everything I need as a psychotherapist. The combination of high-quality SCL and HRV feedback helps me to achieve treatment goals without having to deal with complicated instrumentation or having to use different systems each time.

What makes Alive such a great system is its excellent graphing options, wonderful breathing coach, and that it lets you advance with training using a variety of wonderful environments, mini-games and more challenging games. The gradual nature of the training enables me to first teach the client basic self-regulating techniques and then advance to scenarios where he or she has to use the technique under growing difficulty levels ̶ resembling the stressful world outside.

The Alive system is flexible and easy to use, and it appeals to a variety of clients with different diagnosis and personality traits. I can find training options for introverts needing some relaxing environments, for extroverts that need more stimuli, and even for obsessive clients that enjoy Alive scoring and get very motivated by following their progress. My “Type A” clients love the car races and the manual car race is something I never saw in any other biofeedback system! This really enables me to confront my clients with frustration, and evoke a spectrum of emotions that helps them practice the new self regulating skills they learned.

I keep discovering and using new features all the time ̶ some come via web updates (which I love getting!) and some I first try on myself and then offer my clients (the wonderful collection of workshops offer a variety of very effective techniques.)

Thank you so much for this wonderful and comprehensive biofeedback system.

Orit Viterbo (MSw), psychotherapist

Alive is a very user-friendly biofeedback system. One of its most important advantages, for me, is the simultaneous the GSR and HRV data viewing. Together with the BVP I get a very clear picture of the patient’s reactivity and of their ability to adapt to different stimuli.

The numerous and excellent workshops in Alive are helping me build individually tailored tools for helping patients self-regulate and cope with stress. The interactive coach helps both my patients and me to train efficiently, keeping in track and staying in line with previous training sessions and advancing the right way.

A patient of mine even took the time to praise the developers of Alive, saying he loves the different training options, the graphics, and the various feedback options.

User Reviews

Thank you so much for everything. You’ve been so much more accommodating and helpful than I ever could have anticipated. I can’t help think that you must also be a user of your own products.

The two monitor feature of Pioneer and the extra functions and environments are super, and the Dreamscapes add-on gives so many more options to be explored. It could take me months just to try every available option, and I'm looking forward to that and so much more. I'm already starting to see some real benefits from just the last couple of weeks of the Alive upgrades. It’s all about the journey and not the destination and having tools like this for the journey is exactly what I was looking for. — Mike Germano
 

I’ve been amazed by your support and the customer service of Somatic Vision. The new Alive Pioneer is great. I’m very happy with the decision to upgrade. You have my gratitude, and I will be sharing this story with all of my clients. I look forward to upgrading to the BioSignals HS+ unit in the near future. Take care. — Matthew Blaylock

I just tried Somatic Vision VR for the first time and it's AMAZING.

Check in and calm down - while flying like an eagle.

Immersive VR stress relief is one of the greatest experiences I've had. — Armin Ernst
 

Alive has really helped my 13 year old manage his chronic pain. His pain levels could be low or high, but never absent. Then about a month ago while doing Alive, he realized he was pain free for the first time. Even though the pain does return, he has been able to increase his time at school, has been more social with friends and family, and has been smiling like we haven't seen in a long time. — Jenn Snyder

We got a call from the school principal: Our son is doing better! I'm sure that Dual Drive has been a factor in his improvement. I love watching him calm down and breathe. — Adam Kahn, parent

I'm a 56 year old man who's life has gone downhill with stress. I find your products to be a good way to become normal again. Alive is fantastic as it leaves me with only one possibility and that is to be ALIVE :) — Bo Tonnesen

I'm looking forward to hooking up Alive for emWave to Half Life 2 with a Windows XBox 360 controller! I told my fiancée it's important for one of us to remain calm in case we're ever attacked by alien-infected zombies. — Anonymous

I'm really amazed by the ongoing development and new features in Tropical Heat. Especially with the new multiplayer racing on the Internet, Tropical Heat has evolved to be the most sophisticated biofeedback software ever created ... and it's really fun to play! Playing biofeedback games on your own or against computer opponents can quickly become boring, but playing against real human opponents is a new challenge every time and A LOT OF FUN. — Claudius Nagel

I am looking forward to practicing regularly. I have really enjoyed the emWave software, but Alive is more comprehensive and fun, adding depth and value. — Rex Alexander

Awesome software and very effective feedback, easy to use. — Sandro Gilomen, Psychologist