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.

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 trial 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 to me that I didn’t think had really affected me that 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 realise the hidden effects of stress/trauma.

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.