Three years ago, Nikki Daurio woke up in such pain she was barely able to move, launching a health journey that few would have predicted for the former elite water polo player.
Daurio can pinpoint where the arduous journey began. She was hiking, slipped in the mud, and hit her head on the ground. The resulting concussion was not her first. She had experienced a few concussions as a water polo player for SOCAL Water Polo, Arnold O. Beckman High School, Harvard and the U.S. Women’s Cadet National Team. She knew it would take time to recover.
“A week into my bed rest for the concussion, I am out in the courtyard with my friend and her dog starts throwing up,” said Daurio. “I lunge to help the dog at the same time my friend does and we hit heads. I’m not fully recovered from my concussion, and it just was not good.”
Daurio began waking up with headaches and pains throughout her body so severe that she could barely move. Then, Harvard closed its campus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending her and every other student home.
“My health really just deteriorated from there,” said Daurio. “I wouldn’t say I was bedridden, but it was exhausting to even walk up and down the stairs. It was overwhelming pain and exhaustion and a wide array of different symptoms.”
On good days, she could do one activity before the pain would take over.
Daurio completed her final semester from her family home in Tustin, earning a degree in cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. People were still working from home, so she was able to launch her career from her couch, which, on many days, was as far as her pain would let her travel. When Daurio wasn’t working, she visited specialists, hoping to learn why the headaches and body pains continued. Although the diagnostic tests and procedures often produced abnormal results, the cause of her pains remained a mystery.
Ultimately, she found answers with three UCI Health doctors: Kim Hecht, DO, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist and medical director of the UCI Health Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute; Michael Cheng, DO, UCI Health rheumatologist; and Christine Kraus, PhD, clinical neuropsychologist and director of integrative neuropsychology for the Samueli Institute. This clinical team, which benefited from the ability to share medical information through Daurio’s MyChart electronic medical record, offered her a promising path forward.
“I finally found doctors who believed my symptoms; they were wonderful,” said Daurio. “What really turned the tables for me was the neurofeedback with Dr. Kraus.”
Dr. Kraus has used neurofeedback with patients for more than two decades. She has seen it improve the health of individuals experiencing everything from pain and concussions to anxiety and sleep and more. Ongoing research has demonstrated positive outcomes from neurofeedback for these conditions and many others, according to International Society for Neuroregulation and Research.
Neurofeedback therapy is a non-invasive treatment that relies on a stimulus such as a video game or movie to condition a person to increase or inhibit specific brainwaves to help them more effectively manage a condition. Based on what Daurio had learned as a student of cognitive science, she was optimistic the approach could help her.
Dr. Kraus used quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) to identify areas where Daurio’s brainwaves were dysregulated. QEEG testing captures the brain’s electrical activity and transfers it to a computer, where the monitor displays the electrical signals as patterns. Dr. Kraus observed activity in the pain network of Daurio’s brain, then developed a treatment plan focused on that region. The goal of Daurio’s neurofeedback therapy was to decrease her brain’s hypersensitivity to pain and improve her ability to tolerate the discomfort.
By this time, it was early 2023. The 26-year-old talent manager and producer was living in Los Angeles and working for Aligned Entertainment. Encouraged by her employer, she made the long drive to Irvine twice a week to play video games under the watchful eye of Dr. Kraus — games that would teach her brain how to adapt to achieve the rewarded state and, ultimately, how to reduce her pain.
It wasn’t easy. Daurio said the pain and exhaustion initially got worse. Dr. Kraus, she said, encouraged her to persist.
As Dr. Kraus explained, “It’s like going to the gym. You go whatever frequency is recommended and you’re going to keep it up; you’re going to exercise that muscle. If you go once every two weeks, you’re wasting your time. Nikki wanted to get better, and she was willing to do the work.”
Dr. Kraus kept a watchful eye on Daurio’s mental health throughout the sessions. As a clinical neuropsychologist, she was watching for signs that the neurofeedback had sparked a reaction best handled through cognitive therapy. She considered the therapy an essential element of caring for the whole person.
“Neurofeedback can bring things up because your brain is finally saying, ‘Okay, we can handle this now,’” said Dr. Kraus. “You want to make sure if that happens, you’re ready for it and you can treat that person. Occasionally, Nikki would experience a bout of depression. We would talk about it and make sure she was on the right track.”
Eventually, the long commutes and hard work paid off for Daurio. At the end of twenty sessions, she was waking up with fewer headaches and more energy. She could fill her day with more than one activity.
“Now, I have work and then I hang out with friends. I still call my mom and I’m like, ‘How is this happening?’ I can do two things in a day. I thought this wasn’t in the cards for me,” said Daurio.
Now that her pain has subsided, it’s easier for Daurio to make the trips to Irvine to address chronic health conditions with Dr. Cheng and Dr. Hecht. In fact, many things are easier for her now.
I just feel like I have my life back. I feel like I have more control over what’s happening to me.
Nikki Daurio, neurofeedback patient
“I just feel like I have my life back. I feel like I have more control over what’s happening to me. And I’m on the road to recovery. I know I won’t ever be a top-tier athlete again. But to just know that I can be myself again, it’s unbelievable.”
