Expat Kelly Bennett combines a personal passion with the skills of a long career in his new Cuenca Brain Dynamics practice

By Liam Higgins

For Cuenca expat Kelly Bennett, Brain Dynamics represents a natural progression in his professional career, combining his talents as an engineer and a psychologist.

Dr. Kelly Bennett with a client.

“I have always believed in the power of technology, especially in its potential to improve people’s lives,” says Bennett, who was trained first as an astronautical engineer and later as a developmental psychologist. “Brain dynamics is a system that uses technology to allow us to restore the natural balance of our brain, which helps us overcome a wide variety of mental problems.”

Bennett officially opens his Cuenca practice this afternoon at 5:30 with a social gathering and presentation at the Black Olive Bistro on Calle Tarqui, between Bolivar and Gran Colombia.

Bennett’s professional career spans more than 60 years and bridges several disciplines. As an engineer, his interest was in space system designs of the future. Besides working with Douglas Space Systems in California, he also served as space science advisor to the United States House of Representatives.

In the 1960s, his interest in psychology prompted him to return to school to study clinical psychology. After earning a PhD at UCLA, he set up family counseling practices first in Palos Verdes and later in San Diego, California.

Monitoring brain wave feedback.

“Once I got into the counseling, helping people find solutions to their problems, I realized I had found my calling,” Bennett says.

Bennett found that his practice was “portable,” and he spent 12 years in Australia in the late 1980s and 1990s, not only helping families but advising businesses about dealing effectively with employees to optimize inter-personal relations and business efficiency.

When he returned to the U.S., he set up a counseling practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and became interested in Brain Dynamics. He moved to Cuenca in 2014 with his partner Charlie Romney-Brown, who is also trained as a Brain Dynamics technologist.

According to Bennett, Brain Dynamics is a relaxing and non-invasive restorative process that allows the brain to balance itself. He describes the technology as being similar to holding up a mirror to the brain, allowing it to transform old patterns into new ones, often very quickly.

“Some of the benefits are better sleep, improved attention span, better memory retention, chronic pain relief, ability to deeply relax, and the elimination of chronic stress, and depression,” he says.

According to Bennett, stress and anxiety often lead the brain away from its natural patterns. “We get stuck in new, unhealthy patterns that lead to a variety of problems,” he says. “What brain dynamics attempts to do, is to get the brain unstuck by using relaxation techniques, so it can return to a healthy state.”

Bennett uses software that provides acoustic feedback of brain patterns. “The feedback provides the mirror that helps me work with the client to achieve a relaxed state. It allows the brain to see itself in the mirror, so to speak, and begin to restore natural functions.”

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Dr. Kelly Bennett can be reached by e-mail at braindynamics2@gmail.com, or by phone at 099 302 0943. His office is in Edificio Primero de Mayo, 3-A, at Av. Primero de Mayo at Fernando de Aragon.