– Post divorce

I’ve been interested in self-discovery for a while, and have learned a lot about myself which has improved my life tremendously. The opportunity to continue that journey with a local Christchurch-based organisation, which my peers in the Financial Services industry have also engaged and raved about, was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Over the last 5 years i’ve experienced a lot of turbulence in my life with Covid stopping me from seeing my family in Australia for a while, my marriage ending, becoming a single dad, all whilst running my own mortgage and insurance business. I experienced stress, loneliness, and anxiety during that time. Even though i’ve moved on from those emotions, more recently I felt like i’d plateaued, and whilst I was content with my life, i wasn’t feeling joy, and so i wanted to identify why i made the decisions i did so i could make better decisions which aligned with my real purpose in life.

Rico and the NeuroFit programme gave me a method to help me investigate and understand how my past directly affects my current decisions, beliefs, and behaviours. Being able to investigate my past in a non-judgmental and objective way helped me make incisive discoveries about why i am the way i am, think the way i do, and why i make certain decisions.

I’ve always prided myself on taking accountability and avoided “blaming my parents” or others for who and how i am, but Neurofit helped me understand that it’s ok to reflect on your past and the people who influenced you to see how your experiences and interactions with the people around me heavily influenced how i think and behave. Whilst i can’t change what happened or erase the memories, I can decide on the type of dynamic i want to have going forward with the people in my life.

Now, I’m able to pause and reflect before making a decision, because now i’m aware of the “autopilot” response, and I can take time to make better decisions which better align with the person, father and partner i want to be.  

I would strongly recommend Neurofit to anyone who thinks or feels like they’re not getting the best out of themselves, or are possibly unhappy with aspects of their lives, or want to be able to make better decisions.

– Anxiety, Chest Pains

2019 was a rollercoaster of a year for me, with heavenly highs and hellish lows which left me with a lot of anxiety, which I never had to deal with in my life before.

My mother will tell you I’m no gardener, but even I know weeds left unchecked spread and grow elsewhere and that’s exactly what happened, over the course of 2 or 3 years that anxiety crept into all aspects of my life and started effecting my motivation at work, my ability to settle into new relationships, and my physical health.

Halfway through 2022, after three years of muscling through the tightness in my chest and the sweats before sleep, I thought there must be a better way to live my life.

I was fortunate enough to meet Rico through a bunch of like minded friends some of whom had already gone through the program and from there it was an easy decision to sign myself up.

If you’ll bear with me as I bastardise multiple cliche sayings in the hopes of accurately describing my experience; to call a spade a spade, the program was not a silver bullet for me, there was no drive-by to solve my problems overnight, but it became a ‘silver’ toolbox for me to use as required.

Rico and the program laid the foundation and groundwork for me to master my own mental health and to manage any issues that arose. The work began with Rico, but I assume won’t end for the rest of my life as I continue to grow and improve.

I can say with overwhelming confidence that I am infinitely more in control of my mental health now.

My ability to work in a highly competitive industry and deliver service and results again that I’m proud of, to get back on top of my physical health goals and connect with new people is thanks to the work Rico did with me.

– Anxiety, panic attacks

At the start of this year, I experienced some intense anxiety and stress that ended up as a panic attack. I didn’t realise it at the time, but anxiety has been there as long as I can remember. I grew up as a gang kid in a broken home and had terrible relationships with others, which, as you can imagine, left its mark. However, the most obvious wins of breaking the cycle and doing well leading into adulthood hid a lot of underlying mess that was taking its toll. So when it finally reached its boiling point, I realised that I needed to face my past and really sort through it.

I sought the traditional route of counselling, which ended up giving me a plan for 44 sessions a year for 3 years. My heart dropped and I left feeling hopeless, disappointed, and angry. Thankfully, after telling all this to Rico, he laughed and said, “Bro, let’s go”, which just alleviated everything. I joined the NeuroFit Cohort program and over the 8 sessions, we did not play around. It felt like my life experience went from a hoarder’s garage to a neatly organised suitcase. The weight of it all became nothing. I actively forgave and consciously disagreed with people’s words, actions, and expectations that I had been carrying since a kid.

It wasn’t fluffy work. It took being vulnerable and real with myself. My circumstances haven’t gotten better, but now I’m so much more resilient. Every week, I slowly realise  that certain people and things are not affecting me like they did only months ago.

Couldn’t recommend this program enough to anybody.

– Imposter syndrome

 I originally decided to do the Neurofit programme to help me with public speaking skills and as a trial to see how it could benefit our employees if we implemented it in the workplace. Having done CBT in the past, and being someone who considers self-reflection to be an essential asset in character building – here I was thinking that I was someone who always takes a proactive approach to keep “on top of” my mental wellbeing. 

Rico quickly made me realise I had no issue with public speaking, and actually had deeply ingrained narratives around my self worth and capabilities, leading to imposter syndrome. I had a huge fear of failure, or rather a fear of being “exposed”, and I hid behind my high performance at work and in my personal life as a protection mechanism. Rico helped me to dig to the bottom of why I didn’t feel good enough, providing me with invaluable tools to combat this unhelpful narrative that was subconsciously leading my life, which has changed the way that I see myself and ultimately behave. 

Prior to doing Neurofit, I avoided speaking my mind in personal and professional environments as I feared judgement from others, this included training my team in group settings because I would get anxious, feared saying one thing wrong which would end up making me look incapable, ultimately confirming to myself that I wasn’t good enough. I avoided confrontation in all areas of my life because this lead to situations that created a cause for fear in the past – confrontation is nevertheless unavoidable, but because I feared it, I would freeze up, get anxious and shut down. This meant I didn’t have a chance to voice my feelings, leading to me being annoyed at others for their brashness, but in truth I was actually annoyed at myself for reacting in a way that made me debilitated, highlighting feelings I hadn’t dealt with and was repeating from childhood.

I didn’t want to see a councillor as I didn’t want to get dependent and revisit my life challenges indefinitely, hence why I did self guided CBT in the first place, but Rico was this perfect balance of actively listening, not letting me waffle on for too long, just enough to identify the core issues and actually put steps in place that create lasting changes without the dependency. Fast forward to now, I don’t have any sort of anxiety, I feel confident in sharing my views because deep down I value them. The Neurofit programme has made me a ten fold better leader, I welcome confrontation and vulnerability and can see how beneficial it’s been for my team as well.

I think for absolutely anyone, you don’t realise the weight of what you’re carrying around until you have a chance to put it down. Neurofit is a programme I think absolutely everyone can benefit from regardless of your mental space. I’ve already referred two of my friends who have both said it’s been life-changing and I’ll continue to sing Rico’s praises as he’s created an incredible programme for lasting change.

– Imposter Syndrome, Overwhelm

Starting the Neurofit program was a turning point for me. As a young professional, I often felt overwhelmed by the complexities of my career path, battling imposter syndrome every step of the way. Rico and his program provided the guidance I needed to navigate through my doubts and uncertainties. Utilising the tools and techniques taught in the program, I confronted my fears and insecurities, gaining insights into the root causes of each of them. One of the most significant breakthroughs was realising my own worth and potential. Neurofit helped me embrace my strengths and talents, boosting my confidence and clarity and allowing me to realise that those high net worth individuals that I put on a pedestal were just people like me.

What sets Neurofit apart is its lasting impact. Even after completing the program, I still use the tools and strategies it provided to tackle challenges with confidence. I am able to see when something is affecting me in a negative way and almost look down from above to be able to tackle that emotion/response instead of letting it tackle me.

In short, Neurofit has changed my life by equipping me with the tools to overcome self-doubt and navigate my professional journey with assurance. I highly recommend it to anyone struggling with imposter syndrome or seeking personal transformation.

“I am very excited to recommend Rico Gomez for the Mental Health Workshop. Our department was going through some major change and our team’s resilience was diminishing. We gave Rico the opportunity to take our teams through his workshop. This would give them understanding and tools on how they can restructure their brain to respond differently to change. He also focused on how to build a positive mindset no matter what is happening around you. He took our team through the workshop and the response was absolutely brilliant. The team was motivated after the session to use the practical tools and go through the steps to put things in perspective.”

I consider myself a confident guy and I thought mental health was for ’other’ people. When I started my own business I learnt a harsh reality, I definitely struggle with my mental health. Rico invited me to NeuroFit and speaking to him personally as put me on a path to mental strength and healthy thinking. Mental health effects us all and we should all try to improve it.

– Constant Frustration, Feeling stuck

I was feeling really stuck and had been trying to change with books, conversations and journaling but not feeling like I was having the depth of change I needed. It was all at a knowledge level but without breakthrough.

Rico helped me to diagnose where I was stuck and then work together to reframe, and rewire things in my mind and body to get free from what was causing me to ‘loop’ and spin my wheels.

He goes to the place of the real problem and helps change it there. Rico’s approach is nothing like anything I’ve done before and if you’re feeling stuck and considering it,

I would highly recommend working with him.