About the Founder

Annie Hopper developed the Dynamic Neural Retraining System in 2008. She achieved full recovery from “unexplained” illnesses by implementing her own daily program of brain-based rehabilitation, which focused on “rewiring” faulty neural pathways in the brain. Since then, the DNRS program has been recommended by doctors worldwide, and has helped thousands of others “retrain the brain” to regulate a maladapted stress response and recover from an impressive variety of “mysterious” chronic symptoms and syndromes. Hopper’s popular book, Wired for Healing: Remapping the Brain to Recover from Chronic and Mysterious Illnesses, has sold over 65,000 copies.

As a sought-after speaker on limbic system impairment and neuroplasticity, Hopper has spoken at many medical conferences and private speaking engagements, educating doctors, patient groups, and health ministry officials about the link between brain function and chronic illness. Hopper has presented to the Canadian Brain Injury Association, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the Institute for Functional Medicine, the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illnesses, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, and the Parliament House in Helsinki, Finland.

Annie Hopper was once debilitated by her illnesses and sensitivities. She began to wonder if these health challenges were caused by a “rogue” protective mechanism, deep within her brain’s limbic system. If so, was a hypersensitivity to “threats” keeping her brain and body locked in a never-ending “fight, flight, or freeze” stress response?

She decided to test her hypothesis: that an accumulation of chemical, physical, and emotional trauma had created a disorganization, or “cross wiring,” of neural circuits in the limbic system, keeping her brain and body in an “alarm” state that was perpetuating a cycle of chronic illness. And that if she developed and implemented a course of structured, targeted, daily neuroplasticity training, she could restore normal function and resolve her illnesses.

Hopper’s investigations and experiments were based on brain research and various neuroplasticity approaches to healing— especially for stroke victims, and those who had suffered other types of brain injuries. Her intuitive knowledge indicated to her that her debilitating symptoms were somehow brain-related, and she had a fierce determination to reclaim her life. The Dynamic Neural Retraining System combines a number of different elements: the scope of Hopper’s personal knowledge and skill set; her experience in a number of different practices; the work of Dr. Norman Doidge in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself; and Hopper’s ability to see connections between previously unrelated fields of research.

All of Hopper’s seemingly unrelated symptoms, sensitivities, and syndromes turned out to be linked to limbic system impairment, and completely resolved through her daily practice of self-administered neuroplasticity training. “The brain’s involvement in these illnesses does not mean the disease is ‘all in your head,’” Hopper explains. “Rather, the DNRS program provides a unique method of successful treatment and recovery: utilizing structured, targeted, focused neuroplasticity training to rewire and rehabilitate the limbic and nervous system’s ‘default settings.’ This is a neurological— not psychological— approach to healing.”