Why Cogmed?
I have mentioned several times in past posts that I do marketing work for Cogmed in Canada but this simple description does not really do the relationship justice and I thought it timely to revisit the topic. I chose Cogmed. I went looking for them. That journey began when my most skeptical friend who works for Psychological Services for one of the largest school boards in the country first told me about Cogmed with an enthusiasm he rarely displays and I thought we might together acquire a license. From my first contact with their head office in Stockholm, to my first visit with a practice in Canada I was impressed with their professionalism and integrity.
We didn’t meet Cogmed’s fairly strict requirements for a license and so I decided to offer my services to build their brand in Canada and to further public understanding of the concept of neuroplasticity, which is necessary to understand how Cogmed works or that it should work at all. That is one of the reasons I started this blog. The blog though, as anyone who has been reading it will understand, is very much a personal view. Am I biased towards Cogmed? Yes, is the short answer. I am biased because I know their working memory training does what they say it’s supposed to to. I have a bias towards Cogmed because of their professional and thorough approach to the commercialization of research conducted by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and I am biased towards them because I know their product is backed by solid, ongoing and peer-reviewed, validation studies.
I do work for Cogmed because they pay me to do it but also because I have an intense and personal fascination with the concept of neuroplasticity and the role of working memory in so many mental health issues. For some time I was quite depressed about how my own life had been shaped by what has turned out to be problems with working memory and I was determined that somehow this could be have some meaning if I could make others aware of the role of working memory in mental health disorders and the fact that it can be improved.
Only you the reader can decide whether I have made a dent in that objective. I hope you will post a comment or two on this blog, from time to time, and let me know if you, or someone you know, has problems such as those discussed in the blog and if what is published here has been helpful.
I also hope your journey can be as interesting and exciting as mine has been and continues to be.