Meet the Doctor
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers
Chiropractor
Education
- Doctor of Chiropractic
- B.S. Biochemistry
- Master’s Level NIS
- NET Triple-Certified
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers is a chiropractor in Lafayette, CA who offers gentle, specific care based on real-time testing of the nervous system. She believes that the patient’s nervous system knows best, and that her job as a doctor is to collaborate with patients to identify and deliver needs, and optimize health. Her goal in practice is to help her patients access new health possibilities, and achieve powerful, sustained results through methods that honor the person and body.
Background
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers graduated magna cum laude with her Doctorate of Chiropractic from Life Chiropractic College West in 2016. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Maryland, College Park, and did her honors organic chemistry research in nuclear magnetic resonance, the basis of MRI.
Her passion for brain-based healthcare was ignited at age 16, when she was personally trained as an EEG neurofeedback technician and mentored by the late Dr. Margaret Ayers and Dr. Penny Montgomery in all-digital real-time EEG Neurofeedback. Dr. Ayers and Dr. Montgomery are known as pioneers and world experts in EEG neurofeedback, and were the first to document bringing over 100 patients out of level II comas with their methods. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers attended Dr. Margaret Ayers’ Annual EEG Neurofeedback Conferences in 2006-2008, and later received continued post-doctorate mentorship by Dr. Montgomery. These early clinical experiences were deeply moving and formative to Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers, and inspired her educational path as she sought a way to contribute to the field.
Before chiropractic school, Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers considered a career as a neuroscientist, aiming to forward understanding of and methods for neurologic breakthroughs via neurofeedback. She spent two years researching brain neuroplasticity through the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, an intramural program between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). During this time, she took various graduate classes at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) at NIH, and neuropsychology classes at American University, in order to understand the multidisciplinary perspectives on the brain.
After exploring the periphery of neuroscience through classes in genetics, MRI, neuropsychology, immunology, pharmacology, linguistics, and others, she found she was most drawn to the powerful results of chiropractic care. A deciding factor between a career as a neuroscientist and doctor was the probability of work yielding significant benefits for people, and the slow speed and limitations of medical research. Her focus, above all, was and continues to be patient-oriented. She wants patients to get results NOW, not “maybe in 50 years.”
Now
Because Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers wants patients to get the best results possible, rather than just typical results, she offers leading edge methods such as Neurological Integration System (NIS), Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET), Directional Non-Force Technique® (D.N.F.T.®) Chiropractic, functional medicine, cold laser therapy (aka low level laser therapy, LLLT), and EEG neurofeedback. Her approach is based on testing the nervous system, so that care is informed by real-time information that takes full account of all health factors. This means the care is gentle and noninvasive: it honors the body, rather than imposing. After her experience in chemistry and neuroscience research, she recognizes that even the most robust testing by the most educated doctor cannot match the level of understanding that the patient’s own nervous system has at any given moment.
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers is a member of the Neurological Integration System (NIS) Academy and ONE Research Foundation. She continues to train with top doctors from around the globe, because she wants to share the best health care that the world has to offer with her patients.
In her free time, Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers enjoys reading, writing, learning new languages, performing experiments, programming, traveling, cooking, art, sewing, meditating, volunteering, gardening, and dancing… all activities that she notes take the fullest expression when in good health.