The Truth About Scrambler Therapy

Scrambler Therapy helped me go from crutches to walking again. It also took me about 30 consecutive sessions to get the relief I was looking for. If I’d had to stop at ten, I would be telling you a very different story.

I know what it feels like to be desperate enough to pay for anything that might help. I spent about $45,000 trying to get my life back. That’s part of why I get so fired up when I hear people talk about Scrambler Therapy, or Calmare Therapy, like ten days and a plane ticket are all you need.

For some people, the results are so dramatic that I understand why they call it a miracle. That possibility is why I still think it’s worth considering. I’ve also seen people get relief during a session and lose it by the next day. I’ve seen people need more than ten sessions, people come back for boosters, and people get very little out of it. Getting a taste of relief and then having it disappear can be devastating. All of those experiences belong in the conversation.

What happens when you can only afford ten?

At $300 a session, ten sessions cost $3,000 before travel, lodging or time off work. If you feel better and the pain comes roaring back when you get home, what are you supposed to do? Buy another plane ticket? Put another round on a credit card?

When someone stops because they’ve run out of money, we lose the chance to find out whether a longer course would have helped them. We also have to be honest about the other possibility. More sessions might have cost them more money with very little to show for it. I want to know what is changing during the session, what is still better the next day, and what the person can actually do again. Those are three different answers.

The research gives me reason to take Scrambler Therapy seriously. It also leaves big questions about how long relief lasts. In the Scrambler Therapy section of its consensus guidelines, the American Academy of Pain Medicine notes promising results in some chronic pain studies and a lack of randomized trial data at a year or longer. For complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), the guidelines cite case reports and case series. That evidence leaves a lot of room between “this helped someone” and “here’s how many sessions you’ll need to reach remission.”

What I learned when I could follow people past day ten

When I started, I offered free sessions up in Ventura County, California alongside an experienced provider so I could get hands-on experience with a range of cases. I’ve now worked with close to 100 cases and spent the past year and a half using Scrambler Therapy full time. Keeping sessions affordable gave me room to see people beyond the first ten visits. I could see some in the evenings or on weekends when their symptoms were at their worst. In some cases, I tried two sessions in a day and paid attention to what happened afterward. Working around someone’s actual symptoms taught me things I would’ve missed if I only saw them at the same time every weekday.

I’ve seen meaningful improvements in my practice, and some of the people who improved have needed few boosters. That’s my experience with the way I work, which often includes other therapies and tools people can use at home. I can’t tell you which piece made the difference for any one person. What I care about is whether they’re still doing better when I haven’t seen them in a while.

This upsets many of the other providers, but I charge $175 per session at Light Therapy Resource, including targeted red and near-infrared light therapy, PEMF and vagus nerve stimulation. I set that price because the cost of a course matters more to the person paying for it than the price of a single visit. If the relief keeps wearing off and the only plan is to keep paying for another booster, I think we owe that person a better conversation about their options.

Who gets to call themselves the best?

I watched a recent two-hour YouTube discussion where three providers were held up as the best in the world. My first thought was, how would anybody know? Show me who was compared. Show me how many people came in, how many got meaningful relief, how many could afford to finish, and how many were still doing better months later. Include the people who went home worse or felt they wasted their money. I’d ask for the same information if someone called me the best.

I haven’t seen published data that compare providers on those outcomes. I want to see more research that follows people long after their last session. In the meantime, the people who pay out of pocket are making expensive decisions with real gaps in the evidence.

What about Scrambler Therapy training?

I have questions about training, too. Three days can give you an introduction to a machine. What happens if none of the cases that walk through the door during those three days are anything like the person who walks into your office the following week? A certificate or a photo with the inventor tells me very little about how someone handles a complex case, a flare, or a patient who is spending money they don’t have and getting nowhere. I’ve spoken publicly about training because I want to see more supervised practice across different cases and more support after the course. I’m glad to see signs of change and I hope speaking up helped move that conversation along.

I’ve also seen how quickly online discussions can turn into a fight over which providers people are allowed to recommend. People should be able to say “it didn’t help me” or “I got worse” without worrying how a provider or a group will react. If all a prospective patient gets to read are the wins, how are they supposed to make a decision about their own care?

When the patient is a child

One of the biggest things I look for is experience working with kids in pain. Can the provider explain what’s happening in a way the child understands? Can the child describe what they feel, ask for a change, or say they want to stop? Scrambler Therapy relies on feedback, and a child who’s trying to be brave or please the adults in the room may need more time and a different way to communicate. That’s why I’d ask a provider how they work with kids before booking.

I’ve seen enough to take the possibility of meaningful relief seriously. For a child with CRPS, I’d want that conversation to happen with their pediatric pain team, with a plan for getting back to the things they want to do. Pediatric CRPS care often involves a team and physical rehabilitation. There is a clinic in Arkansas called The Spero Clinic that specializes in treating CRPS. They recently added Scrambler Therapy to their protocol and they have excellent results with kids.

Why I chose to do this

I got into this because I know what it’s like to find something that finally helps and then wonder how on earth you’re going to afford enough of it to get your life back. I want people to be able to access this device without having to drain their savings. And once they get some relief, I want them to leave with tools and resources they can actually use between visits and long after they’re done seeing me.

The past year and a half has changed how I schedule, what I look for between visits and what I teach people to do at home. I’m still learning and I expect I always will. I have no interest in calling myself the best. The last person I helped taught me something, and the next person through the door will have a different story.

What I want for the person in front of me is the same thing I wanted when I was on crutches. I wanted to walk out the door, go live my life, and stop planning it around my next appointment. I also deserved a straight answer about what I could realistically expect before I decided how much time and money to put into it. So does everyone considering Scrambler Therapy. I’ve been on both sides of that conversation now and here’s my promise to you. I’ll give you the same straight answer I would’ve wanted when I was the one asking.