About
A studio built around one stubborn idea: the brain responds to patient attention.
Payne Brain opened its doors on Wishon Road in the spring of 2018. We are a small, independent practice — never more than two coaches at a time — and we plan to keep it that way.
Lawrence Otto, founder · photographed at the Wishon Road studio
Lawrence Otto, founder
I spent twenty-two years in adult education before I started Payne Brain — first as a community college instructor in Surry County, then running corporate training for a regional bank in Winston-Salem. Both jobs taught me the same lesson: adults can learn almost anything, given a little patience and a teacher who isn’t in a hurry.
In 2016 my mother started misplacing things. The neurologist was kind but blunt: there are programs that help, but they aren’t in your county. We drove to Durham for a year. On those drives I started reading everything I could about cognitive rehabilitation, attention training, and the everyday habits that protect a mind. By 2018 there was enough demand from neighbors that I rented the storefront on Wishon Road and quit my day job.
Payne Brain is named for my mother, Eleanor Payne. She walks the workshop in most Thursdays.
— Lawrence Otto, Yadkinville, NC
What we believe
Slow is a feature.
Cognitive change shows up in months, not minutes. Anyone who promises faster than that is selling something else.
Small rooms, small groups.
We cap workshops at eight chairs on purpose. The science is clear: relationships do half the work.
Notebooks beat apps.
We use technology where it helps and paper where it helps more. Most of the time, paper helps more.
No diagnoses, no drama.
We are coaches, not clinicians. When something is outside our scope we say so, and we know who to refer you to.
A short list of things we love.
- The Yadkin Valley early on a Saturday.
- Books by Daniel Schacter, Adam Gazzaley, and Mary Pipher.
- The Allen Cognitive Levels framework — still underrated.
- Walking meetings (with a notebook).
- Sharpened number-2 pencils.