TPS for ME/CFS and Long Covid: My Experience with Transcranial Pulse Stimulation

I had already achieved so much for myself through understanding my Baseline and the stimulus–recovery principle, yet my cognitive limitations didn't really get better.

I only had about 30% access, and I got Brain Fog very quickly. That's actually a good thing, because it became my early-warning system and helps me prevent a Crash. But without any load on me, I want to be able to think, talk, process stimuli and remember. That's what I wished for.

I was at Prof. Dr. Citak's practice in Hamburg in December because I had very bad knee pain. My brother had made the appointment for me; I wouldn't have managed to organise it myself. It was only supposed to be about my knees, but while I was telling him that I had been bedridden for many years and that my body wasn't used to physical load at all anymore, the topic came up almost in passing: Long Covid, ME/CFS.

And in that very moment, I learned that Prof. Citak has been treating people with Neurocovid since 2021 using TPS, transcranial pulse stimulation. I had never heard of it before. I didn't even know that a therapy existed that specifically targets the neurological symptoms of our illness.

I shared a reel on Instagram straight away, and out of 250,000 views, only 2 people wrote to me saying they had already tried this therapy themselves. As part of a study in Austria.

I had the feeling I had found something really good — and for many, something new. Despite the high cost, I decided to give it a try. On the one hand because I trusted Prof. Citak immediately, and on the other because I knew this was an investment: if I can think more clearly again, work more analytically and more effectively, and if it no longer drains me so much, then the treatment is worth the price to me.

What TPS actually is

TPS stands for transcranial pulse stimulation. Targeted ultrasound pulses are directed from the outside onto specific areas of the brain in order to activate biological signalling processes in the tissue: circulation is stimulated, vessels are dilated, stem cells are activated. It's a regenerative therapeutic approach. The body is given an impulse to move into its own self-healing.

The method originally comes from kidney-stone treatment and was later used in dementia care. On its use in Long Covid and ME/CFS, I could find almost no information beforehand. That's why I'm writing so much detail here — to help close exactly that information gap.

Why I tried TPS in the first place

Honestly, because I trusted Prof. Dr. Citak deeply. I'm not one of those people who approach a new therapy or decision from a strictly medical or scientific angle. I'm a very intuitive person. When he told me about TPS, I didn't start researching first — I asked myself: Do I trust this person? Does he take me and my illness seriously? Is he explaining exactly what to expect? The answer was a clear yes.

My starting symptoms were massive: heavy Brain Fog, word-finding difficulties, severe trouble concentrating, and an inability to orient myself in time and space. I had neither long-term nor short-term memory. I often couldn't remember if I had already eaten or had something to drink, whether I had brushed my teeth, where I was yesterday, who I had even spoken to. I muddled through my everyday life with lots of alarms, lots of notes, and with my mother as an external brain. From the outside, it often wasn't at all visible just how cognitively limited I really was.

The more my physical Baseline was allowed to expand, the more my cognitive capacity mattered to me again. I wanted it back.

My experience

I did 6 sessions: 3 days in a row — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — then a week off and then another 3 days. A session with Prof. Citak costs 330 € and is a private self-pay service (only private health insurance in Germany covers it). In total it came to around 2,000 € for me.

I know how big a topic this is. How it feels when therapies are only accessible to a few. I'm not among the most privileged people. I saved up for a long time — also because during the years of illness I could barely spend anything — and I always put it in relation to how much money I had already invested in supplements and attempts over the years that didn't help me. In that relation, the sum was manageable for me.

The treatment itself is done sitting: I was fitted with a pair of glasses with four sensors so the device always knew exactly which areas of my head it had already worked on. Then a generous amount of ultrasound gel goes onto your head, and the pulses are delivered over 30 minutes. The only thing I really noticed was a clicking sound. During the session I was in a state of deep relaxation — so, no measurable stress. The TPS itself was never strenuous for me at any point.

But doing the treatment involves other loads on top of that: the way to the practice, the conversation with the doctor, 30 minutes of sitting, washing your hair afterwards (because of the gel), and the way home. All of that has to fit inside your Baseline.

Another moment I'll never forget: my brother asked me in the morning if I could organise five things. Out of old habit I wrote myself a list — and then I was able to remember his request without an alarm, I knew I had written a list, I knew what was on it, and I didn't have to look at it at all. That was absolutely overwhelming for me. A big step towards independence.

Something else that changed: my sleep got deeper, my deep-sleep phase extended right away. For the first time in months, I had 7 days in a row of „green recovery" on my tracker. Whether that came from an improvement in the Fatigue or from the IHHT, I honestly can't sort out precisely anymore today.

And Brain Fog, for me, was never just „fog" — it was physical pain. The feeling that my head weighed 100 kg, that it was concrete-hard from the outside and a shifting, murky mass on the inside, has become much lighter. I have a lightness in my head again.

Maybe the most valuable thing of all for me: a new sense of safety inside myself. Even when a situation doesn't go the way I had planned, I now know that I have the cognitive capacity to still make decisions for myself. That huge fear of being completely overwhelmed, which followed me for years, has become quieter.

What TPS means for me — and what it doesn't

TPS was a puzzle piece for me, slotted in at the right time. It's not magic and it's not a replacement for everything I have learned, lived and integrated over the years before. Without Pacing, without my stable Baseline, without my knowledge of my own body, I wouldn't have been able to get through this treatment, and probably wouldn't have responded to it as well either.

What I would look at when it comes to TPS

The treatment itself isn't strenuous; the load is elsewhere: in the way to the practice, in the conversation, in the 30 minutes of sitting, in the hair-washing afterwards and in the way home. That has to fit inside your Baseline. If it doesn't fit right now, then it's simply not the right moment for you yet.

I shared a longer video about TPS on YouTube, in which I document the process on-site and my impressions after day 3 and after 14 days: YouTube video on TPS

You can also find more in the Reels and Shorts I recorded during the treatment.

My interview with Prof. Dr. Citak is in podcast episode #68 on Tidal Faces, and how I experienced the whole process of these therapies is in episode #69 Veränderung braucht Zeit (Change Needs Time).

Gesundheitszentrum Citak (Hamburg and Bochum): https://citak.de/long-covid-zentrum

I hope this text is a support for you — on your path, in your decisions.

With love,
Leila