FAQ

Is Neurofeedback Effective?

Individuals who are good candidates for neurofeedback therapy often see dramatic reduction in their symptoms. This efficacy depends upon the knowledge and experience of the therapist, the client's partnership with the therapist, providing very good feedback from each session, the therapist being able to differentiate between actual neurofeedback responses or environmental responses in the client's life, the client's ability to trust the process, the client's commitment, and the client's success in finishing their treatment plan.

What are the possible side effects of Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback doesn't really have "side effects" as we think of them regarding medication. Neurofeedback protocols need to be "trained in" for them to become permanent. If a person has a negative response (more anxiety, depression, sleep issues, etc.) to a training, then a conscientious therapist will adjust the protocol/frequency to obtain optimal symptom reduction. The process is a living treatment plan, dependent upon a client's feedback provided from each session. This process is a partnership between the therapist and the client as they move the client toward greater symptom reduction.

What is the success rate of neurofeedback?

This can vary from provider to provider and depends greatly upon the therapist's knowledge and experience. However, most published scientific research indicates that, depending upon the condition, you can expect a 75%-80% success rate. There are many research articles provided by bcia.com or AAPB.org.

Can neurofeedback help me resolve my trauma?

YES. During your treatment plan, at the end of low-frequency training, we will coordinate you with a good trauma therapist of your choosing or we will recommend one. This therapist must specialize in processing trauma. Therefore, techniques such as EMDR or Brainspotting are essential. Additionally, your therapist should understand the polyvagal theory of arousal and employ somatic techniques to allow you to process your trauma events out of your brain and body. We will coordinate our appointments with your therapist to ensure that they meet with you not less than two hours after our trauma session with you. Involving neurofeedback in this process can often help you move through your trauma faster by bypassing your brain's efforts to protect you from the trauma.

Additionally, starting the trauma processing part of treatment at a specific point in your treatment plan enables us to be sure that you are sleeping, your anxiety is down, you are calmer overall. This helps you have the strength to face those events that plague you.

Who is a good candidate for neurofeedback?

Individuals with symptoms of ADD/ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, chronic depression/anxiety, developmental trauma, adult-onset trauma, recovering addicts, etc. are often very good clients for neurofeedback therapy. Discovering the cause of the symptoms will help the therapist to better impact the symptoms from which the client suffers.

What age is best for neurofeedback?

Any age of an individual, from approximately 6 years and beyond can benefit from neurofeedback. It is often especially effective for children and teens as their brains are young, growing, and flexible. However, Neurofeedback is especially effective for children and teens. Additionally, children have not implemented behavioral "workarounds" in their life to cope with their symptoms. That said, adult clients can provide more accurate feedback, have a better ability to have introspective and an awareness of how they are feeling inside which is harder to see from the outside of a child.

How many times a week should I do neurofeedback?

•Neurofeedback is a minimum twice-a-week therapy. Neurofeedback is temporary (lasting up to 48 hours) until it is trained in enough to be maintained. Therefore, if a client has a session on Tuesday, and they see an alleviation of symptoms, those results are going to drop away within 48 hours. If they train again on Thursday, they will get another 48 hours. So, four out of seven days of the week your brain is where it is being trained to be, which will train your brain/CNS into maintenance of these gains faster. You can do two sessions a day, as long as there is at least three hours between the end of one session and the beginning of the next to allow the brain to rest. You can do sessions each day of the week, if you desire. This said, it is best with a new protocol/frequency to allow at least a day between sessions to allow the client to notice changes.

How do you know if neurofeedback is working?

•This depends a great deal upon the system/protocols/frequencies that are recommended within the client's treatment plan. However, most people do very well with low-frequency training at the beginning of their treatment plan; although, it may take a few sessions to find the ideal frequency that the client's brain/CNS enjoys. After the frequency is found, most people being to see changes immediately. This is very dependent upon the client's self-awareness and ability to provide solid feedback from each session and to learning quickly how to discern the differences between neurofeedback caused changes and environmental changes.

Does neurofeedback rewire your brain?

There are many laymen's terms out there to describe what neurofeedback does. First, it is important to understand that neurofeedback never puts any electricity into a client's brain. Neurofeedback is accomplished by asking the client's brain to move brainwave/CNS activity to a more optimal place through positive reinforcement via feedback during the session. The brain adjusts on its own.

Are neurofeedback changes permanent?

Under optimal conditions neurofeedback changes are permanent. That said, if you go skiing and crash into a tree or have a car accident that injures your brain, etc. your brainwaves will change to heal itself. Or, if you find yourself in a traumatic environment for a while, your brain will adapt your nervous system/brainwaves to accommodate, which can have the undesired effect of training your nervous system/brainwaves into less optimal locations.

Can neurofeedback make you worse before better?

This is a possibility; however, the therapist will work with the client to start seeing positive gains as soon as possible. It is important to understand that "worse" is not climbing up a clocktower and thinning out the neighborhood, "worse" is maybe a temporary slight increase in symptoms. Although these will drop away within 48 hours. We tend to see more of this in the beginning as we are locating your ideal frequency, and you are learning how to determine what are neurofeedback changes and what are not.

Can neurofeedback worsen depression?

Depression is a complicated condition. There are two types of depression: under-arousal depression and over-arousal depression. Under-arousal depression is the depression that we think of when we think of depression, i.e. in bed, sleeping, no or low energy, severe hopelessness, etc. Over-arousal depression is an active depression, i.e. you're up and moving, jumping through the hoops of your day/life; however, you either feel either vaguely, acutely, or somewhere in between, hopeless. Under-arousal depression is much more likely to be seen in a person's brainwave activity and over-arousal depression is much more likely to be in the person's CNS and is intimately linked to anxiety. Overall, yes, depression often improves depending upon the cause.

Can neurofeedback cause memory loss?

To the contrary, studies have shown the effectiveness of neurofeedback training in improving memory function. Of course, this is highly dependent upon the reason for the memory loss. Additionally, neurofeedback therapy improved attention, working memory performance, and theta activity in the resting state for the normal aging adult, and sleep performance.

How many neurofeedback sessions does it take to see results?

This is a difficult question to answer as each individual brain/CNS is far more unique than a fingerprint. This said, a client may expect to see changes within the first 10-20 sessions in most situations.

How many sessions will it take for me to complete my treatment plan?

Again, this is very difficult to answer. Highly motivated individuals who provide solid feedback from each session are much more likely to move through their treatment plan faster. It is very important to understand that training your brain will take time. This process is not to be thought of as a sprint, but more of a marathon. This is a therapy process. If a person completes their entire treatment plan, addresses any stored trauma, and is consistent with appointments, they are looking at 40-100 sessions in most situations.

What does neurofeedback feel like?

Neurofeedback training is likely the easiest therapy in which you will likely ever engage. At my practice, you choose a movie/tv show (I have over 1,000 movies/tv shows to choose from), your technician hooks you up, you train with headphones on, watching you chosen movie/tv show. During the training you are likely to feel calmer, more relaxed, even a bit tired. After the session, most people perk up and go on with their day. Your movie/tv show will be picked up where you dropped off in the next session.

Can Neurofeedback reduce cortisol levels?

Anxiety levels decreased after the real neurofeedback and increased after the sham neurofeedback (P<0.01, size effect 0.9 for comparison between groups). Cortisol decreased after the experiment in both groups, though with significantly more pronounced effects in the desired direction after the real neurofeedback (P<0.04; size effect 0.7). The group receiving real neurofeedback significantly enhanced their SMR band (P<0.004; size effect 0.88), without changes in the theta band. The group receiving sham neurofeedback did not show any EEG changes. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32279927/

Does insurance cover neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is still not covered by most insurance companies as it is still considered "experimental" despite the volumes of research available. Most insurance companies will say that they cover neurofeedback, even providing codes; however, what is covered is biofeedback for certain physical conditions such as pelvic floor issues. Neurofeedback is still frustratingly not covered by insurance companies for mental health concerns. Although, Medicaid is making movements to cover neurofeedback, we'll keep you posted!

Does neurofeedback help with brain inflammation?

Neurofeedback, specifically low-frequency neurofeedback, can help reduce inflammation in the brain; however, often only temporarily. This can result in temporary relief from symptoms; however, it's important to discover the underlying cause of the inflammation to resolve the problem permanently.

What symptoms does neurofeedback treat?

Neurofeedback, can reduce a plethora of symptoms of many conditions. Here is a partial list, which is by no means, exhaustive.
•ADD/ADHD
•Oppositional Defiance
•Anxiety
•Depression
•Addictions
•Sleep Disorders/Issues
•Concussion/Brain Injury
•Memory Issues
•Peak Performance
•Stress
•Brain Fog
•Hypervigilant Behaviors
•Anger/Rage
•PTSD
•Rumination
•Trauma/Developmental Trauma
•Autism Spectrum Disorders

Can you do neurofeedback to yourself?

Neurofeedback therapy systems and levels are far and wide. From something you put on your head and do at home (a bit like skipping a rock across a pond) to true clinical involved neurofeedback (scuba diving The Great Reef). If you are truly looking for a life-changing result, true clinical neurofeedback is the best option.

What should I expect after my first neurofeedback session?

After your first session, you may feel tired. This is a normal response to a workout. Your brain just did a serious workout and now may need a rest! Your brain will adapt. It is rare that a client continues to feel tired after each session. As your brain trains, it learns, and does what we're asking faster next time. Although, each new protocol may have this beginning effect.

What is the difference between brain mapping and neurofeedback?

"Brain mapping" is a laymen's term for a qEEG, quantitative electroencephalogram. This is a recording of what your brain is doing, off task, for ten minutes with your eyes closed and ten minutes with your eyes open. This is the first step to begin neurofeedback therapy. My qEEG raw waves are sent to a very particular couple of people in the neurofeedback industry. These two individuals collectively have 50-60 years of experience. One of these individuals is a raw wave expert, which is the only one in the industry with his knowledge and experience. He can see things in the raw waves that most cannot. The other person artifacts the raw waves and creates the qEEG report. It matters a great deal who processes qEEGs. From the collection of the raw data to the final report, each step is vitally important to the result of the client's training. All the brainwave training protocols come from this report, so it must be accurate beyond reproach.

Are there risks associated with the qEEG?

There are no real risks to the qEEG. This is a recording of what your brain is already doing, a baseline, if you will. No conscientious therapist will do any brainwave training without a qEEG. That said, your head will be covered in conductive gel when you are done, so you will want to go home and wash that out before you get on with your day!

Is neurofeedback better than TMS?

TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) generally targets depression only. Neurofeedback can target a variety of symptoms in addition to depression, including anxiety and sleep. About 70% of our neurofeedback clients experience clinical benefits, generally higher than those who benefit from TMS.

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