Electricity is present throughout our bodies.  Using an EEG signal to measure and train the brain’s electrical energy patterns can improve our functioning in life, which can be a pretty amazing, and we are forever indebted to the neuroscientists at UCLA who figured out back in the late 1960s that biofeedback for the brain using electrical signals really works.

However, it is also a challenge to train certain parts of the brain, because to be effective, it is important to narrow the EEG signal so that what is trained really is the brain’s electricity and not electricity seeping in from someplace else in the body.  This is especially challenging when one wants to train the part of the brain underneath the forehead, called the pre-frontal cortex, because the electrical activity that comes from blinking one’s eyes is powerful and interferes with trying to train the brain’s electrical patterns.

Two different neurofeedback practitioners independently figured out a solution to the problem of training at the front of the head, where eyeblink interference is such a problem.  One, the late Hershel Toomim, PhD, along with his wife Marjorie, found that using near-infrared light (nIR) in a headband and providing biofeedback that rewards oxygenation levels in the pre-frontal cortex resulted in shifts in brain function that allowed the pre-frontal cortex to self-regulate, resulting in increased ability to do all the things the pre-frontal cortex does, such as focus and emotional control.

Another, Jeffrey Carmen, PhD, experimented with passive-infrared light (pIR) and developed a similar process of looking at metabolic activity.  Dr. Carmen found that his system was especially good for working with migraines.

Both devices are referred to as hemoencephalography, or HEG for short.  Although there is only a small amount of peer-reviewed literature on the effectiveness of either type of HEG, users around the world have found that both HEG devices are effective at getting around the problem of training the front of the brain and produce good results.  Moreover, use of pIR suggests that HEG may affect complex energy systems throughout the brain and not just in the pre-frontal cortex.

I have worked with both nIR and pIR biofeedback for the brain devices for over a decade.  Despite the intimidating-sounding name, HEG devices are straightforward and simple to use.  In addition, they are non-invasive; infrared light is simply a type of light that the human eye is unable to see.  And, most practitioners who know about HEG like the results they get by using them with their clients.  I especially like pIR HEG for calming and relaxing brains that over-respond to the world around them.

I don’t always take the time to pull out my HEG devices and show them to potential trainees during initial consultations, so if you’re interested in seeing how they work, be sure to ask.

*If you are interested in reading more about HEG, check out the book New Developments in Blood Flow Hemoencephalography, by Tim Tinius, PhD.

People often are surprised that brain training takes time.  It is, after all, a shifting of the brain’s energy systems, and just like modifying the body via exercise, results involve sustained effort.  Typically, a full round of 40 sessions of neurofeedback requires about five to six months to complete.  Trainees come twice or even three times a week, then taper off to once a week or even once every other week before finishing altogether.   This approach works for most people’s schedules, and so it is the most common.

Sometimes, though, a person has reasons for wanting to be done sooner than the usual five to six month schedule.  Often, this is out of a sense of urgency or a looming deadline like a move or heading off to school.  Fortunately for those motivated to complete their training quickly, it can be done.

All it takes is a plan, time in your calendar, and a commitment to doing what you want to do to achieve your goals.  From there, the schedule can be customized to meet your timeframe and your needs.  I have worked with clients as often as twice a day, six days a week, to help them meet a deadline.  More common, though, is to train four days a week, which gets a person finished in about 10-12 weeks.

If you’re interested in intensive training, let’s talk.  We can discuss your goals and whether they are feasible and realistic.

One of the questions I frequently receive is how neurofeedback training progresses and what that’s like.  The short answer is that it varies by person.  The longer answer is that although each person experiences neurofeedback slightly differently, for most people, there is a common pattern.

The Normal Pattern

Most people begin to notice changes somewhere between six and ten sessions.  I like to use an exercise analogy here in that if you were to start a regular exercise habit, you’d find that it takes several weeks to start to notice muscle definition, greater endurance, etc.  It’s the same with neurofeedback.  Although changes are probably happening at the cellular level right away, you don’t really see the differences for a while.

In fact, when changes do start to be noticeable, many people are not sure it’s from neurofeedback.  They will tell me that things are shifting, but that it could’ve just been a good day at work, or something they ate, or the benefits of finally getting some down time.  And, that’s fair.  Our lives are too complicated to know with 100% certainty what caused any one change.

Over time, though, people will begin to realize that the changes are starting to be longer-lasting.  Results string out for more hours at a time, or more days a week.  Eventually people doing brain training realize that their changes must be coming from neurofeedback, and that gets exciting.

The excitement carries most people over through the routine part of training, when no new changes are happening, but training must continue to occur to ensure that those new energy patterns in the brain “stick.” Most neurofeedback practitioners believe that this is a learning process for the brain, and that learning needs to be ingrained.

Toward the end of training, the number of sessions tapers from two or more times a week to once a week or less.  This is to ensure that the training is long-lasting and that there is no back-sliding. By this time, some people doing training tell me that they have a hard time remembering what things were really like before training. This is okay, because they’re just happy with their results.

Other Possibilities

This is the normal course of training that lasts around 40 sessions.  It can vary, though. Sometimes, people begin to experience results as soon as the first training session.  This may be the start of a long-lasting shift, but it can also be a bit of a novelty effect, in which the brain responds extremely strongly to training, and no session after that will ever have the dazzle of that initial, amazing shift.  I personally don’t like it when this happens, because even though the brain’s energy patterns may shift just like the person wants, it doesn’t come with the fanfare of the opening session, and that tends to discourage people and make them want to stop, even though sticking with it would help them reach their goals.

That said, some lucky people who do neurofeedback get results almost immediately, and they stick well.  These individuals end up needing far fewer sessions than the average person, so they save time and money.  Most of the time, people who get fantastic results are doing other things in their lives, such as eating clean, sleeping long enough (a rarity in Northern Virginia!), and pursuing other interventions such as acupuncture, counseling, spiritual work, or chiropractic care.

The opposite of an immediate shift can also happen, meaning that it may take far longer than 6-10 sessions to begin to see results. When that happens, it’s important to understand why. Sometimes, it’s because a person may have a diagnosis that makes training challenging, such as autism.  Sometimes, it’s because the trainee is using certain medications that make progress with neurofeedback challenging.  Sometimes, it’s because the trainee hasn’t committed to regular training.  And, more rarely, sometimes we just don’t know why.

For the vast majority of people, the regular trajectory of slow and steady results is what’s desirable, and what happens. To explore more about how neurofeedback might unfold for you, give me a call and set up a consultation.