I’ve recently spent some time looking at what the internet has to say about neurofeedback, and wow, what an eye-opener that has been. The marketing claims and misinformation are pretty amazing.

Let’s start to set the record straight, because as with most things, the truth is nuanced.

1.   Claim: Some kinds of neurofeedback are more cutting-edge than others.

Reality: Not exactly. When I started learning to do neurofeedback in the early 2000s, one of my excellent instructors had been doing neurofeedback as part of his psychology practice since the late 1970s. His equipment mostly original from the 1970s and was as big and bulky as you can imagine early technology to be. Despite that, he used his tool as one plays a fine musical instrument and got great results. He showed fellow students and me handwriting samples of some children whose ability to form letters transitioned from the large, clunky scrawl of someone just learning to write to legible penmanship of a typical elementary-school-aged person. It was amazing. He also introduced us to a middle-schooler who had improved his gait to the point that he was able to go from using a wheelchair to using a walker. Please understand that this remarkable achievement is NOT TYPICAL and almost no one in the field would make claims to help children walk or walk better.  I use it as an example to show that even very old, standard neurofeedback equipment operates on the same basic principle of measuring electrical brainwave activity and rewarding the brain for shifting itself.

I would argue that cutting-edge is more of a marketing term than a sign of better equipment. I have found that some start-up companies that make incredible claims about their cutting-edge technology, and it turns out to be based on faulty premises or feels ineffective.

That said, I think newer techniques and approaches to training are beneficial and important. Some of our older techniques are tried, true, reliable, and effective. Some of our newer techniques are based on new learning and are also reliable and effective. Sometimes, though, people can get stuck in old ways and fail to see that newer ways to train (called protocols) are faster and better in terms of results. This is where keeping up with colleagues and their findings is important.

In my practice, I use newer gear that is stable and reliable, and I rely on continuing my education to help know when, how, and where to conduct training sessions. Combining the proven and stable with the new and exciting seems to me to be a reasonable way to conduct brain training.

2. Claim: Neurofeedback is over-priced.

Reality: Again, not exactly. I AM aware of places that charge $20,000 for a week of spa-like services that include neurofeedback. I also know of a few places that charge around $700 per session. If there are people willing to pay those prices, great. I know I would not, and I bet that if you’re reading my blog, you would never do that either. Rest assured that those places are nowhere near the norm.

There is another side to the coin where instead of charging exorbitant fees, practitioners offer bargain rates. They could be training multiple people at once, so the service is not personal–and for neurofeedback, someone observing the session is usually important. Or, it could be that the practitioner is using a “plug and play” device that is more of a one-size fits all or an alleged brain-hacking device. Although the technology is moving closer and closer to the time when headbands and a power button are enough, I have not seen any device to date that I would consider the equivalent of plain old EEG neurofeedback. You really are getting what you pay for, and I don’t recommend going with cheap or one-size-fits-all brain training.

In between the exorbitant and the bargain is where most practitioners place themselves. Neurofeedback is a specialized skill and takes time to learn to do and use properly. Most people who offer neurofeedback as the main part of their work have spent years honing their craft or, if new, are working under the mentorship of a skilled practitioner. It is also a costly tool. Practitioners spend thousands on training, thousands on their devices, and countless hours in mentoring and keeping up with the latest trends. Like most fields, the learning never ends. It is reasonable to expect to pay for this expertise.

If you are interested in neurofeedback training but are concerned about the cost, please know that I am willing to work out interest-free payment plans. I also offer a 10% discount to active-duty members of the military or active-duty first-responders.

3. Claim: Neurofeedback can be done quickly.

Reality: That depends on what you want. Some practitioners operate under the model of doing as few sessions as possible, then expecting their clients to come back periodically for what they call tune-ups. I think they do this to try and accommodate the fact that most people are very busy and don’t want to dedicate much time to training their brains. The truth is that sometimes, such an approach requires more time, money, and effort in the long run.

Some people offer a few sessions because there are many published studies that attempt to show a shift or change, and the changes they find definitely happens in fewer than 20 sessions. Demonstrating efficacy is not the same as having changes stick over the long term.

I operate based on research done that shows more sessions lead to solid and long-lasting results. If you work with me or anyone who operates under my philosophy, you will—with a few exceptions that we can talk about during a consultation—do one round of neurofeedback training and be done, no tune-ups needed. I tell my clients to plan on 40 sessions, but like everything else I offer, the exact number of sessions depends upon the person sitting in the training chair. Some people can be done in as few as 20-25 sessions, most do take around 40 sessions, and a few require 50-60 sessions. In special circumstances, there are people who may need hundreds of sessions due to having truly stuck electrical brain patterns.

In general, I advise people to plan on 40 twice-weekly sessions, but my goal is never to more sessions than a person needs or less than is needed to avoid doing so-called tune-ups.

4. Claim: Neurofeedback is covered by insurance.

Reality: Most insurers do not see neurofeedback as a health or mental health tool and thus do not cover it. Some practitioners, trying to be helpful, will mis-code their sessions so that their clients can get coverage. This is well-meaning, but it is also insurance fraud. However, some insurance companies, in some states, have begun to provide some limited coverage for neurofeedback. This coverage is usually quite restricted in the number of sessions and is usually for specific diagnoses. I am aware that here in Virginia, a couple of companies cover some sessions if there is an autism diagnosis, and a few others will cover some sessions for ADHD. If you think you have one of those golden plans that will help you pay for sessions, it is your responsibility to communicate with your insurance company.

I do not accept insurance, and insurance does not cover my services. My philosophy is not to use neurofeedback as a medical or mental health treatment.

5. Claim: Only MY way of doing neurofeedback works well.

Reality: Nope. Not true. My approach to neurofeedback training includes what I think of as the best of all world: collecting objective data for optimal brain performance along with subjective information about your life and what you’d like to train. The reality is, though, that some practitioners only ask about symptoms or problems, then surmise where to train based on that interview, with no measurements of what’s actually happening in the brain. This approach can work just fine. In fact, I use this with young children who are not yet ready to sit still for a full Trainers’ QEEG that measures 20 locations on the scalp to create a brain map. Other practitioners measure 19 spots on the scalp and compare that to normative databases that show how many standard deviations away from “normal” any one person’s brain might be. As much as I am opposed to the idea of a normal brain and trying to train to make everyone more normal, I agree that this approach can work, too.

If you are working with an experienced and skilled clinician who has invested the time and energy to learn to do neurofeedback well; who customizes your training to your brain and needs; and who works with you one-on-one rather than hiring staff who slap on electrodes, then leave, you are likely to get good results from your neurofeedback training.

Anyone who says that only their approach works is dissembling.

These are some of the key myths that I stumbled across in my browsing. I may write more on this subject another, but if in the meantime you have questions or ran across another piece of information that puzzles you, please feel free to contact me.

When people come to me for consultations, I talk about how neurofeedback works and show them a sample of what training looks like on the computer. Sometimes, children and teens want to see what their own brainwaves look like on a screen, so I will connect one channel for them to watch the squiggly lines on the screen. Sometimes, people want the history of neurofeedback to fill in the question of why they only recently heard of it. Sometimes, people have done enough research online that they are only in my office to meet me and schedule their brain map. Always, always, though, the question that is foremost, even if not always asked or if phrased differently, is what neurofeedback can do for them.

The most accurate answer to the question of “what can it do for me?” begins with an explanation of how neurofeedback works. In short, neurofeedback provides feedback to the autonomic nervous system so that it can learn and adjust. But, that’s not really plain English. A more understandable, though incomplete, explanation is that one part of our body’s nervous system is under our conscious control and one part is not directly accessible; neurofeedback works with the part we don’t normally think of as being under our control. For example, if we want to raise one arm over our head, we consciously control a big part of that movement, but if we want to adjust how the neurons are working in our brain, we cannot just squint our eyes and will it to happen.  Neurofeedback gets at the brain in ways we cannot, despite our best efforts.

Using just that short explanation of the mechanics of neurofeedback, it can seem that the ability to tweak some aspects of how our brainwaves are working may make the outcomes almost limitless. I wish that were true, but neurofeedback is not a magic wand.

If you are looking to calm down your nervous system, chances are that neurofeedback can do great things for you. This is especially true if you are eating well, getting out in nature and/or moving your body, and at least attempting to get regular sleep (knowing that often, sleep is part of the problem). This is true because the most significant benefit of neurofeedback is to calm the autonomic nervous system, and calming leads to a cascade of other good things:  a calm brain can sleep better, process better, get through the work or school day better, react to life better, etc.

Exactly how great the results will be also depends in part on your lifestyle and environment. If you are in a toxic work environment with endless, unreasonable deadlines; your relationships are abusive or non-existent; and you’re punishing your body in some way, getting results may be a bigger challenge. This is true because although neurofeedback can dial back the way you over-respond to the world around you, it cannot change your crazy world.

Then, for some people, their brains are stuck—perhaps due to epigenetics, a bad gut, a health diagnosis (think PANS/PANDAS, autism, Lyme) etc. Such people may also get good results, but it takes more time to make them happen.

Finally, if you are someone who has very slow brainwaves dominant while awake, it can be more of a challenge to get that brain moving faster. Slowing down is, in my opinion, an easier task that trying to fire up a slow brain. It CAN be done, it just takes awhile.

This is a long-winded way of saying that almost everyone can benefit to some degree from brain-training using neurofeedback. It isn’t a cure-all—in fact, no one should consider neurofeedback as a cure for anything—but it does help optimize how you’re functioning in much the same way that going to a gym boosts physical performance. The difference is that once you’ve finished a round of neurofeedback, your brain holds on to those gains in ways that training muscles does not.

So…what exactly CAN neurofeedback do for you? It can move your brain toward more optimal functioning, however that looks for you.

Most people who choose to pursue brain training using neurofeedback really just want to know if it works and, more specifically, whether neurofeedback will work for them or their family member. Usually the answer is yes, but the unknown is how much it will change a person’s life. Some people experience extraordinary, life-changing events. Most get satisfactory change. A small number experience mild changes (this is especially true for people with “stuck” brains such as those with an autism diagnosis). A tiny minority experience no change at all—in my practice, I’ve had fewer than five people with no change; these were frustrating experiences for everyone involved. For those with no change, a few were overscheduled teenagers whose family structure and school/extracurricular commitments meant that they never got good sleep, which is the foundation for any body change. Only once has the lack of shift been a bit of a mystery, and that was for a healthy adult whose brain map did not match her lived experience. We stopped sessions before too much time and effort was wasted, and her situation will probably sit with me for the rest of my career.

Every now and then, though, the question that those who are considering neurofeedback want answered is whether it’s scientifically proven. That is a fraught question, so I’ll unpack it a bit here.

First, neurofeedback has been around since the late 1960s. During the Apollo era, NASA scientists approached a neuroscience researcher at UCLA who was doing an early version of brain training on cats and asked him to explore rocket fuel toxicity, because people were falling ill, and they suspected it was from rocket fuel. In testing that now is famous among all well-trained neurofeedback practitioners, the UCLA researcher injected his cats with the rocket fuel. Half the cats had seizures and died within two hours. The other half had seizures at the 5-6-hour mark, yet survived. It turned out that the ones who survived all had been part of the researcher’s brain-training experiments. Later, a graduate assistant from the lab who suffered from epilepsy decided to try brain training on herself. It worked, and neurofeedback has evolved from there. Unfortunately, the UCLA researchers did not write up the graduate assistant’s experiment as a case study, so there is nothing in peer-reviewed literature about the dramatic reduction in seizures she experienced. This means that very few neurologists are aware of neurofeedback as an intervention for seizures and most discount the process as invalid.

Nonetheless, the past almost-60 years have seen a steady flow of research into neurofeedback. Most of the studies are small and use DSM diagnoses as a baseline for interventions. Unfortunately, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders categories, which encode the criteria for identifying and labeling mental health conditions, are committee-created and bear very little relationship with electrical brainwave patterns. This makes research difficult on many levels. If, for example, one gathers 50 people with a diagnosis of ADHD, their brains are not likely to all look alike.

Another hindrance to scientific studies is that it is quite a challenge to do sham neurofeedback so that one can have a control population. Quite often, those experiencing fake neurofeedback figure out quite quickly that they are not receiving the real thing. However, in my opinion—an opinion shared by others—neurofeedback research should not be following a pharmaceutical model of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies anyway. A more apt comparison would be the way that surgical advances are achieved—practitioners discover new and better ways to implement good surgical outcomes, then share their results with other practitioners. Indeed, this is how most of the advances in neurofeedback approaches and protocols occur—from practitioners to researchers for validation rather than from researchers to practitioners.

Finally, there is the pathology model of neurofeedback research, which aims to treat or control disorders. I fundamentally disagree with this and do not do brain training to treat disorders (especially because of my views of the DSM). Instead, I believe in brainwave optimization. I train the brain that presents in front of me to optimize performance, because unless one has a physical/structural problem in the brain, each of us has a perfect brain. It has evolved over time to respond to our environment and keep us alive and safe.  The trick of neurofeedback is to work with what’s there and improve its performance. I like using a gym analogy. Just as someone joins a gym for better fitness, my clients work with me to work out their brains.  The difference is that once one stops working out, body fitness fades, but with brain training, that growth and learning lasts long-term. How wonderful is that!

For those who are interested in seeing the body of scientific literature on neurofeedback, there is an annotated bibliography that members of the International Society for Neuroregulation and Research have compiled. It is available here.

Over the next few months, I intend to go back through news reports to share articles on neurofeedback. This is the first of that coverage.

Last summer, a study published in the Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine and reported in Medical Xpress showed that a few sessions of neurofeedback made a difference in reducing mental fogginess for people who had undergone a course of chemotherapy. The study was small, and certainly 18 sessions would not be considered enough outside a laboratory setting, but it was promising and matches real-world experiences.

You can read the Medical Xpress article here.

You can read a summary of the study itself here, although the full article is behind a paywall.

My sons took piano lessons when they were little, and somewhere along the line I decided that I, too, wanted to learn. Their teacher squeezed me in after their sessions, knowing full well that I wasn’t going to be able to practice as much as the boys did, simply because my schedule was incredibly full.

One day, the teacher told me that I needed to relax my wrists. I did and proceeded to play. She repeated herself, I checked myself, and again launched in to playing what I was supposed to play. Exasperated, the teacher grabbed my forearm, raised it in the air, and shook it. My hand followed the forearm, rigid in the air. She said, “THIS is not a relaxed wrist.”

I must’ve looked at her in puzzlement, because she sighed. She raised her own forearm, shook it as she had mine, and showed me that her hand flopped around. “THIS is what relaxation looks like,” she explained to me.

Finally, I got it. I THOUGHT my wrist was relaxed, but it was not. Her piano lesson that day taught me so much more than music. I realized that I was way more stressed than I thought I was, and that I hadn’t the slightest idea how to relax until she showed me how physical relaxation actually looked.

This brief interaction happened close to 20 years ago, and it started me on a journey that helped me understand that what we think is normal and relaxed is not necessarily either of those things. It isn’t what led me to neurofeedback, but I was finishing my master’s degree in counseling psychology at the time and knew an important lesson when I received it. I’ve remembered it all these years.

Knowing that sometimes, we are so stressed that we can forget what true relaxation looks and feels like helps me when I work with my neurofeedback clients. I understand that sometimes, when people tell me they feel sleepy during brain training, it is just their nervous system calming them and that the sensation is not a familiar one. I understand what it feels like to rediscover how wonderful a calm mind and body can feel.

I needed a piano teacher to teach me this lesson. I am not sure who or what circumstances in your life led you to realize that you’re too stressed and not at all relaxed. Neurofeedback is an important tool that can help dial down the ways in which you may be bracing yourself—both metaphorically and physically—against the world around you. And, believe me, it feels good to let go of that stress.

Neurofeedback intensives are what they sound like, intensive training for people who want to get started and achieve their goals faster. They are good for people who have deadlines, who are willing to do brain training four or five days a week, and who perhaps have goals or barriers that make intensive training their best option. I find that people tend to request intensive training over the summer and during winter break, making it ideal for college students at home or high school students with flexible schedules. It also works well for retirees, people who work from home with the ability to leave their office at times, and and people such as teachers who get breaks from their usual work.

What is an intensive course of neurofeedback?

Typically, neurofeedback entails two or sometimes three hours a week of appointments. Intensives increase that amount to four or five times a week and on really rare occasion, twice daily sessions.  The point is to complete a full round of brain training in at least half the time and sometimes even faster. I’ve had a few trainees who finished their training in as little as two and a half weeks.

Is it safe to go faster?

Yes. Neurofeedback is safe. It can, however, be tiring to have one’s brain work so hard on a daily basis. Until not too long ago, there were practitioners who offered five-day packages in which a person did neurofeedback for long hours each day. This was usually for a relaxing and meditative protocol called alpha training, but over the past few years, luxury facilities have opened that offer intensive neurofeedback using other protocols, as well.

Can one mix and match the intensive with more regular training?

Yes! It is possible to start off intensively, then back off to a more typical pace. It is also possible to start off more slowly, then work intensively when one’s schedule allows.

Who will this NOT work for?

Good candidates for intensive neurofeedback are the same as those for regularly timed training. They are willing to make the commitment of time and effort to show up and do the work, and they minimize behaviors that will undermine training. Working to get good and regular sleep, eating real food, doing some kind of movement, and being outside in nature all help get better results.

It’s okay if you don’t sleep well, because the relaxation from neurofeedback is likely to help you sleep better. What is not helpful are bad habits like staying up too late, then getting up too early.

It also isn’t the best for people who are taking month-long vacations. If you’re going to be away for more than two weeks at at time, we should talk, because it may be preferable to wait to get started until you’re back in town.

If you have the kind of goals that are outside the more normal 40 sessions, this may or may not be beneficial for you. I suggest contacting me for a conversation about whether it makes sense in your situation, because it will be more nuanced than can be discussed in a generalized blog post.

If you are just wanting to try neurofeedback a couple of times to see how it goes, this is not the path for you, either. It takes time and practice to get results, and dabbling won’t be helpful.

What is the cost?

The cost is the same as regular neurofeedback. I charge $320 for a brain map and $135 per session, charged 10 sessions at a time.

Do you have openings?

I can schedule a brain map, which is typically done before late afternoon, now. By the third week of June, I anticipate having multiple openings to begin training. Give me a call or email me through the contact form on this page for more information.

Sometimes, it’s nice not to have to write everything from scratch. This website from BrainTrainUK provides a great deal of relevant and important information about PTSD, complex PTSD, trauma, developmental trauma, and how neurofeedback may benefit. It includes links to important studies. If you are interested in these topics, visiting this practice’s website is likely to be informative and helpful.  https://braintrainuk.com/

Getting started with neurofeedback usually means having a measurement of one’s electrical brainwave activity, and there are a few ways to go about this. All involve individual electrodes that connect to the scalp and detect the very faint electrical signal that makes it through the skull. The difference is a matter of how those wires are constructed. They can be individually wired, or they can be connected in the form of a cap.

Many practitioners like caps, because there are advantages. Using a cap eliminates the need to know how to find precise spots on a person’s head, because the cap stretches tightly and approximates the right locations.  It also makes it easier for less-experienced technicians to do a good job. And, some people think that using an EEG cap makes one look more technical and professional.

However, I no longer use caps. The primary reason is that my clients never liked them, and I don’t think that people who are coming to my office to train their brains—especially if they need to calm their brains—need to be unhappy to make progress.  There were two key reasons why traditional gel caps were a problem:

• Gel-based caps can cause pain. I’ve had several clients come to me after being in other practices where the cap left angry, red dents in the person’s forehead. All caps fit tightly, and if left on for very long, just plain hurt. Worse, I’ve had clients who said that the syringes and probes for parting hair under the cap drew blood. There is no need for inflicting pain to do brain training.
• Gel-based caps are messy. Caps that use gel, like the red one in the photo, fit like a shower cap (this cap is loosely placed on a styrofoam head, so it does not fit as you see it here). The electrodes protrude below the cap onto the wearer’s scalp, and each electrode has a hole in which one uses a syringe to insert a conductive gel. Even if there is a rare person who doesn’t mind using these caps on a regular basis, the gel is sticky and must be removed with a shower. Going back to work or school after training is possible but made tricky by the gel.

There are also saline-based caps, which are still problematic but have fewer complaints. The saline cap I once used was made with neoprene, and the electrodes protruded below the cap, just like gel caps. One inserts saline into the electrode hole rather than gel, which eliminates the need for showers after brain training. The water just evaporates, and someone doing training can go on to other activities after their appointment with no grooming issues. And, of course, the neoprene caps for saline-based training also reduce if not eliminate the need to know how to apply the international 10-20 system that we use to find spots on the scalp. Despite the ease of use, though, saline caps fit just as tightly as caps that require gel, with the additional hassle of a strap that fits tightly under one’s chin. The clients I tried this with were not happy about how confining the chin strap felt for them, and they still didn’t like having electrodes press into their scalp.

So, I got rid of my caps and now exclusively use electrodes. The electrodes I use require a water-soluble paste but do not need a tight-fitting cap. I use cotton balls with a little rubbing alcohol on them after sessions to remove as much of the paste residue as I can. It takes the same amount of time for me to use electrodes as the caps required, and people leave my office able to be in public without anyone wondering what happened to their hair. The caps may look more technologically advanced, but they function exactly the same as an electrode in that they detect the brain’s electrical signal and transmit it to an amplifier.

The most important part of my decision to stop using caps is that my clients experience no pain or discomfort from doing brain training with me.  No pain, no gain is just not a thing in my office.

Over the past several weeks, I have had clients tell me that doing neurofeedback with their eyes closed feels like a brain massage or brain spa. It made me realize that I have not really talked about what it feels like to have a neurofeedback brain-training session. You may not choose the words brain massage or brain spa, but I think you’d find that it DOES feel pretty good.

During a session, you will have electrodes attached to your scalp if you are doing standard EEG training and a headband if you are doing any kind of HEG training. The electrodes are attached with a water-soluble paste that washes out with soap and water, although I use rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball in my office. Sorry-no shampoo bowls and actual scalp massages are part of the process (though wouldn’t that be wonderful!). It may feel unusual to have someone other than a hairdresser or loved one touching your scalp, but that sensation passes for almost everyone after the first session.

This practice of using electrodes–sensors, really–may vary from what you have heard or experienced in other offices. Some practitioners use caps that look like shower caps, with the electrodes embedded in the cap. Instead of paste, these caps either use a gel that must be washed out later or a saline. I no longer use these caps, because they get uncomfortable after a short while, the gel is messy and usually requires shampooing that same day. I briefly had a cap that used saline instead of gel, which was wonderful in terms of leaving the office after training with a totally clean scalp, but it comes with a chin strap that too many found constricting. For me, the most comfortable option remains larger electrodes and paste.

If you do brain training with your eyes closed, you will get to choose a comfortable position, and you will be listening to reward tones that your brain is triggering the software to play. It is not usually a melody, though it sometimes come close and there are a couple of exceptions to this. It is deeply relaxing.

If you do brain training with your eyes open, you will also hear tones that your brainwaves are earning from the software. At the same time, you will receive visual rewards. This usually means making a video or movie “go” with your brain. It can be a film, or it can be something as simple as occasionally changing screen savers on the monitor in front of you. The reward tones fade into the background as you make the movie go or gain clarity on the photographs, and you may also adjust the volume so that they are not too distracting.

Most people find that eye-closed training is deeply relaxing. Sometimes, folks don’t want to get up out of the training chair to leave the office after finishing their training, simply because it feels so good. Sometimes, people report seeing colors or other images of the sort that may pop up during meditation. Most importantly, those who are unwilling or unable to feel comfortable closing their eyes in the office are not forced to do so.

For those who do eyes-open training, the relaxation may sometimes feel like fatigue, especially at the onset of brain training. Most, even those who are working to increase their focus, will find training calming and sink into the chair while doing their training.

If you’re interested in coming in for a consultation, I tend to play back recordings of sample brainwaves so people can hear an example of the types of sounds they might hear during a training session. If you want, I can also let you see your own brainwaves—it’s kind of cool! I do not typically allow for a sample session with real feedback, because I want to see and measure your brainwaves before doing any actual training. I think most people can get a good sense of things anyway.

Whether you call it a brain spa, a brain massage, or just plain brain training, I think you’ll end up agreeing with me that it feels nice.