There’s a gaping hole in the world of neurofeedback.

Over the past year, several people have come to me to ask if I could help a friend or relative who lived somewhere in which there were either no professional neurofeedback practitioners or the choice of available practitioners was substandard. I would look at their choices and reluctantly agree.

Despite exponential growth in the world of neurofeedback just over the past five years, the gaps in what’s available to the general public in some places are so bad that earlier this year, I found myself supporting a practitioner in Australia who was helping a family in a major US city who were unhappy with the local options. Australia.

It’s time to do better.

I did my part up until the pandemic. I taught neurofeedback in my office. Families came from around the US to learn to do brain training at home for their loved ones. All that travel was a cumbersome way to do things, but it got the job done. That ended with the pandemic, and I phased out my rental systems around that time, too.

Now, though, I am revisiting the option of distance neurofeedback. I’m excited that I will no longer have to tell people outside the Northern Virginia area that I cannot be of help. Even better, people will not have to travel to my office for lessons.

Beginning in mid-January, I will be renting equipment and teaching people throughout the US and Canada how to do brain training at home. My new gear is even better than before, and instructions on how to use it are simpler and more streamlined. As a result, most people who want to have the option of neurofeedback for themselves or a loved one will have the option of providing it in the comfort of their own environment.

Who is Right for Distance Neurofeedback Training?        

Home training neurofeedback might be a great option for you if:

• You cannot find a trusted practitioner near you. Even now, so many places in the United States are too far away from anyone they would want to trust with brain training. Distance neurofeedback overcomes that hurdle—you can be practically anywhere as long as you have internet access.
• You or your family need more than a typical number of sessions. Sometimes, especially if a person is neurodivergent, a large number of sessions is appropriate, with even years of training making sense in some cases. What does not make sense is that so many extra sessions can get prohibitively expensive. Home training solves that problem.
• You have multiple family members who need training at the same time. If you’re up for the challenge of learning to do home training, distance neurofeedback is an excellent way to save money. Instead of paying the full professional rate for two people, your only extra cost for extra trainees beyond the normal rental and support fees will be the cost of an additional brain map/custom training plan.
• Your schedule is erratic. Coming to an office twice a week is often not an option for people who travel on business regularly or have other distracting obligations. Doing neurofeedback from home means that you can fit brain training sessions into your life at times that work for you, even if those times are outside regular business hours.
• You just want to. Sometimes, people just prefer doing things from the comfort of their own home or office, without having to deal with traffic and weather hassles.

What You’ll Receive with Home Training

The most important thing you’ll receive if you decide to do remote neurofeedback with me is personal support. Each home trainer will receive extensive online training on how to use the equipment (or, you may have in-person training if you’re local to my office and prefer that), plus ongoing support through online Office Hours. Office Hours is a feature in which we meet online, perhaps alone or perhaps with other practitioners, and you can both receive answers to your questions and learn from anyone else who also wishes to participate in Office Hours that day.

Each person who does neurofeedback at a distance will receive a personalized training plan based on what is actually happening with their electrical brainwave activity. The brain map that determines where on the brain to train and how to train is extensive–measuring 20 spots on the scalp–so training at home gets at the whole brain without shortcuts or superficial exercises.

The physical gear you’ll receive as a renter includes a full kit: EEG amplifier, saline-based cap and electrodes, headphones, software, and e-manual. The only thing you need to provide on your own is a windows-based computer (no Apple) and secondary monitor.

Who Can do This?

Learning to do neurofeedback at home is easier than ever. If you’re committed to doing the work and know how to use a laptop, you can make this happen.

My one caveat is that people with serious mental illness are not good candidates for neurofeedback and definitely should not be doing this at home (I’m talking things like a history of psychotic breaks, schizophrenia, etc.).

Want to Know More or Want to Reserve a Rental Kit?

If this is something you’re interested in for yourself or someone you know, reach out to me via email at Tamera at BrainShapeVA.com.  We can talk more about whether doing distance neurofeedback makes sense for your specific situation. If we agree that home training is a good fit, you may have a spot in the queue and a guarantee that rental equipment will be available for you to get started as soon as the virtual doors open in the new year.