When neurofeedback first emerged from a neuroscience laboratory at UCLA in the 1970s, it was to a psychotherapy office in Beverly Hills. The clinical psychologist there offered neurofeedback the same way one typically does psychotherapy—once weekly. Since then, however, various practitioners with various philosophies have developed their own approaches to how much and how often to train.

You will find that psychotherapists who have discovered the power of neurofeedback and want to integrate it into their mental health care offerings still tend to provide brain training during their psychotherapy sessions, one-to-four times a month, with the actual brain-training portion of the session lasting perhaps 20 minutes.

Then, there are practitioners of neurofeedback spin-off modalities such as pIR HEG (passive infra-red hemoencephalography) who also offer sessions once weekly, but for 30 minutes. They have found that doing more than 30 minutes of training in any given session can lead to over-training and rebound effects, meaning that whatever you’re training to reduce bounces back even more strongly not too long after finishing that day’s training. Even when twice weekly pIR HEG sessions happen, they seem not to get a person to the finish line any faster. This is once instance in which I agree with the once-weekly approach.

However, with standard EEG neurofeedback, we have progressed in our thinking and have found that multiple and longer sessions each week bring fast and lasting results.  In fact, some practitioners until recently offered five-day intensives in which trainees engaged in neurofeedback training for many hours each day. This method benefited individuals who either didn’t have a practitioner near their home or who wanted to hurry up and be done with sessions (often, busy executives who traveled intensively).

Many of my colleagues, however, are at neither the extreme of stringing out sessions to once or twice a month nor of training for many hours each day. This is because we have found that once-weekly sessions still require the same number of sessions to make results “stick” without requiring a series of follow-on tune-ups that some recommend.

We have stepped away from being caught in the psychotherapy model and instead operate on what we believe is a better practice for most types of neurofeedback—a once and done model of training at least twice weekly, and finishing up altogether in only five-to-six months. If you come to my office, then, you can plan on two one-hour sessions each week, with about 40 minutes of actual brain training per session. The reasoning behind this approach is that, in the beginning, any results from neurofeedback last only 12-24 hours, depending upon the person. If one trains twice weekly, that provides more productive and relaxed time after sessions each week. As sessions progress over time, the results spread out to last days at a time, and then to last, period.

Some people do prefer to train even more intensely. Typically, a more intensive schedule would start out with sessions initially every three or four days, then taper down to twice a week as the results build. It is also fairly common to have individuals who are on super-tight schedules who wish to train still more frequently, with daily or even multiple times daily sessions. This is common among college students home for break or younger students with busy summer camp and travel schedules.

The twice-weekly framework becomes even more beneficial when one is sick or traveling. If one falls ill and misses a once-weekly session, that means no training occurs for two solid weeks (yes, they can reschedule, but life in Northern Virginia often means the calendar fills in around regularly scheduled appointments). If a trainee misses a twice-weekly session, that second session in the week is already built in to daily life, so there is a reduced chance for backsliding.

This whole topic of how much and how often to train can end up being confusing to a person who wants to pursue brain training but isn’t sure what the best approach for them or their child may be. My bottom line is that I want my trainees to come for sessions as often as they can without it being a burden so that they can finish up as quickly as they can, and hopefully never needing to return for “tune-ups.” For the average person, this means around 40 sessions, with my normal range going from 25 to 50 sessions. I have found that those who stop after only 20 sessions have their results fade over time, and returning for another 10-20 sessions seems like a waste. I won’t do that.

If you are considering neurofeedback and aren’t certain about how training could fit into your calendar, call or email. If it doesn’t sound like a good time to be doing training, I will tell you that.