Has someone recommended neurofeedback to you?
If so, you may be wondering what neurofeedback is, and how it might help make your life easier at work and at home.
This article will help you understand how this type of therapy works, what types of problems it can help to resolve, and whether it might be a good fit for you.
What is neurofeedback therapy
Neurofeedback therapy is a type of biofeedback, or an exercise that gives your brain rewards when it is functioning well. It is sometimes called brain wave training, because it teaches your brain to use the right kind of waves to support healthier thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
Many people try neurofeedback to improve problems like:
- Insomnia
- Overwhelm at work
- Difficulty handling stressful situations
- Struggling to stay focused and productive
- Feeling like they’re not performing at their full potential
Neurofeedback is also commonly used to improve symptoms of:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- ADHD
- Autism
- Brain injury
- Trauma
For some people, neurofeedback can help improve these problems. It can be especially helpful if you are able to stick with it for a full course (about 20 sessions), if you participate in counselling, and if you make positive changes in your life to support the neurofeedback training.
How does neurofeedback work?
Neurofeedback changes your brain by giving it rewards to help it function more effectively.
Using neurofeedback, you can teach your brain to use healthier brain wave patterns that make your daily life easier. Your neurofeedback therapy program is customised for you based on your unique brain patterns and the areas of life you most want to improve.
Why not just get counselling?
Many people who turn to neurofeedback have already tried counselling but feel like it didn’t completely address the problem. This can be because their dysfunctional brain patterns were making it incredibly difficult to change the way they think and feel.
Many people find that adding neurofeedback to their therapy plan helps them learn and grow more easily from their counselling experience. It can also make it easier to learn new things at work and achieve personal and professional goals.
What does a neurofeedback program look like?
At Rocky Mountain Psychological Services, our neurofeedback program includes five elements:
- Neurofeedback Consultation – a 1-hour session with our clinic director to discuss your challenges and goals, review your existing supports, assess whether neurofeedback might be a good fit, and develop individualised recommendations for your overall therapeutic plan.
- Brain Map – a 1.5-hour session where we capture a QEEG or “Brain Map”, which records your brain activity and helps us spot which areas are dysregulated.
- Feedback Session – a 1-hour session where we share the results of the Brain Map with you (along with any other assessments we performed). We’ll explain what the map shows about your brain profile, what types of brain activity we’ll be training, and any other recommendations we have to help you get the most out of the program.
- Neurofeedback Training – a series of 1-hour sessions where you “exercise” your brain using videos and music tracks to train the type of brain waves that will improve your symptoms.
- Progress Reporting – during each training session, we will have you complete questionnaires about your behaviour and wellbeing at home. These will allow us to monitor together how well the neurofeedback program is meeting your goals and make adjustments as needed. After the 20th training session, we will discuss the progress made towards these goals and, if deemed necessary, prompt you to book a follow up Brain Map and another round of neurofeedback training sessions.
What is it like to do neurofeedback therapy?
Neurofeedback therapy has two parts:
- Brain Maps
- Training Sessions
1. Brain Maps
Brain maps use special equipment to create an image of your brain called a QEEG. This is the brain map, and it shows us where your brain is using healthy brain waves and where unusual waves might be causing you problems.
We do a baseline brain map before the therapy begins to understand what your brain’s natural activity patterns look like. This helps us choose what types of activities to focus on in your neurofeedback training.
How do brain maps work?
The brain map is made by taking a brain scan called a QEEG, which measures your brain wave activity and creates a report. The report shows where the waves are moving too fast or too slow, if any areas are being used too much or too little, and if there is good communication between brain areas or not.
What is it like to get a brain map?
During your brain mapping session, you’ll wear a cap that looks like a swim cap with lots of sensors and cables coming out of it. The sensors sit on your head in specific areas to measure your brain waves, and the cables transmit that information to the computer, which analyses your profile and creates the brain map.
Does the brain map hurt?
The sensors don’t hurt at all. Some people worry that they might feel zaps, but the sensors are not putting out energy. It’s just like using a thermometer – you’re not sending energy into your body, just reading the activity inside.
One thing that feels funny for some people is the sensor gel. The technician will put a clear gel on the sensors to help them read your brain. It feels a little bit cold, and it will get into your hair. You can wash it off after the session.
We will put little clips on your earlobes, which help the cap to read signals all over the brain. You should not be wearing earrings for these sessions.
The brain map session takes about 45 minutes. You will need to sit very still, and there will be one part where you close your eyes and relax, and another part where you keep your eyes open and focus on a still object in front of you.
Once the brain map is done, you can take off the cap and clean up your hair.
The rest of the 1.5-hour session will include completing any other assessments that need to be done, and/or the technician reviewing and writing up your assessments results.
In the feedback session, we will share the report with you and explain what the brain map shows about your unique brain activity patterns. Based on the problems that are most important to you, we will explain which brain patterns we will focus on for your neurofeedback training.
2. Neurofeedback Training
Neurofeedback training is the exercise part of the therapy. Based on the symptoms you want to treat, we will set up the neurofeedback system to work on the types of brain wave patterns that are known to help.
How does neurofeedback training work?
Neurofeedback training changes the way a person’s brain works by rewarding it whenever it naturally produces the type of brain waves we’re targeting.
The technician sets the neurofeedback system to monitor the specific type of activity that was chosen for your training plan.
While you’re watching the video or listening to music, your brain receives feedback in the form of subtle changes in the video or sound. When your brain is making the desired type of brain waves, you might hear beeps or see the video become more clear and focused.
When your brain is not making the targeted pattern of brainwaves, the audio and visual feedback fade. Our brains love clear sensory input, so those subtle changes in the video and sound are quite rewarding.
Just like learning to ride a bike, your brain will figure out what it needs to do to get the rewarding feedback (i.e., hearing the audio, seeing the video clearly).
Neurofeedback FAQs
What if I fail at the training task?
You don’t have to worry about failing, because the training is set for success. The technician will set a threshold so that your brain is rewarded when it does something even closely resembling what it is being asked to do.
If you’ve ever played the game “hotter” and “colder” with one person closing their eyes and the other person telling them whether they are getting closer (hotter) or farther away (colder), neurofeedback is set up the same way.
When your brain is getting “closer” to what it is being asked to do, it is rewarded with audio and/or visual feedback. The more the brain practises working in this way, the easier it gets, and the brain learns to operate in this healthier way more often.
How long does it take to notice improvements from neurofeedback?
Most experts say that you can expect to start seeing changes in roughly 5-10 sessions. If we’re seeing you twice a week, that would mean roughly 2.5 to 5 weeks.
A full course of neurofeedback is usually around 20 sessions, but depending on the complexity of the issues, it can take longer.
If we aren’t seeing significant improvement after your 5th session, we will discuss with you whether neurofeedback is a good fit for your treatment plan.
How will I know if it’s working?
At our clinic, we check progress every week by having you fill out a questionnaire about what you’re noticing at home. This helps us keep track of whether we’re making progress towards the goals and any other benefits you’re noticing.
It’s important to us to monitor your progress so we can quickly identify if there is anything we need to change in your program. We don’t want to waste precious time on an approach that isn’t working.
Can a person with autism, intense anxiety, or trauma participate in neurofeedback?
Our team has worked with many children and adults with autism, anxiety, and trauma.
One of the great things about neurofeedback is that it doesn’t rely heavily on verbal communication. We watch you carefully for any reactions and can communicate with you nonverbally as needed. We also get input from you about the type of sensations you like and don’t like so we can make the session more comfortable for you.
Are there any people who should not try neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is generally considered safe, but there are a couple of situations where you should have caution:
- If you have had a head injury or a history of seizures or stroke, it’s important to consult with your neurologist and make sure they approve of you trying neurofeedback.
- There are certain medications that can inhibit the brain’s ability to learn from neurofeedback training. Talk to your psychologist/neurofeedback technician about any medications you are taking.
Does neurofeedback have any side effects?
For most people, the side effects of neurofeedback are generally mild and look like signs that your brain has been working very hard. This can include things like:
- Headache
- Feeling very tired or a bit wired
- Feeling cranky or extra emotional
It can be a good idea to plan a calm, easy evening after each neurofeedback session.
These sensations usually pass within a few hours, or rarely may last a day or two. It’s important to let us know what you notice after sessions so we can recognize whether we should continue with the same program or alter it a bit next time.
Does it matter if neurofeedback is done in a Psychology clinic?
Although neurofeedback equipment is available to anyone, there are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to get neurotherapy from a qualified mental health professional:
- Registered mental health professionals are held to high ethical standards by our professional associations. We are required to give you accurate, trustworthy information so you can make informed decisions about your care.
This means we need to explain our treatment plans, tell you about any risks they may have, and be realistic about the potential benefits.
- Experienced mental health professionals are also skilled at noticing when a client is having a psychological reaction during a session (e.g., trauma response).
Sometimes neurofeedback can trigger traumatic memories. Our team is comprised of a Registered Psychologist, Registered Provisional Psychologists and Psychological Assistants who have training and protocols in place to support you, and help you cope with any intense emotions and feel safe again.
- At Rocky Mountain Psychological Services, one of the things that makes us special is that we don’t take it for granted that your treatment plan is working.
We regularly check in with you about the goals that are most important to you, capture your progress in training sessions and questionnaires, and share the results with you so we can evaluate the program together.
This high level of accountability sets us apart from many other neurofeedback providers.
Is Neurofeedback Right for You?
Now that you’ve learned what neurofeedback is, how brain maps and training sessions work, and what the experience would be like, you probably have a sense about whether you’d like to explore it further.
Neurofeedback can be a very helpful tool to add to your toolbox for issues like ADHD, autism, brain injury, anxiety, and depression.
If you’d like to set up neurofeedback services, please reach out!
We would love to talk with you and answer your questions about your unique needs, your goals, and how we can help design a program to make your life easier.
Rocky Mountain Psychological Services
rmpsychservices.com