Neurofeedback Home Training

Neurofeedback training has been shown to be effective for helping people with conditions like ADHD, insomnia, anxiety, seizures, and brain injuries.  Clients usually visit a neurofeedback professional 1-3 times per week for a series of anywhere from 10-30 or even more sessions.

Some people have asked about devices that they can use themselves at home.  It is not something that I would decide on lightly.  Neurofeedback providers are cautioned to be careful when working with clients even if they are trained and experienced.  It would make sense that an untrained layperson should be even more careful when working on their own brain or the brain of a family member.  Not that they are invasively working on the brain as with surgery.  They are rather working on the brain through training changes in the electrical impulses that allow the neurons to communicate and make things happen in the brain.  This is very important stuff and you don’t want to make mistakes with it if you can avoid doing so.

Neurofeedback professionals study brain anatomy and function and many different subjects related to neurofeedback.  If they are BCIA certified they need to meet several requirements including completing a neurofeedback training course, running a minimum of 100 practice sessions, and being mentored for at least 25 hours to make sure they are doing things correctly.  It is not reasonable that a person who hasn’t done any of this would be able to simply purchase a device and start using it after reading a simple instruction manual.

Best practices in neurofeedback now include the client having a 19-channel EEG cap brain map done which includes protocol recommendations.  The protocol includes what part of the brain is to be trained (sensor or electrode site) what frequencies are to be trained to be increased or decreased (Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, etc.) at a minimum.  Other things like synchrony and coherence may also be included in the protocol.  Just buying a device and randomly deciding to place the sensor or being limited to one or two possible predetermined sites is not at all the same as deciding what to do by assessment.

If a client wants to do home training it is recommended that they see a professional for a brain map or at least an assessment of selected sites.  They should also do at least a few neurofeedback training sessions with the professional and then have the professional help them decide on home equipment that will enable them to continue the correct protocol at home.  They should continue to consult with the professional as they do the home training.  Most good home training equipment will allow for uploading or emailing of reports to the professional for review and additional guidance.  It is also possible to do virtual sessions so the professional can watch the session being done live.

The final thing I want to discuss briefly is the quality of the equipment.  Questions you should get answered include:

Does the equipment allow you to select the scalp training sites or are you limited to one site?

Can you or your professional neurofeedback consultant set and adjust the protocol or is it one size fits all?

Does the software show the raw EEG signal so that you can know if you have a quality, clean signal or one that is so noisy it is unreliable or even unusable?

Can you share data with a professional neurofeedback consultant for their input and feedback?

Does the equipment manufacturer or dealer offer technical support if you have problems or questions?

Can you clearly tell the difference between when you are meeting the training goals compared to when you are not?

This information will help you choose a device that will be more effective for you.  I hope this has been helpful.  Please contact me if you have any questions about this subject.

Harry L. Campbell

914-762-4646 – Harry@biofeedbackinternational.com

Author of What Stress Can Do, Available on Amazon.com

Biofeedback Resources International Corp.

Get More Info : Visit Here : neurofeedback training Florida 

The Stress of being black

People like to think they know what the stress of being black is like.

If you’re not, you don’t.

Think about the stress of having a final exam in high school or college coming up.

You worry about it for two weeks or so leading up to it and it is very hard and stressful.  You get to the time of actually taking the exam and it is very stressful.  Then, the exam is over.

Being black is not like that because it’s never over.  Every morning you wake up you have to deal with the stress associated with being black all over again.

I was talking to my 30-year-old son a couple of weeks ago about race problems in America and was saddened when I realized that our generation couldn’t do enough to hand over a society further along than what we have now.  The fact that a police offer could kneel on the neck of a black man for over 8 minutes with other officers standing by in front of a group of people urging him to stop until he was dead shows how much further we need to advance as a society.

What is even worse than the horrible act is the real concern that there is better than a small chance that real justice may not be served in this case because there have been so many other cases where that has happened.  As a black person I live every day knowing that black people all over this country are being mistreated in so many ways solely because of the color of their skin.  We are discriminated against in housing, banking, employment, education, law enforcement, civil and criminal courts, and in so many other ways that it becomes a clear disadvantage, a burden, and a constant source of stress that goes unseen and unappreciated by most other people.  Don’t get me wrong, I love being black and wouldn’t trade if just to make my life easier.  There are many, many things that I love about it that I will save for another time.

I have been blessed to learn about stress management and methods like biofeedback and neurofeedback as ways to help decrease the negative effects of stress.  I have also had the opportunity to work with many individuals over the last 30 years to teach them how to manage stress mostly using biofeedback and neurofeedback.  Some of the people I have worked with have been black.  Most of them have not been.  Most of the therapists who provide biofeedback and neurofeedback and stress management in general who I have met are not black.  Over the last year or so, without any specific effort on my part, I have been training more black therapists to provide biofeedback and neurofeedback.  I hope that they will be able to help more black people deal with the normal and added stress that we have to deal with every day.

I enjoy training and working with clients of all colors and backgrounds and I will continue to do that.

As a black man blessed with this knowledge, I believe that it is part of my job to be a leader in bringing stress management, biofeedback, and neurofeedback education to the black community specifically while continuing to bring it to the broader world in general.

Harry L. Campbell

914-762-4646 – Harry@biofeedbackinternational.com

Author of What Stress Can Do, Available on Amazon.com

Biofeedback Resources International Corp.

Get More Info : Visit Here : BCIA Certification Training