How has this helped others?
How many sessions of neurofeedback will I need?
Every brain is different. Most of my clients have sensed noticeable positive life changes in five sessions or less. I strongly recommend a commitment of 10 sessions to begin with, then see how you feel about continuing. Your course is your choice – stop whenever you feel ready and if you want to return for booster sessions to tune up and strengthen what your brain has already learned after you have stopped your normal sessions, that’s fine.
How often should I train?
Training benefits will accumulate whether you come twice a week or twice a month. Your results will begin showing more quickly the more often you train. I prefer clients to come in at least once a week.
If I stop coming, will my symptoms return?
Most likely not. When you have adequately trained your brain to function optimally, it wants to stay that way. Sometimes life may throw you a curveball in the form of a concussion or many high-stress events happening to you at once (moving, death in the family, divorce, etc.) or you may have to go under general anesthesia. These life events can shake up the brain a little but a “tune-up” session or two should have you on the right track again.
Is this safe?
The process of neurofeedback merely allows the brain to gather information from itself and then use that information to facilitate positive changes. There is no electricity going into your brain. The popularity of neurofeedback training is rapidly increasing because it is such a safe alternative to pharmaceutical interventions with remarkable results and very few, if any side effects.
What are potential side effects?
NeurOptimal® is the safest neurofeedback system out there. It doesn’t push your brain to go into parameters set by a third party. it will adjusts itself automatically in response to your brain’s activity and caters the training microsecond by microsecond to the function of your own brain, so side effects are minimal if they’re experienced at all. The few side effects I’ve had reported by my clients are feeling tired or a little “out of it” after training or a little headache. In the latter case, it was a noise-sensitive person whose session had been run a little too loudly. When we established that music needed to be played at a very low volume for this client, there were no more headaches.
Most people report feeling calm and relaxed or focused and invigorated after sessions.
I came to quit smoking but I wound up being more relaxed and clearer headed – what gives?
The central nervous system rights itself on its own schedule. Positive transformations will definitely occur, but perhaps not in the order you were hoping to have them happen. If you have a single issue you’re addressing, it’s beneficial to think more broadly about what kinds of changes you want to see in your life. Smoking is sometimes a response to a stressful trigger. In brain training quite often the first change people notice is feeling less stress in stressful situations. So maybe they’ll still smoke, but they’re smoking less because the stress that normally moves them to smoke isn’t felt so deeply. Keep training. Symptoms drop the longer you’re in training and the brain makes it easier and easier to do things that are healthy for your brain and less attractive to do things that harm brain function and your health in general.
I’ve heard it’s expensive.
You’ve heard correctly. Brain training is a commitment to optimize your brain’s function forever. Just as orthodontic braces pull teeth together for a healthier bite pattern, brain training guides your brain to optimal performance for a healthier life. If you think of brain training as braces for your brain, it’s easier to appreciate the cost of optimization.
Is it covered by insurance?
Most likely not. Brain training is not a medical intervention, though relief from many different medical conditions is often achieved as the central nervous system corrects itself.
There are some really good medical insurances that cover gym memberships and nontraditional treatments but unfortunately at this time, most insurances will not cover neurofeedback training.
Having said this, I will always provide you with a receipt for any training you schedule so you may work directly with your insurance company to see if they can reimburse a portion of your training expense.