Neurofeedback is an advanced form of biofeedback that works by providing feedback to the brain so it can promote improvements in mood, anxiety, focus, and impulse control through neuroplasticity and symptom relief.
It uses real-time EEG data to teach self-regulation by retraining your brain to perform at its most optimal state. Those responses are then reinforced over time or “trained”, with various visual, auditory, and tactile feedback, so that these changes are generalized to the patient’s outside environment.
For example, at our office, our version of neurofeedback uses fun, interactive computer games to elicit certain brain wave activity. Once that level of functioning is identified through the real time EEG monitoring, the patient is rewarded in the game, thereby reinforcing and training that new response. We also offer a program that plays DVD’s allowing the training to occur during a favorite movie or TV show in our office.
Research has shown that neurofeedback is found to be helpful with the following diagnoses.
1. ADHD
2. Anxiety
3. Autism
4. Depression
5. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
6. Addiction
Neurofeedback can be useful for those who have an intolerance or lack of response to traditional psychiatric medications.
Neurofeedback is shown to work similarly to many medications, with less of a side effect profile. Neurofeedback can be an alternative to those who have had a lack of response to traditional psychotherapy or psychiatry treatments. It can also be used in conjunction with medications or therapy. What sets our practice apart is our interdisciplinary approach to treatment. Your neurofeedback clinician will communicate with our staff psychiatrist/nurse practitioner/therapist to create the right balance for you. Neurofeedback can also help patients lower their medication doses or in some cases, discontinue certain medications all together.
Neurofeedback costs $160 per session. Neurofeedback is provided by a licensed mental health clinician at our office. Typically sessions last from 45 minutes to 1 hour and can include certain components of psychotherapy that help promote goal setting, discussion of progress, and adjunctive behavior modification tools that may enhance results.
Some people feel the effects of neurofeedback almost immediately, however it is shown that typically around session 8, patients begin to notice results. A full course of neurofeedback is typically around 40 sessions, however every patient responds differently with the potential for fewer or more sessions.
