By Clare Albright

You may have heard of biofeedback for the brain, or neurofeedback, which has recently been featured on many television news programs and in popular magazines. All of this attention is for a very good reason. Research has found that neurofeedback therapy can actually change the way the human brain functions, and many case studies have shown that it can ease or sometimes eliminate problems like chronic pain and attention deficit disorder.

Neurofeedback works on the principle that people like to be rewarded. If you'’re a parent, you know pretty well how this works. Rewarding your children when they do things right is usually more effective than punishing them when they do wrong. The more often you praise and reward your child for doing what you want, the more likely he or she will continue to do so.

What neurofeedback does is give your brain good feedback and positive encouragement when it falls into certain desirable patterns. This works using an EEG machine that translates your brain activity to a computer screen. Your therapist will attach thin leads to your scalp - you may have seen this done on television shows - and these leads will transmit the signals that come from your brain.

Using these signals, or brainwaves, you will learn to control a visual display on the screen. For instance, there might be a game that looks like ‘’Pac-man'’ or a space shuttle game. Your goal is to get through the maze or make the shuttle fly, and you do this by getting your brain to use certain wavelengths. Because your brain experiences this activity as positive feedback, it may continue to use those same desirable patterns.

The patterns that your brain uses to play these games are the same ones it will need to use on a regular basis to try to break free from any disorder related to brain function. Initially, the patterns will only occur during your actual therapy sessions, but later on, you'’ll notice that they may start to happen outside of therapy. Sometimes people notice a noticable difference after just ten sessions.

As with anything else, practice makes perfect, and the more your brain pushes itself into positive patterns, the more they will become habitual. Most conditions will require at least fifteen or twenty neurofeedback sessions to get your brain on the right track for the long haul, but some disorders, such as epilepsy, for example, may take eighty or more sessions. Neurofeedback sessions are not painful or nerve-wracking, and they can actually be quite calming and enjoyable.

Once these new patterns become more of a part of how your brain works, you will no longer need therapy unless your symptoms become worse again. However, some people who undergo neurofeedback therapy experience long lasting relief from their symptoms because neurofeedback actually addresses the underlying cause of the symptoms where they actually originate - in the brain.

About The Author

For more information about Neurofeedback, go to http://www.NeurofeedbackBook.com Dr. Clare Albright is a psychologist (CA License PSY11660) and a Neurofeedback practitioner and can be reached at (949)454-0996

By Clare Albright

If you'’ve been considering neurofeedback therapy, also known as ‘’biofeedback for the brain'’, as a therapy for an addiction, ADHD, chronic pain, or other disorder associated with brain function, you may have some concerns about what a neurofeedback session will be like. Perhaps you'’re wondering if neurofeedback hurts or feels weird, or maybe you just want to know how long the whole thing will take. Well, you'’ve come to the right place for answers.

First, you should know that neurofeedback sessions are not at all painful. In fact, many patients describe the sessions as being quite comfortable, and even enjoyable. Neurofeedback relies mainly on the electrical signals that your brain naturally sends as you think, or as it performs unconscious actions like regulating your hormone levels. Since your brain transmits these signals twenty-four hours a day, the sessions will not usually involve doing anything new or different.

When you go your therapist for a neurofeedback session, she or he will attach little sensors to your scalp. These leads will be comfortably positioned with a gel that holds them in place.

During a neurofeedback session, you will probably be seated near a television screen, a computer monitor, or a speaker. Typically, your brain operates within certain patterns or wavelengths. When these patterns change, this will be picked up by the computer. Your therapist may have you play a sort of brain game in which you get your brain to send the signals that will make something happen on the screen or with the speakers. You might, for example, make a spaceship fly on the screen, or make a sound become louder or softer.

You may find it quite amazing that you can do all of this without moving a muscle, using only your brain activity. But how does it actually help you to overcome the particular disorder or condition that you'’re seeking help with? Well, the signals that make the desired action happen are the patterns that your brain needs to fall into in order to overcome whatever disorder you are struggling with.

After a few neurofeedback sessions, these patterns may begin to become habitual, and eventually long lasting. Once they are more ingrained into the way that your brain works, you may have decreased your ADHD, eating disorder, migraine headaches, or whatever condition the therapist is treating you for. The number of sessions required to achieve long lasting change varies greatly with different disorders, but most patients will find long lasting relief from their condition within twenty to forty sessions.

Even if you'’re still a bit nervous for your first couple of neurofeedback therapy sessions, your uneasiness should disappear once you'’ve experienced a couple of sessions - you will probably even begin to enjoy them. And you will definitely enjoy any changes that you see in your life.

About The Author

For more information about Neurofeedback, go to http://www.NeurofeedbackBook.com Dr. Clare Albright is a psychologist (CA License PSY11660) and a Neurofeedback practitioner and can be reached at (949)454-0996