Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback is a well-studied, state-of-the-art, noninvasive treatment that retrains the brain to function in a healthier and more balanced way.

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What is Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback, also known as EEG biofeedback, is a fun, interactive, noninvasive, and medication-free treatment that helps you increase self-control over certain aspects of your brain function. Because of neuroplasticity—your brain’s ability to change—neurofeedback therapy can help you retrain your brain to reduce mental health symptoms, improve performance, and achieve a more balanced brain.

Why Choose Amen Clinics For Neurofeedback?

Amen Clinics has extensive experience with neurofeedback. In 1987, Amen Clinics founder, Daniel G. Amen, MD, trained in neurofeedback and began using this therapy with the soldiers he treated at Fort Irwin where he was the Chief Psychiatrist. He witnessed how much it helped them reduce their impulsivity, distractibility, and mood and anxiety symptoms, and enhance their ability to pay attention and learn. Now, more than 30 years later, neurofeedback therapy is still appropriately recommended for patients struggling with a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, mental health conditions, cognitive function difficulties, memory problems, and traumatic brain injury, as well as for people interested in peak performance and brain optimization. Our highly trained neurofeedback clinicians guide you through the process to ensure you get the most out of your sessions

What Are The Benefits of Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback is painless and safe for people of all ages and provides numerous benefits for a variety of brain health and mental health concerns. For example, because of its capacity to help people retrain their brain, individuals who have behavioral issues can experience self-control over problematic symptoms, increase their confidence, and learn to understand they can adopt healthier patterns of behaving. For those who struggle with emotional stress and anxiety, neurofeedback can help them self-regulate more effectively and respond more positively to situations that produce distressing emotions. Furthermore, it can help high achievers reach peak performance by optimizing their brain function.

In addition to these applications, there are many other conditions that can be helped by undergoing neurofeedback therapy in a professional setting. As a result, patients have reported better memory, focus, and impulse control, lower anxiety, greater mental clarity, more restful sleep, improved mood, and a host of other benefits after using neurofeedback.

Who Can Benefit FROM Neurofeedback

Children, teens, and adults of all ages may find neurofeedback beneficial. This type of therapy helps you gain control of your brain waves through self-regulation, so you can achieve the desired brain state. This ability to achieve and maintain certain states is key to improving behavior and emotional health as well as having a more balanced brain. Neurofeedback is also used to enhance athletic or musical performance and to help with greater workplace achievement.

Neurofeedback has been used successfully to improve symptoms in many conditions including, but not limited to:

ADD/ADHD
Addictions
Anxiety
Autism spectrum disorder
Behavioral disorders
Bipolar disorder
Chronic pain
Depression
Headaches

Memory problems
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Pain management
PMS
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Schizophrenia
Sleep problems
Traumatic brain injury/concussions

HOW DOES Neurofeedback WORK

In neurofeedback therapy, you become an active participant in retraining and optimizing your own brain—and it’s fun! Here’s how it works: First, a cap with sensors is placed on your head to measure the electrical activity in your brain. This will generate a report that shows which brain waves are in the healthy range and which ones are not. The neurofeedback therapy will address the latter ones. Depending on which Amen Clinics location you are visiting, you will retrain brain wave imbalances while watching a movie or television program or playing a video game. For example, if you struggle with anxiety, it will be helpful for you to generate more calming alpha waves. Each time you do, your brain will get a little reward on the screen, and when you shift back into a more anxious state, the feedback monitor and screen will let you know so you can make the mental adjustment to increase your alpha wave activity. With repetition, this process retrains you and your brain to manage your level of anxiety.

Although this brief description might sound complicated, the process is pretty simple and very engaging. Plus, your neurofeedback clinician will teach you how to interpret the real-time displays so that you can learn how to regulate your brain function. With practice, you will be able to replicate the patterns that are most helpful for your brain health.

The benefits of neurofeedback can be long-lasting. Because the brain has actually learned (or relearned) a more efficient way of functioning, with ongoing practice during and outside of the sessions it will continue to reinforce the new pathways even after neurofeedback therapy has ended.

What The Research Says About Neurofeedback

Research confirms the effectiveness of neurofeedback as a therapy for many conditions. Here are some highlights from the wealth of science supporting it.

ADD/ADHD: A 2021 review published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found neurofeedback therapy helped improve impulse control, behavior, and focus in kids with ADHD.
Addictions: A study by scientists at UCLA found that neurofeedback improved abstinence rates in people with addictions.
Anxiety: The results of a 2021 study on people with generalized anxiety disorder revealed that neurofeedback helped them improve their emotional regulation and significantly lowered anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Depression: Recent research published in Psychological Medicine concluded from the self-reports of participants that neurofeedback, as an adjunctive therapy, was effective in lowering depressive symptoms.
Memory Issues: A 2021 study that assessed the efficacy of neurofeedback for memory loss associated with mild cognitive impairment saw significant improvements in memory that were sustained for at least one month after treatment.
PTSD: According to the results of a research study published in NeuroImage: Clinical, participants who had PTSD underwent 15-20 weeks of neurofeedback, and at the conclusion of treatment, 61% no longer met criteria for the disorder.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI): A published overview of the use of neurofeedback for people who have suffered a TBI suggests that it may help reduce symptoms related to attention, mood, and mindfulness while improving motivation for treatment.

More On Neurofeedback for ADD/ADHD

Over the past 30 years, many clinicians have reported on the efficacy of this safe and natural process for treating ADD/ADHD. And, for parents who are wary about using a single approach, such as medication alone to treat their child’s ADD/ADHD, neurofeedback is a welcome alternative.

In our experience, ADD/ADHD patients who have undergone neurofeedback therapy were able to:

Improve their reading skills
Reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior

Decrease their need for medication
Have better quality of sleep