Getting Started with EEG Bio/Neuro Feedback?

This page is designed to help new professionals and consumers getting started with neurofeedback to get off to more educated, knowledgable running start.

Consumers

If you are considering buying your own equipment for personal use, we advise you to start off with at least one session with someone certified in Neurofeedback, or with equivalent training and experience (there are plenty of qualified people who have not   gone through the hoops of getting certified, but who are quite expert. If uncertified, but competent, they should be happy to share their background with you.) This initial  session will help you develop a better understanding and a plan that is customized for your interests and needs.

An additional  way to get off to a good start is to listen to lectures from leaders in the field. These can help you understand how it works and the different applications.

Professionals:

1) Start with the Neurofeedback Foundations course so you get exposure to a wide range of perspectives on the basics of EEG biofeedback.  Make sure you bring to this endeavor adequate background knowledge and expeience.

2) Choose a training program and go there to take a course in the basics.

3) Go to an experienced EEG biofeedback provider's facility and observe the full range of activities there.

4) Get hooked up yourself and go through your own personal neurofeedback training.

5) Develop an ongoing supervision relationship with a competent, certified or certification equivalent professional.

6) Purchase a system through Futurehealth. We know we offer a valuable service with this website and our activities. By giving us your business, you help support us and allow us to continue the non-profit side of our work. We are not just another dealer.

7) Attend an annual meeting in Neurofeedback--

The Annual Winter Conference On Brain Function, Modification and Training is the largest in the field, with more speakers and workshops.

SSNR comes second, with a high emphasis on QEEG,

then AAPB third, with the largest overall meeting attendance, most of whom are interested primarily in peripheral biofeedback, like EMG, thermal, respiration, etc.

Here are some tape suggestions for improving  your learning curve:

Start with our best-selling Neurofeedback Foundations Course

and

Exhibit Hall Video a tape demoing five different EEG biofeedback systems

Getting-Started tape suggestions for different areas of neurofeedback

Workshops: Video: 2 hr $49, 4 hr $89 Audio: 2 hr $37, 4 hr  $74 (last number of Workshop denotes two or four hour WS.)

Plenary Session Lectures $12.50/audio tapes (begin PS)

• Starting or Adding ADD/ADHD neurofeedback to your Professional Practice:
• Adding EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback to the school setting
• Optimal Functioning and Peak Performance, Personal Growth, Consciousness Exploration, Mind Expansion

• Models from EEG Biofeedback/ Neurofeedback Masters and Pioneers

Neurofeedback Foundations Course this basic course is the ideal first step if you are considering doing anything with neurofeedback, whether it is adding it to your professional practice or exploring EEG brain training for personal growth and exploration.  

Learn the basic concepts of neurofeedback  from the master trainers in the field. This is a recording of the foundations course offered at the    Annual Winter Conference on Brain Function, Modification & Training/ Advanced Neurofeedback Meeting, designed to prepare attendees for advanced lectures which follow.   

If you are considering entering the field of neurofeedback, this is the best bargain available. Listen to it before taking your first workshop or training, so you'll get a clearer idea of different perspectives of the basics. Create a basic knowledge base, so when you attend your first workshop you process the information at a higher level of understanding.

If you've already taken your first workshop, listen to this set to hear the different perspectives each of these leading trainers bring to EEG biofeedback. Neurofeedback Foundations Course extra info and pricing

Starting or Adding ADD/ADHD neurofeedback to your   Practice:

A8B4: Judith Lubar Patterns of EEG Changes In Patients With ADD/HD and Co-Morbidities Including Anxiety, Depression, Passive Aggressive Behavior, Chemical Dependency, and Learning Disabilities..

The workshop demonstrates how to recognize, based upon EEG criteria, when the patient needs psychotherapeutic intervention or intervention for learning disabilities in addition to neurofeedback training in order for the entire treatment program to be successful. Case histories and concomitant EEG feedback changes in reactivity in individuals who were depressed,anxious,passive aggressive and/or experiencing addictions illuminate the description of the appropriate EEG therapeutic changes which make the treatment outcome successful. EEG based termination criteria will also be described.

A8S4 Joel F. Lubar  Choosing the Optimal EEG Patterns for the Enhancement of Attention & Peak Academic Performance: Assessment, Treatment Protocols, & Demonstrations.

During the past twenty years we have developed protocols for the treatment of attention deficit\Hyperactivity disorder. These protocols involved basically increasing beta activity and decreasing theta activity over central cerebral cortex for the inattentive component of ADD\HD. In individuals that have the hyperactive form of attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder the SMR protocol is used initially. This involves training patients first to increase SMR (12 to 15 Hz over sensorimotor cortex) and then the using the beta paradigm to increase cognitive processing. In this workshop I will demonstrate specifically how an assessment is made in order to determine whether an individual has an EEG pattern consistent with the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and also whether to train referentially or bipolar and and which frequencies to reward and which frequencies to inhibit.

We have published research that showing that it is possible to enhance attentive processes in non-ADD/HD individuals. This often involves working with other portions of the beta band and inhibiting portions of the theta-alpha(thalpha) region. I will demonstrate how to assess where to set the parameters for training in order to enhance reading and listening performance for specific locations associated with Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Next I will demonstrate how this methodology can lead to procedures for enhancing other types of activities often designated as "peak performance" including certain types of athletic activities where visualization is important before a specific movement is performed. These more complex protocols involve being able to identify rather specific EEG patterns and reinforcing these patterns. The way in which this is done will be demonstrated specifically using EEG BF instrumentation.

WA8PP2 Mike Linden The Complete ADD Testing & Treatment Workshop

This workshop reviews the symptoms and etiology of ADD. I will discuss in detail using testing (behavior rating scales, CPT tests & Q-EEG evaluations) to accurately diagnose ADD & develop individualized treatment plans. Selection of ADD candidates for NF training and monitoring the NF process to ensure the most success will be presented.

A8U4 Lynda & Michael Thompson Effective Interventions For ADD

Description: In the past we used short term interventions including medications and behaviour modification to help both our child and adult clients with ADD. Today we are able to offer more lasting solutions. The ADD Centre program has as its foundation, neurofeedback. But neurofeedback training, though necessary for a lasting change, is not necessarily sufficient to effect maximum improvement. In addition the ADD Centre program offers a balanced diet of metacog- nitive strategies for learning, biofeedback to decrease tension and increase alertness, advice on a healthy diet and supplements and a potpourri of simple to use techniques to help families with organization, communication, and a positive approach to each others idiosyn- crasies (behaviour problems). Occasionally there is certainly a role for the short term use of medication. This multimodal approach forms the basis for a new public- ation, The ADD Book, New Understandings, New Approaches from Little Brown, N.Y. by Dr. William Sears and Dr. Lynda Thompson.

In this workshop we will describe these interventions and how they are combined for different presentations of ADD. This workshop will outline: (1) a feedback program using EEG, EDR and peripheral temperature for ADD clients; (2) teach learning strategies to improve reading, listening, organizing and remembering and, (3) show how neurofeed- back and metacognitive strategies are combined in the ADD Centres program, (4) provide an opportunity for discussing strategies for helping parents reorganize household time and job management in a manner that models both an efficient and a positive approach to accomplishing tasks, (5) discuss strategies for increasing the ADD childs self esteem through study-time techniques which reinforce the strategies being taught with neurofeedback in the centre.

More detailed workshop description

 

Metacognition Combined with Neurofeedback: an Effective Educational Approach to ADD

1. For Child Clients

2. For Adult Clients

Target Audience:

Participants may be at any stage of experience: however, the objectives are worded to apply to participants who have had some experience with the use of neurofeed- back with children and / or adults who have ADD or ADHD.

Terminal Objective: To enable the participants to be able to apply the combined approach of Metacognitive strategies and NF to ameliorate the symptoms (short attention span, distractibility, impulsive approach to work) of ADD and the associated academic difficulties, including under- acheivement due to a disorganized approach to work.

Enabling Objectives:

Neurofeedback:

At the completion of the seminar the participants should be able:

1. to distinguish sub-groups of ADD children and apply the correct use of SMR vs beta training to each group.

· impulsive (may be either under or over aroused)

· non-impulsive

2. to select appropriate electrode placement which may vary with arousal, impulsivity and presence or absence of language difficulties.

· to recognize and distinguish two groups of children with ADD according to their level of alertness and apply the appropriate EDR feedback to each group.

· under-aroused

· over-aroused

3. To recognize three groups of ADD Adults and apply appropriate training strategies for each group.

Metacognitive Strategies:

At the completion of the seminar the participants should be able:

1. to define metacognition

2. to apply a 4 step metacognitive strategy for junior high, high school and college students

· to reading new material

· to listening to lectures

3. to apply a 3-3-3 step metacognitive strategy

· to organizing a written or verbal presentation

4. to apply cognitive strategies to elementary school math and reading

5. to improve a clients setting of goals and management of time (high school and adult clients)

Metacognition combined with Neurofeedback:

At the completion of the seminar the participants should be able:

1. to develop a training protocol for an ADD client that combines appropriate neurofeedback, EDR and peripheral temperature feedback, and training in metacognitive strategies.

Description of Seminar:

Summary:

This seminar will be hands-on: First the participants will partake in a reading assignment and, second, they will do a quick written assignment. After discussion of strategies used, one volunteer will be hooked up for neurofeedback and others will assist to train her combining learning strategies with brain-wave feedback. Discussion will include methods to be used at home.

Steps:

To get the seminar started, a short didactic lecture at the beginning will cover the sub-types of ADD and appropriate Neurofeedback approaches to each and introduce the concept of metacognition. This will be followed by the participants being challenged with a brief reading assignment that is given to students at the ADD Centres who are in grade 7 and above. When the participants have completed this task there will be a discussion of the techniques they used and these will be compared with the approach of children and even college level students with ADD.

    The leaders present a 4 step strategic approach to reading, preparing for exams or presentations, and listening to boring lecture materials. The participants will then be invited to spend a few minutes reading a passage using the metacognitive approaches just discussed and discussing the differences they experienced when using these techniques. They will repeat this procedure revamping the lecture outline they had previously worked on.

    Participants will then be given a short, fun, challenging written assignment to organize. However, like often happens to busy students, they only have a few minutes to organize how they are going to present their material. The 3-3-3 writing strategy will then be discussed.

    Organizing thinking processes, using strategies for efficient reading, and practicing various visual and auditory/verbal memory techniques will be emphasized. Throughout the presentation the rationale for combining neurofeedback with training and learning skills will be underscored. This combination effectively improves performance and leads to high levels of customer satisfaction. Clients have immediate benefits from applying meta- cognitive strategies and long term benefits from the combination of strategies and NF.

W9Q2 The B I G Picture: Weaving Peripheral BioFB, Energy Therapies, & Coaching with EEG Neurofeedback

Lynda Kirk

ABSTRACT: Integrating peripheral biofeedback (EMG, TEMP, SCL, HR, etc.) with EEG neurofeedback can greatly benefit the client by shortening training time; improving generalization of learned skills and states; and increasing internal locus of control. This holistic combination more quickly results in a healthy change in the client's mindbody "parking place".

In addition, the use of energy therapies (e.g. TFT - Thought Field Therapy) with EEG neurofeedback can quickly help the client resolve emotional and physical pain, stress, and/or trauma that may be slowing the training.

Effective coaching methods can greatly help the client improve skills and transfer the training to specific contexts in the "real world."

In this workshop, the "when, where, why, and how" of integrating peripheral biofeedback, energy therapies, and coaching will be outlined.

B8F2 Sue Othmer Case conference & clinical decision making for Beta/SMR trng (sugg. pre-req. EEG Spectrum tng course)

Adding EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback to the school setting

 

PS8-17. A:  Mary Jo Sabo:  Neurofeedback in a Public School
PS8-15.A:   John Anderson: 5 Years of NF in a Public Charter School-Building

Linda Vergara:  Brain Wave Training as an Educational Tool in a Public School Setting (highly motivational-- a good tape to send to partents, or schools)

 

W9HH2 Steps to Integrating EEG Biofeedback in Public Schools". Mary Jo Sabo and Linda Vergara

 

WA8AA2 Mary Jo Sabo & Linda Vergara THE RIPPLE EFFECT: An in depth discussion of Brainwave biofeedback training in a public school. (these are the people who have created the Yonkers' Enrico Fermi School Biofeedback program.) If you are itnerested in getting into the school system this is a great resource in which the main people whostarted thge program generously share their experience.

DESCRIPTION: For over three years, MaryJo Sabo and the Biofeedback Consultants Inc. Team have developed and expanded a research-oriented EEG

Brain Wave Biofeedback Program in a public urban school. The Program, referred to as The Ripple Effect, explores the Theta/Beta Ratio and currently trains over 30 students. This workshop will focus on how the Program began, initial challenges, funding, methodology, data collection and analysis, including immediate and long-term outcomes. Also discussed will be how the program blends with the public school system's existing special education procedures. Group and case studies will be explored.

 

WB8XX2: John Anderson Schools and Clinical Practice - Neurofeedback is not enough.

This WS presents data on more than 100 students + specific case histories. It will also challenge your assumptions with data on AVS, HSAS, VT, and NPP which address needs that NFB cannot. These methods can be an exciting adjunct to a clinical practice.

Abstract: 5 years of experience using NFB in the public schools and in clinical practice has shown that NFB alone is not sufficient to address all the needs presented by students in the school or by clients in a clinical practice. Other interven tions may be more effective and may be necessary before NFB can work. Screening or testing for these needs & then providing training specific to their resolution can signif icantly enhance a private practice. It is also a highly effective approach to the difficulties faced by our public and private schools.

Neurofeedback training was introduced to the Minneapolis Public Schools in 1990. Housed in Shingle Creek School in North Minneapolis, the program saw only a few students but results were encouraging so the program continued. The program moved to Harrison School in 1991 and then found a permanent home in New Visions School in 1992. New Visions School also incorporated other unique educational interventions such as Vision Therapy (VT) and Neuro- Physiological Programming (NPP). It became clear that these interventions were effective for students when NFB was not or was a helpful adjunct to NFB when this was indicated.

Students who could not perform basic visual processing tasks needed specific visual training exercises to encourage the development of appropriate visual processing skills. Children with poorly developed nervous systems who had mixed hand, foot, and eye dominance needed specific physical exercises repeated daily with sufficient frequency, intensity and duration to encourage age appropriate neurological development.

These services were grouped loosely under the umbrella of a non-profit agency known as A Chance To Grow, Inc. (ACTG). New Visions School (NVS)

was a Public Charter Elementary School begun by ACTG to provide a way to bring these services to underserved children and adults in the inner city of Minneapolis. The gains realized by NVS students were

remarkable. Starting with at least a year deficit in reading to be enrolled in NVS, students have made an average of 1.6 years gain in reading level for each year NVS has been in operation. Where they were failing in their previous school placement and falling further and further behind in reading each year, now they were making more than a years gain for each year they were in NVS.

The services were also available to adults and children from the surrounding community both during the school year and through intensive summer programs. Results for these outside clients were equally impressive and encouraged ACTG to begin the process of raising funds to build an new building to more adequately house all of its programs.

In 1996 the Speech and Audiology dept. of ACTG began exploring the use of corrective measures for students with auditory processing deficits. They settled on a standard program developed by Kjeld Johansen of Denmark which uses specifically designed audiotapes to promote optimal hearing levels and right ear dominance. The first year only 10 students received this training and only 7 received pre and post testing. Of these, 6 improved and 4 showed significant improvements.

Audio/Visual Stimulation (AVS) was introduced on a limited basis in the fall of 1997. Michael Joyce, an associate of ACTG in Perham Minnesota, began a more comprehensive program at the same time. He performed pre and post TOVA’s and parent and teacher Burks’ Behavior Rating Scales with 34 students who received daily AVS sessions focused on increasing mental flexibility. Results were generally quite positive and in some cases were remarkable.

This workshop presents ways clinicians can incorporate these methods into a private clinical practice and will also cover how to bring these methods into the public and private schools in virtually any area. Sources of funding will be discussed including state grants for technology, special education services and demonstration projects.

Optimal Functioning and Peak Performance, Personal Growth,

Consciousness Exploration, Mind Expansion,

Plenary Sessions

PS8-21.A: Thomas Hawes:  Using Technology to Access the “Zone”
Terry Patten:  Founder Tools for Exploration:  Neuroscience&Higher Consonciousness-The View from A  Hardware Store: A Few Insights from my Decade with Tools for Exploration
PS8-23. A:  Anna Wise:  EEG and Spirituality 
PS8-26. A: Liana Matulich/Bob Whitehouse Prime Performance  Dennis Campbell: A Com- prehensive Performance Enhancement Strategy

PS8-27. A:  Dan Chartier:  NF and Enhancing Golf Performance
James Hardt:  The Ultimate Peak Performers Alpha Feedback Trng for US Army Green Berets
Susan Shor-Fehmi:  Open Focus and Neurofeedback Assisted Psychotherapy
PS8-28. A: OPTIMAL FUNCTIONING PANEL

Workshops

WB8LL2 Sue Wilson Hot Dots: Training for Performance Under Stress

This seminar will focus on the assessment and teaching of (BF assisted self-regulation to individuals or groups who need to have high quality performances under stress . A brief Mental Skills Assessment inventory surveys the skills deemed necessary for performance during both practice and competition. From this one can better determine the type of program best suited for the performer/team. Suggestions for what self-regulation skills and (bio)feedback would be most beneficial for the person in each specific performance setting will be given.

I. Assessment

A. Sport Skills Required

B. Athlete Abilities

II Individual Training Program

II A. Self Regulation- Body BF

II 1. Breathing Body

II 2. Muscle Control EMG

II 3. Blood Flow Temp

II B. Self-Regulation Mind

II 1. Motivation Log

II 2. Attention EEG

II 3. Cognitions EEG & Log II III Training for Performance under Stress

A. Practice requirements

B. Transfer protocols

 

WA8M4 Michael Hutchison (experiential & didactic) REGULATING DIMENSIONALITY: A LEARNABLE SKILL

Complex non-linear systems thrive and evolve most rapidly in the dynamic boundary zone between the rigid predictability of order and the total randomness of chaos. Here very minimal stimuli can cause rapid whole-system shifts, which we experience as peak experiences and optimal functioning. It is here that the human brain and body-mind systems have the greatest capacity for healing, self-organization, creative exploration, transcendence, insight and evolution.

    A signature characteristic of highly functional complex systems is a high level of dimension- ality --a measure of flexibility, complexity, unpredictability, richness, "depth," and range of movement. Control of dimensionality is a learnable skill. There's now evidence that such tools as NF, light-sound, microcurrent stimulation, psychoacoustic programs and so on, can increase or alter dimensionality of mind-body systems on many levels, and can train users to self-regulate dimensionality.

    Such dimensionality effects may be a key to the personal and clinical benefits of these tools and techniques in such areas as: alpha- theta, SMR, beta, flexibility and brain symmetry-asymmetry training; treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADD, PMS, brain damage, and age-related cognitive impairment; boosting immune function; mastering peak performance and flow states; and enhancement of memory, learning, and creativity.

    In this workshop, we will experience firsthand the effects of several types of these technologies. We will explore the uses of photic entrainment/ disentrainment or light- sound systems in several sessions, including alpha-theta, beta, and flexibility training; and will discuss specific details concerning appropriate programs, frequencies.

    We will experience a number of psycho- acoustic programs and discuss how you can use binaural beats tracks and other psycho- acoustic techniques to create effective audio programs. We will also demonstrate and discuss the uses of microcurrent electrical stimulation, including recent findings that specific devices, and specific sites of electrode placement, can produce rapid neurochemical changes, and dramatic increases in EEG dimensionality. We explore the benefits of and techniques for linking and potentiating these systems with NF.

Among the tools and techniques we will explore are:

BRAINWAVE ENTRAINMENT AND DISENTRAINMENT TECHNIQUES

Discussion and demonstration of devices for producing rapid changes in brainwave frequencies and patterns through entrainment and disentrainment. We will also explore evidence that these systems can increase brainwave dimensionality, and discuss using these tools to regulate dimensionality.

LIGHT/SOUND SYSTEMS. Demonstration of how these devices work. Summary of research, and discussion of clinical successes in treating ADD, ADHD, anxiety, depression, insomnia, brain damage, stroke, PMS etc.

PSYCHOACOUSTIC STIMULATION. Demonstration of binaural beats and other psychoacoustic sound-generation techniques, to explore how sounds can alter brainwaves and induce optimal performance states. Discussion of how participants can create effective psychoacoustic programs for clients.

MICROCURRENT STIMULATION. Demonstration of state-of-the-art nonlinear microcurrent stimulators. Summary of research. Discussion of evidence that such stimulation is effective in boosting brainwave dimensionality, cognitive functioning, learning, and memory, as well as treating drug and alcohol addiction, head injuries, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more.

 

WA8J2 Adam Crane Performance/Life Enhancement Training Integrating Biofeedback With special Emphasis on Neurofeedback

    One of the most promising trends emerging in healthcare is assisting functional people in becoming more functional and treating subclinical symptoms. Performance Enhance- ment will probably grow exponentially in the near future. Neurofeedback opens a niche allowing practitioners expansion into this area. We have been Providing Performance Enhancement training since the 1970s (executives, writers, musicians, actors, models, athletes, etc.) enabling the development of heuristic strategies embodied in The Process(tm).

    The Process, designed to appeal to the "Actualizer" segment of the Value Added Lifestyle Survey, targets business, sports, education, art, and personal growth. "Actualizers" are trend setters, practice builders and the group most responsible for the evolution of biofeedback, integrative, complementary and alternative medicine.

    This innovative combination of strategies seeks to solve the problems attendant to delivering NF / Performance Enhancement Training to the public individually and in small groups using qualified practitioners, inexpensive personal EEG trainers (with or without computerized systems) and a powerful, heuristic program designed to stand on its own with or without Neurofeedback.

    The Sense of Mission is enhanced by synthesizing Logotherapy, Psychology of Mind (Awareness), Quantum Physics, Chaos and Systems Theory, The New Economics, Voluntary Simplicity, Profound Attention, Exercise.

    We will discuss techniques for working with difficult EEG clients, integration of computer- ized Neurofeedback and Synchrony training. Demonstrations subject to time and equipment availability.

    Goals of this workshop include presenting our rationale for the surge of interest in BF assisted MindFitness programs and going as deeply as possible into the philosophy behind and architecture of The Process training strategies and business models .

BIO: R. Adam Crane, BCIAC Senior Fellow, BCIAEEG, NRNP Diplomate has been training professionals in NF, traditional BF, (including APA accredited BCIA and NF clinical certification) and developing innovative training, and biofeedback technology for 28 years. President American BioTec (Health Training Seminars), co-developer of CapScan, The Process, numerous Biofeedback products and services.

 

WA8WW2 Thomas Hawes How To Use Technology To Access "The Zone" in Sports & Health.

I. What Is "THE ZONE"?

A. Descriptions of "THE ZONE" by athletes.

B. Descriptions of "THE ZONE" by those experiencing a health crisis.

C. Common characteristic of uncommon experiences.

II. Using Audio, Video, Sound and Light To Access "THE ZONE" Independently.

A. Programming the Sound and Light Machine for the purpose of:

1. Keeping the mind engaged for 20 mins.

2. Catapulting the student into deeper states with awareness.

B. Using video to create a right-brain syntax - the story behind the story.

1. How computer graphics mimic the way the brain thinks.

a. thoughts that run in parallel

b. thoughts that deflect off each other

c. thoughts that coalesce

2. Establishing metaphor, symbology, and a right-brain alphabet.

3. Creating and ebellishing personal vision.

C. Using audio to guide the movement, rhythm and create transitions.

III. Synchronizing The Audio, Video, Sound And Light To Produce A "ZONE EXPERIENCE" - Discussion And Demonstration.

A. Initiating stillpoints.

B. Triggering releases.

C. Embellishing imagery.

D. Creating openings/insights.

IV. The role of Biofeedback

A. Tangible reflections of an invisible influence.

B. Refining the "Letting Go" response.

C. Monitioring progress.

V. An Overview Of This Type of Training.

A. Video interviews and self-reports of athletes and those experiencing a health crisis who initiated a significant personal shift.

B. EMG, GSR, and Thermograph profile.

1. Students accessing "THE ZONE"

2. Students not accessing "THE ZONE"

C. Accumulating "ZONE MINUTES" - the momentum to initiate significant personal shifts.

VI. Do We Push The River Or Adjust The Current?

 

WA8X2 Anna Wise THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE AWAKENED MIND - From Protocol to Matrix

   We have a finely woven, intricate interrelationship of brainwave frequencies that delicately determines our states of conscious- ness. Being able to alter the combination of beta, alpha, theta, and delta in both hemi- spheres is an intrinsic part of developing the self-mastery that leads to a High Performance Mind. Using the Mind MirrorTM EEG for BF and biomonitoring, and different methods of medita- tion, sensualization and deep psychophysio- logical relaxation, High Performance Mind brainwave training takes place in two formats: one-on-one consultation or group training.

    Both formats can use a generalized multi-step protocol. The individualization of this protocol takes the linear format of this model and turns it into a personalized matrix that can assist both the practitioner and the client in the process of brainwave training for the awakened mind.

    Anna Wise bio: has taught biofeedback meditation and brainwave training for over twenty years and has led workshops and seminars throughout the United States, and in Europe, Asia, and South America. She is the leading authority on the use of the Mind Mirror TM EEG to measure and train brainwaves for high-performance and meditative states. Author of The High-Performance Mind - Mastering Brainwaves for Insight, Healing, and Creativity, she has also created cassette tapes of the same name for brainwave development and mastery using guided meditations, music and frequencies. Anna collaborated with Dr. Andrew Weil and is the Frequency Composer of Sound Body Sound Mind, the CD double album released early 1998. Anna makes her home in Marin County, California with her son John.

 

B8S2 Linda Mason A Comprehensive Neurofeedback Program for Optimal Performance

This workshop describes 11 protocols for optimal performance training, the research behind the design of the protocols, and the populations that would benefit from them. Case studies will demonstrate the efficacy of these protocols. In addition, this workshop discusses the personal and financial benefits of utilizing these protocols to develop an independent training adjunct to one's business, as well as the steps to doing so.

Keynotes and Models from Masters

Plenary Sessions

PS8-12.A: Les Fehmi: A Proposed Paradigm of Observed Relationship Between Styles, Brain Activity  Arousal Performance & Personal Experience

PS8-31. A:   Siegried & Susan Othmer: The Grand Unified Theory of EEG BF-Implications for Protocol  Development

PS8-14.A:  THETA WAVES PANEL:  Lubar, Larsen, Hammond,  Wise, Brown, Budzynski,   Donaldson, Sterman, Othmer,  Gunkelman, Kall,  Isaacs,  White, and   more. Corydon Hammond:  The Theta State and Hypnosis

PS8-9.A:  Paul Swingle  Grand Rounds:  What we learn from the most difficult,  “train- wreck” cases. Panelists include Len Ochs, Mike Linden, Sue Othmer

PS8-16.A:   Judith Lubar:  Examining the Multi-generational Genetic Distribution of Dopamine Receptor  Alleles in Families with a  History of ADD/HD and Addiction
PS8-18.A:  Carol Schneider: Considerations of Right Frontal Lobe Damage & the Phineas Gage Phenomenon

 

Workshops

WA8EE4 Len Ochs An empirical approach to EEG Neurofeedback: What your mother never told you about neurofeedback, but what you were afraid was true, anyway.

There are two kinds of patients: easy ones, and hard ones. The easy ones respond well to the smallest, briefest interventions. These are the patients that those who trained us talk about. These are the ones with the miracle-treatment stories. However, many of the problems encountered by clinician using EEG neurotherapy were not systematically talked about those who trained them, leaving us feel inadequate at worst, and frustrated at best. These are the complex protocols that defy the training views and protocols we learned during our training. In fact, there is probably no single EEG treatment system that will everything that we want to do, especially since we have a long way to go to really know what we are doing -- even though we can approach problems now that are beyond many other treatment modalities.

This workshop starts with the reasons for preservation, irritability, confusion, anxiety - of clinicians and therapists, not the patients. These problems are generated because we have been left to thoughtless quoting of the EEG literature, parroting phrases of EEG neurotherapy teachers without thinking, and applying protocols past the time the patient stops making progress. Neither our trainers nor the literature have or can provide us with the particular treatment protocols that apply the specifics of the complicated patients before us, who linger linger in our practices after the miracle cure have departed. We are left with paucity of evaluation techniques for guiding therapy, and a lack of rules of thumb for thinking about dosage (sensor site locations, duration and frequency of sessions speed and criteria for changing thresholds). While there is ample information on what happens with particular protocols at CZ, 01, 02, C3, and C4, we are constrained to very limited sets of alternatives when those sites don’t work, or when the particular strategies used to "treat" those sites, don’t work.

This workshop frames the problems we face as the problem of treating central nervous system problems, which is synonymous with treating problems of stimulation intake, processing, and integration. These problems affect in one degree of another, across any of the diagnoses we treat, the domains of:

Arousal: sleeping at night, wakefulness and energy during the day; irritability, hyperactivity

Mood: anger, explosiveness, sadness, hurt

Cognition: concentration, attention, memory, sequencing, organizing, prioritizing

Movement: smoothness, coordination, and balance

Pain: fibromyalgia, tunnel syndromes, vascular types

The strategies we use to treat are not specific to diagnosis or problem domain, however. But they are specific to the EEG patterns found across the scalp. Yet the usual topographic EEG systems, while excellent for medical-legal discrimination tasks, becomes a clumsy tool for guiding treatment (although it need not remain this way). You will learn in this WS treatment tools for complex problems:

1. Information to apply to all types of EEG NF

and not just EEG driven stimulation.

2. How to start to discriminate easy from more complex treatment problems during the initial phone contact.

3. How to frame expectations about the treatment process for gaining allies in treatment.

4. How to work out payment plans that will allow longer treatments.

5. How to minimize working with patients with whom you will suffer

6. The person before you

7. How to gauge whether you are going in the right direction.

8. What tools you can use (spreadsheets, databases) to guide treatment

9. How to understand dosage of treatment.

10. How to understand the signs of over- dosage and what to do and say about them

11. Treatment strategies and principles to correct dosage problems.

12. How to understand the patterns patient experiences during the course of treatment.

13. A introduction to neocortical dynamics how they influence the course of treatment.

14. What to observe; how to ask questions; how to generate treatment alternatives, and then go back to making observations, etc.

You won’t learn everything during this workshop. You will not learn new (ritualistic) protocols to use .You will no find magical and easy solutions to patient’s lifelong problems.

You will not find ways for one therapist to treat 10 patients at once.

This workshop is for practitioners at all levels, although some experience and clarity about treatment disappointment with neurotherapy procedures will be useful.

"Improving flexibility of functioning through flexible treatment"

 

WA8G2 Gary E. R. Schwartz, Ph.D.. ENERGY MEDICINE AND BIOENERGY FEEDBACK

This workshop presents the latest in theory and research concerning the emerging new science of energy medicine and its clinical applications, and introduces the new idea of bioenergy feedback - the transition from biofeedback to bioenergy feedback. The workshop begins with a review of systems theory and concepts of biophysical energy, and illustrates the profound implications that unfold when these two areas are conceptually and clinically married. Theory, research, and clinical applications of energy cardiology and energy neurology are illustrated. Research from the Human Energy Systems Laboratory at the University of Arizona are discussed, including new findings on hand energy registration and effects of Qigong on distant random event generators. Applications to bioenergy feedback will be discussed. Implications for understanding the healing effects of intentionality and prayer will be discussed, with practical applications to clinical treatment and prevention. Advances in technology, present and future, will be discussed as well.

 

WA8Z2 Les Fehmi & Susan Shorr The Clinical Applications of a Model Which Relates Attention Processes, Neural Activity, Arousal Level, Performance and Personal Experience

This workshop will describe a model of attention in detail by delineating the qualities of various attention states and by discussing how each state corresponds to specific neural activity patterns. How attention states and neural activity directly impact arousal, performance and personal experience will be discussed. Once a theoretical understanding of attention and its correlates is achieved, clinical applications will be presented along with useful techniques and exercises for facilitating the easy movement between attention states and corresponding neural patterns and arousal levels. We will continue on to illustrate how performance and personal experience are effected by attentional and neutral flexibility. These techniques will be demonstrated to and practiced by participants. Our goal is to give participants a practical sense of how attention is the most fundamen- tal behavior we engage in and how it shapes the perception of the world around and within us. It is also our goal to provide each participant with a new experiential repertoire of attentional choices and the skill to employ these choices for appropriate clinical ends.

 

WA8QQ4 Valdeane Brown & Sue Dermit Using Non-Linear, Dynamical Control Mechanisms to Simplify and Amplify the Power of Neurofeedback: Moving From the Five Phases to the Period 3 Approach

    Clinical approaches to Neurofeedback are often highly detailed and complex, leading the beginning- and even experienced practitioner, to feel less than adequate in treating the variety of disorders that walk through the clinical door.

    Such complex treatment protocols stem from a viewpoint which places disorder at the hub of our interventions- a "sickness based" model which, much like western medicine, assumes disorders are discrete entities necessitating different and distinct treatment protocols. Under this model, the challenge is to discover the "right" treatment, which is also likely to be "wrong" for another disorder.

    The powerful yet simple strategies to be offered in this "hands-on" presentation stem from a way of working that places self- regulation, not disorder, at its center. We call this paradigm the Period 3 Approach.

    This new approach integrates non-linear, dynamical approaches to control of feedback systems with the clinical wisdom of the prior 5 Phase Model of CNS Functional Transform- ation developed by Dr. Valdeane W. Brown.

    The Period 3 Approach trains multiple feedback parameters simultaneously using two discrete, real-time channels of EEG. Unique non-linear, dynamical approaches to threshold setting are utilized in very precise ways that reflect the chaotic structure of the EEG itself. Vital to the safety and success of this approach is the use of appropriate inhibits. These will be detailed as well as sequences of augments. The extraordinary non-linear results currently noted from the use of an original (21 Hz), and a less commonly used (40 Hz), frequency bands will particularly be addressed, as will working with patients concurrently receiving ECT. You will also discover how you train two very different attentional states on the left and right side of the brain simultaneously, increasing the power of your interventions.

    Combining these factors appropriately challenges each hemisphere to disrupt its specific attractors of dysfunction while being chaotically synchronized to basins of functional stability. This directly perturbs the entire CNS to maximally reorganize its dynamical structure and reestablish a healthy degree of chaos – i.e., the adaptive and resilient chaos that is characteristic of vital physiological systems. The goal is to increase the self-regulatory ability of the CNS, not to decrease particular symptoms, so a single, comprehensive theory can be applied effectively to all clinical phenomena -- regardless of the presenting complaint or emergent symptomatology of the client.

    Neurofeedback is unparalleled as a vehicle for providing the brain with what it works with best- information. Given appropriate information the brain begins to self-regulate more effectively and efficiently. When this happens, a myriad of apparently disparate symptoms drop away. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about anxiety, depression, immune system dysfunction or pain- it is, after all, all the same nervous system.

    The Period 3 Approach is equally applicable to remediation of symptoms as well as training for personal growth, spiritual development and optimal (peak) performance. Its simple and straightforward methods will particularly resonate with:

__ providers interested in appealing to the "personal growth" market as a means of reducing dependency on managed care;

__ providers who want to ensure rapid and powerful results while effectively eliminating unwanted side effects;

__providers challenged by a particularly diverse range of client problems, and

__ entry level Neurofeedback practitioners who are excited but confused about how best to proceed with development of their own clinical practice.

A8L4 Stephen Larsen   Mythic Imagination

Into the Dragon’s Lair: Delta, Theta, and the Mythic Unconscious (didactic /Experiential. Participants should wear comfortable clothing and bring a journal, pens and markers)

Recommended reading for the Workshop would be The Mythic Imagination, by Stephen Larsen (Bantam 1990 or Inner Traditions 1996), and The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (Princeton).