Can a parent or individual do training on his own with limited or no neurofeedback training? These questions arise often. Wouldn't it be more convenient to do training at home, and less costly? Can't you do more training per week and make progress faster? The clinician/technician just pushes some buttons - couldn't I do that just as easily myself at home? If it were only so simple.
::::::::
Can a parent or individual do training on his own with limited or no
neurofeedback training? These questions arise often. Wouldn't it be
more convenient to do training at home, and less costly? Can't you do
more training per week and make progress faster? The
clinician/technician just pushes some buttons - couldn't I do that just
as easily myself at home? If it were only so simple.
Many licensed health professionals won't support clients doing
neurofeedback at home since their goal is to help clients see
improvement. Most feel confident about producing consistent benefits
to clients at their office. They can make adjustments to the training
more easily and monitor it more carefully. Having users do this at
home is much harder. From other clinicians, they've heard of some of
the challenges (and failures) of sending home units. It's much harder
to support users at home.
Some clinicians do support home training. For certain situations it
can be very helpful. But home training can reduce the chances for
successful training compared to training in an office. Certain clients
or situations don't tend to do as well at home. Who might do well and
who might not isn't always obvious. Most experienced clinicians would
agree - success for the client is much harder to predict at home. The
only exceptions to this - and it's still challenging - could be for
autism and RAD.
Doing neurofeedback training at home should be done under careful
supervision and support. Clinicians should be very experienced before
offering home support. It's possible not everyone in the field will
agree with this approach. There is always room for divergent
approaches, and the field of neurofeedback certainly has them. Just be
very careful and cautious before making your decision.
Here are guidelines for looking into home training:
- Training at the clinician's office should be your first choice.
The chances of success and the degree of success from office training
is much more assured.On the other hand, if you are very distant or
there are other reasons that require home use, then it's worth
considering. If you're relatively close (a drive of 45 minutes or
less) it's better to do the drive and have the maximum chance for
success if at all possible. If there's a need for ongoing training
over a long time (certain conditions), having a home unit is worth
considering. Discuss this carefully with a qualified clinician.
- Consider talking to other home users who have worked with your clinician.
If
you find a clinician close by who supports home training, ask them for
references of 2 or 3 individuals they've trained at home. In
particular, you'd like to talk with clients that started have already
done 6-12 months of home training. Find out their success, their
challenges. Every situation is different, but it will give you some
idea about the process - and the clinician's support you can expect.
Some clinicians will not want to give give out names because of
confidentiality. However, it is possible for a clinician to have a
client sign a waiver that would allow him or her to talk with you -
though it does take effort.
- The clinician should do training in the office first - for a number of sessions.
Most experienced clinicians feel they want to know how the individual
is responding to the training and what seems to work before they send
them home to train. That could take at least 10-20 sessions of
training. It's much easier to support someone at home when you have
experience training them.
Caution would be strongly recommended for a clinician who states they
"routinely send people home with home units, and they all have great
success." Neurofeedback is not a panacea. It often takes careful
observation and fine-tuning of training parameters to produce the
optimum training effect - even within a professional office.
- Training.
If a clinician provides support to home users, careful training should
be provided to insure that the individuals can be effective at
training. Not everyone is "cut out" to run a neurofeedback session.
The quality of the hookup and the ability to assess when it is a
problem must be included in the training. We recommend to any home user
that an impedance measurement (numeric measure of quality of electrode
hookup) be made to insure a quality hookup.
- Office visits.
You
should talk regularly with your clinician to discuss progress and to
discuss questions. Any adjustments to the training approach can only
be made based on feedback. Periodically, most clinicians ask that
their clients visit face-to-face - some things just don't come across
on the phone. We've seen a few clinicians discuss using remote cameras
on the Internet in place of visits. This is a very unproven alternative
so far and is not the same as face-to-face.
- Family dynamics.
Frankly, not all situations are a good fit for training. For example,
if parents are training a child and have high expectations of
performance (even if never stated), neurofeedback training could be
counterproductive. The person running the session is part of the
equation - and in a sense, part of the feedback loop.
- Getting feedback on progress.
Adjustments in training can at times be made based on careful feedback
from the client/patient. In a family, or in close relationships, one
can be "too close" to be able to carefully note subtle changes. It's
much easier to be assessed by an independentthird party trained to
look specifically for effects/progress from the neurofeedback. Can a parent or individual do training on his own with limited or no
neurofeedback training? These questions arise often. Wouldn't it be
more convenient to do training at home, and less costly? Can't you do
more training per week and make progress faster? The
clinician/technician just pushes some buttons - couldn't I do that just
as easily myself at home? If it were only so simple.
Many licensed health professionals won't support clients doing
neurofeedback at home since their goal is to help clients see
improvement. Most feel confident about producing consistent benefits
to clients at their office. They can make adjustments to the training
more easily and monitor it more carefully. Having users do this at
home is much harder. From other clinicians, they've heard of some of
the challenges (and failures) of sending home units. It's much harder
to support users at home.
Some clinicians do support home training. For certain situations it
can be very helpful. But home training can reduce the chances for
successful training compared to training in an office. Certain clients
or situations don't tend to do as well at home. Who might do well and
who might not isn't always obvious. Most experienced clinicians would
agree - success for the client is much harder to predict at home. The
only exceptions to this - and it's still challenging - could be for
autism and RAD.
Doing neurofeedback training at home should be done under careful
supervision and support. Clinicians should be very experienced before
offering home support. It's possible not everyone in the field will
agree with this approach. There is always room for divergent
approaches, and the field of neurofeedback certainly has them. Just be
very careful and cautious before making your decision.
Here are guidelines for looking into home training:
- Training at the clinician's office should be your first choice.
The chances of success and the degree of success from office training
is much more assured.On the other hand, if you are very distant or
there are other reasons that require home use, then it's worth
considering. If you're relatively close (a drive of 45 minutes or
less) it's better to do the drive and have the maximum chance for
success if at all possible. If there's a need for ongoing training
over a long time (certain conditions), having a home unit is worth
considering. Discuss this carefully with a qualified clinician.
- Consider talking to other home users who have worked with your clinician.
If
you find a clinician close by who supports home training, ask them for
references of 2 or 3 individuals they've trained at home. In
particular, you'd like to talk with clients that started have already
done 6-12 months of home training. Find out their success, their
challenges. Every situation is different, but it will give you some
idea about the process - and the clinician's support you can expect.
Some clinicians will not want to give give out names because of
confidentiality. However, it is possible for a clinician to have a
client sign a waiver that would allow him or her to talk with you -
though it does take effort.
- The clinician should do training in the office first - for a number of sessions.
Most experienced clinicians feel they want to know how the individual
is responding to the training and what seems to work before they send
them home to train. That could take at least 10-20 sessions of
training. It's much easier to support someone at home when you have
experience training them.
Caution would be strongly recommended for a clinician who states they
"routinely send people home with home units, and they all have great
success." Neurofeedback is not a panacea. It often takes careful
observation and fine-tuning of training parameters to produce the
optimum training effect - even within a professional office.
- Training.
If a clinician provides support to home users, careful training should
be provided to insure that the individuals can be effective at
training. Not everyone is "cut out" to run a neurofeedback session.
The quality of the hookup and the ability to assess when it is a
problem must be included in the training. We recommend to any home user
that an impedance measurement (numeric measure of quality of electrode
hookup) be made to insure a quality hookup.
- Office visits.
You
should talk regularly with your clinician to discuss progress and to
discuss questions. Any adjustments to the training approach can only
be made based on feedback. Periodically, most clinicians ask that
their clients visit face-to-face - some things just don't come across
on the phone. We've seen a few clinicians discuss using remote cameras
on the Internet in place of visits. This is a very unproven alternative
so far and is not the same as face-to-face.
- Family dynamics.
Frankly, not all situations are a good fit for training. For example,
if parents are training a child and have high expectations of
performance (even if never stated), neurofeedback training could be
counterproductive. The person running the session is part of the
equation - and in a sense, part of the feedback loop.
- Getting feedback on progress.
Adjustments in training can at times be made based on careful feedback
from the client/patient. In a family, or in close relationships, one
can be "too close" to be able to carefully note subtle changes. It's
much easier to be assessed by an independentthird party trained to
look specifically for effects/progress from the neurofeedback.
Reprinted from
aboutneurofeedback.com
Authors Website: http://www.AboutNeurofeedback.com
Authors Bio:Michael Cohen, founder of AboutNeurofeedback.com, is Director of Training and President of the
Center for Brain Training. He has specialized in Applied Psychophysiology and EEG Biofeedback for over ten years.
As Director of Education for EEG Spectrum, one of the main training organizations in this field, Mike organized and taught courses around the world to psychologists, therapists and MD’s on the use of neurofeedback. He helped organize and teach courses introducing neurofeedback to psychiatrists at the annual American Psychiatric Association conference. He has also taught neurofeedback at many of the annual industry conferences.
Mike has served on the Board of Directors for two of the main organizations in the field of neurofeedback. He has produced over 36 monthly audio CD interviews with top people in the field of neurofeedback and related fields. Called the Phone Forum, the CDs are distributed to neurofeedback professionals around the world.
The Phone Forum targets clinicians who've already been trained in neurofeedback. It's a very practical one hour audio interview that comes on CD. It brings the experience and expertise of clinicians for PTSD, depression, ADD, autism, etc. - by really digging into how they apply neurofeedback protocols or other adjuncts to their clients/patients. It's been a very popular series, as it allows both relatively new and experienced clinicians to understand the rationale of some of the top clinicians, as well as other experienced clinicians.
Mike entered the field after neurofeedback training helped a close family member with major depression. That problem had not responded to any medications or even ECT (electro convulsive therapy). When he found neurofeedback and got his family member to try it, the response was remarkable - especially considering that nothing else had worked. Since then, his goal has been to make these tools more accessible to people who need it and can benefit from it.
For the last three years, Mike has been co-chair with Tom Brod, MD, for the neurofeedback CME workshop at the annual American Psychiatric Association. He is currently the secretary of ISNR, the neurofeedback/qEEG professional association. He's also taught workshops at ISNR, the Clinical Interchange and other conference workshops for the last few years.