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The brain is our highest instance in constant interaction with the rest of the body. Hence it is the brain which is positioned at the top of the chain of command and will therefore adapt and respond to every piece of information it receives from inside and outside the body.
This is where Neurofeedback (also called neurotherapy) comes in, acting as an intermediary. How does it work? The electrical activity of the brain is measured in real time (neuro) and feedback is given to the brain about its own activity (-feedback).
Here is what a session looks like
See the relevant pages for more information on Neuromodulation → and Photobiomodulation →
In the diagram above, you have the example of a client suffering from anxiety: the brain is overactive mainly at the central level in red (right brain). This state is not rewarded, the film remains dark. When the brain decreases its over-activity (left brain), it is rewarded with a clear movie of good quality. The brain makes the association that the reduction of waves leads to a better quality of film: it is motivated to reduce its anxious brain activity.
During this process, we are not interfering with any first hand changes to your brain. We simply teach your brain the best way to function by changing the brightness of the screen. The brain is then forced to follow these instructions, as it is impelled to change its activity by itself to be rewarded by a bright screen. Why? Because the brain does not like irregularities, the dark screen.
For instance imagine you are in the car. The radio is playing good music, suddenly you hear slight crackling. You can still hear the music but the signal is disturbed and the sound is not as good. Our first instinct is to change the radio station for something clearer. Same process as during a session!
There is no need for a large amount of appoinments. Objectives will be reached within 10 to 15 sessions and there will be no requirement to book further appointments as the results of the learning process will remain over the long term.
Neurofeedback only interacts to the measurement of electrical activity in the brain. Nothing is added or imposed in your head, nor does your personality change.
No major side effects will be noticed. Minor side effects may include: short lasting tiredness, feelings of a heavy head, muscle soreness and pain.
The person must be involved, as well as those close to him or her, especially in the case of a child (i.e. follow our recommendations and instructions). This requires energy. There is little risk in the practice of neurotherapy sessions. Be sure to consult professionals trained in the field.
Depending on how far away you live, it takes time to come once or several times a week for 1 hour.
Compared to medication, which is reimbursed, Neurofeedback is not and represents an investment.
Gradually, it will be easier to fall asleep and recover during the night; you will no longer have nightmares. Waking up is easy, you are full of energy and motivated. Bruxism decreases or even disappears during the night.
Your brain and body will no longer tolerate too much sugar, coffee or processed foods and it will let you know. Your health will improve and you will feel more empowered. Your symptoms will drastically decrease and you will be able to get rid of the medications you have been taking for so long.
Thanks to the two previous points, everything will work better: attention, memory, concentration, reading, breathing, heart rate...
Neurofeedback will never remove your feelings or emotions. It won't stop life from putting you through hardships. Except that this time you will go through them in a calmer and more balanced way. No stomach aches, no anxiety attacks or endless rumination about things, you will be able to take some distance.
You will respect your needs, listen to yourself when your body tells you that it is too much or that you are getting too close to stress. You will put things in place to prevent yourself from falling back into them and take care of yourself. No more toxic people around you and situations that hurt you.
Rid of stress, depression or fatigue you will have a clearer mind and the desire to do things. You will no longer put off doing things until tomorrow, you will no longer avoid doing them and you will finally do the activities that make you feel good or resume those that you had stopped or even leave a job that did not fulfill you.
Dream recovery, attention to your state and feelings (your real energy level, your emotions). You feel things as they are.
It will become important for you to respect yourself and come first. You will be able to refuse certain things and assert yourself without guilt.
Does neurofeedback really work? Check out the FAQ →
For Neurofeedback to be effective, it must respect several physiological, cognitive and learning principles. It is based on the following concepts:
Also called neuronal or cerebral plasticity, this concept emerged in 1848 with the famous patient Phineas Gage. Developed by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in 1906, it was not accepted by the scientific community until 1970.
This term describes our brain’s ability to adapt to the environment and to change itself as needed. We all have the capacity to create, undo or reorganize our neural networks and the connections between these neurons, from our birth to our death. This is why we speak of a plastic brain, because it is malleable, like a muscle, it shapes itself according to our experiences and learning.
Neuroplasticity intervenes during any learning process, whether it is motor, linguistic or creative… Thus, it is possible to learn to play the piano at 30 years old, gymnastics at 52 years old or Chinese at 75 years old.
This process is also visible after a stroke or a head injury: in case of bleeding in the brain or a violent blow, neurons die and some functions may “disappear” (walking problems, inability to speak etc.). In reality, the brain is able to use other areas of the cortex to replace these functions allowing the person to recover abilities.
It is a learning method developed in part by Frederic Skinner that allows the association between a behavior and its consequence: reinforcement or punishment.
Any behavior followed by a reward will be reinforced, it will tend to be repeated because there is motivation to receive the reward. On the contrary, any behavior that is not rewarded will tend to decrease to avoid punishment. For example, to teach a dog tricks, we will motivate it with food as soon as it performs the requested action.
For the brain it is the same, in a healthy environment it will be motivated to activate itself in a certain way to get as much reward as possible. In the case of neurofeedback, the reward is a movie projected on a screen with good image quality and good sound, while the “punishment” is a darkening of the screen with a reduction of the sound (it is also possible to do this with music for people with severe vision problems).
During a Neurofeedback training session, it is not necessary to make a conscious effort for your brain to improve. While your brain is working, you are watching a movie: you are not aware of the effort it is making!
The best parallel is learning to ride a bike. When you learned, you didn't have to mobilize your resources to think about activating your muscles, managing your balance, pushing the pedals. All of this happened automatically and with repetition, you improved your skills to master the bike without the little wheels.
Moreover, even if you don't ride a bike for 3 years, you don't forget how to pedal. Neurofeedback is the little wheels for the brain to learn. Once you have finished your sessions, the benefits remain.
A single Neurofeedback session will give you immediate relief, but it will not last over time. In order to learn to better regulate itself and adapt to its environment, the brain has to repeat the neurofeedback exercise several times until it masters this skill on its own.
At Neurofeedback Luxembourg, it takes an average of 10 to 15 sessions to reach the goal (the sessions last 1 hour and are accompanied by neurostimulation).
At least 1 Neurofeedback session per week is required ! If the sessions are too far apart, especially at the beginning of the training, your brain will take longer to learn. It is a dynamic process.
Before starting to unknowingly read (reading without having to make specific efforts to decipher each letter and syllable), you had to learn. How? Through repeated reading exercises from the beginning of your schooling with your teacher and with your parents at home. By doing this, the brain eventually learned to read and today it masters it perfectly: you read automatically (it is very difficult to stop yourself from reading something).
These two elements are not incompatible, one acts on the electrical activity and the other on the biochemistry (although the latter can influence the electrical activity).
In fact, Neurofeedback often allows you to reduce or even stop your treatment, in agreement with the health professional who follows you.
Never stop your treatment suddenly without asking your doctor!
What are the differences between the two?
| Drugs | Neurofeedback |
|---|---|
Little specificity Less precise because the whole body and brain are flooded with the molecule. | Accurate and personalized With the qEEG baseline assessment we can target symptoms and tailor treatment to each client. |
Effective on the symptoms but not on the cause Often, as soon as the treatment is stopped, the symptoms come back because the origin is not taken into account | Identification of the source Once the origin of the symptoms is identified, it is possible to work on them and reduce them |
Side effects Many people cannot tolerate conventional treatments | Rare post-session side effects Sometimes a little fatigue or heaviness in the head that disappears very quickly after the session |
The two are complementary but do not have the same action
There are many different types of Neurofeedback! The word “Neurofeedback” is not a protected term and is often misused, so be careful. When seeking Neurofeedback treatment, make sure:
| 1. Learning & Developmental Disabilities | 2. Stress & emotional disorders |
Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity (ADHD) & Oppositional Disorder Developmental and learning disorders (Dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia,…) Autism & Asperger’s (ASD) High Intellectual Potential (HPI) & Hypersensitivity | Anxiety & panic attacks Depression & loss of motivation Psychological trauma (TPSD) Sleep Disorders & Insomnia Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) & Tics |
| 3. Instability & brain alteration | 4. Performance & Optimization |
Epilepsy & Absences Migraine & Headaches Neurodegenerative diseases (Dementia: Alzheimer, Parkinson…) Head trauma & Stroke | Burn-out, Bore-out & Loss of meaning Improvement of Mental Performance Improvement of Sports Performance Increased resilience |
Talk to a specialist over the phone to determine together the solution that best suits your needs and budget.
Free call with no obligation.
We are not doctors or psychiatrists. Therefore, we do not diagnose, we do not prescribe medication, we do not cure illnesses and we are not an emergency center. We often help people reduce or even stop their medication in agreement with the health professional who follows you. Please note that you do not need a prescription or a diagnosis to make an appointment at Neurofeedback Luxembourg.