What Happens in a Neurofeedback Session?

Neurofeedback FAQs

1. How do you feel after a NeurOptimal neurofeedback session?

People often report feeling calmer, relaxed, grounded, less stressed, and more focused. But that is not all. The palette of effects of brain training is wide. For instance, there are users feeling tired. Those users are then often chronically prefer the body’s need for speed, rather than the need for sleep. And their results? They leave tired and very happy to give themselves a proper night sleep, realizing how important that is.

2. How long is a neurofeedback session?

There are multiple answers for that. The regular neurofeedback session takes approximately 33 minutes. But there are different session types, e.g. home rental and in-office. The latter one is slightly more time consuming and requires a total of 45-50 minutes.

3. How long does it take for neurofeedback to work?

Here is an issue with the most of users – impatience. If you are willing to give neurofeedback a week and hope for all your problems to disappear, we are going to disappoint you. It’s not worth trying it for such a short time period.

A person’s brain is constantly developing and due to decreased neuroplasticity with coming age, it is harder to create and maintain new neural connections. Furthermore, the older person is, he/she tends to have more worries and more responsibilities, activities and actions than when he/she is young, thus keeping the brain much busier.

Furthermore, remember how long did it take to learn that poem when you were young? Was it an hour? Two? Ten? The longer and more complicated poem the more time it requires to learn it. And same is with creating new neural connections (which is practically learning under a microscope). The more habitual and stuck patterns a person has, the more time required it is to unstuck them.

So how long?

We advise our clients to rent for 2-3 months at minimum to really feel improvements in their brain hygiene and in improving cognitive abilities. For more complicated cases we suggest even longer, for full recovery of your mental hygiene.

After all, with 33 minutes a session, say 3 sessions a week, and 13 weeks in 3 months, that is just 21,45 hours (1287 minutes or 0,982% of the time) to create new brain connections. And that is not that much, taking into consideration all the outside noise coming in, competing for your attention.

4. How will I know if the neurofeedback training is working?

This is easy! At the beginning of your training, the trainer should give you a checklist where you will rate a set of your issues on the scale. And then after a while, you will be given the same test – and then you’re just a comparison away from seeing results evaluated by the person knowing you the best – you.

As the test is not really worthy from week to week basis to evaluate properly changes you can consult one of our technicians or trainers – free of course – and based on your profile (on the profile of your issues) he will explain you to the detail what changes you may expect. Due to the nature of the device, there is a whole encyclopedia of possible changes and thus makes no sense to create a list of all the possible changes and scale it on a week-to-week basis. One would get lost in it, and due to data’s nature to be based on average and correlations, it might not even be your case.

Every person is a unique individual and that is why should you not be sure, contact our trainer for a free consultation.

5. What can I do during the neurofeedback session?

To this question are two possible answers. The short and the accurate one.

The short one entitles you to do anything that pleases you, under conditions that it doesn’t require too much movement of the body or head. You can take it from here and close your eyes, relax, sleep, collect stamps, play a computer game or read a book. Due to the nature of the device is, however, needed you are tied to the audio system.

The more accurate answer consists of our suggestions. We suggest you would keep a feeling of your body and mind and pay attention to body signals. Your brain is undergoing rewiring and thus you may experience the answers to the following questions:

• How does your breathing change?
• Any sensations such as pain become more or less intense during the session?
• Do you feel calmer or more relaxed?
• Are your muscles tense or relaxed?

Self-awareness is key to success because clients can then choose what tools to use to help re-regulate themselves, whether it’s a neurofeedback session, going to bed early, or getting to the gym, or their focus on healthy eating instead.

6. How is the feedback delivered?

The neurofeedback works in a way it is delivering feedback by alerting us when change is happening. As explained above, it is the micro interruptions in the music that are essential to neurofeedback therapy. The software is designed to use our natural danger detection (hearing and interruption of heard patterns) to train our brain to focus.

We rewire our brains by interrupting their habitual patterns. It’s triggered by interrupting the music which triggers the awareness response of the automatic functioning CNS to come into the present moment. This serves as an opportunity for the brain to see its habitual mal-adaptive choices and then to correct them, hence the resolving of symptoms such as heightened feelings of worry and fear, which is the body’s fight/flight response, which is only supposed to be used when here’s an immediate threat to the body’s safety.

7. When does neurofeedback not work?

There is a number of reasons why this therapy might not work. The most common reason is when a user doesn’t train. This may sound obvious but from our experience, people tend to take “day-off” from training only to find themselves in a “week-off” and then they forget. And in such case results, of course, don’t come. It is of utter importance to set a schedule and follow it.

After all, who of us get into shape from going to the gym the first week and then having a “day-off” for a month?

Among major reasons why users might think the system doesn’t work are:

• Having unrealistic expectation about how quickly they will see changes,
• Major stressors happening unexpectedly and they get distracted or overwhelmed, or
• Being too busy and not setting a schedule for their sessions.

Users need to allocate 45-minute blocks for their neurofeedback at home twice or three times a week to achieve optimal results, and by not following the procedure it is not going to work as intended.

8. Why Choose NeurOptimal and What is the Difference Between NeurOptimal and Linear Neurofeedback Systems?

NeurOptimal systems require no diagnosis in advance. The system works without brain mapping (EEG Scan), protocols or expert trainers managing your brain’s activities.

NeurOptimal by Zengar is the only dynamical neurofeedback device and you don’t need to worry about overtraining as well. Due to the nature of the device your brain receives the feedback instant after it has done an action. It work’s like a mirror in a way. It tells the brain how it looks at any given moment and thus allows the brain to realize its flaws more effortlessly. Furthermore, it works just anywhere.

There are more types of Neurofeedback therapies. From linear to dynamical, readout. Learn The Difference in our article here.

9. Is NeurOptimal Safe?

According to the US FDA, the device has undergone safety tests and  in 2018 it was found perfectly safe and free to use.

It is also due to the nature of the device. It doesn’t add anything to your brain. It reads your brain waves and tells it when something is not right. it is up to the brain to self regulate in its own tempo, in comparison to many other devices where the actual current is being given to your scalp to regulate the brain in its stead.

NeurOptimal Neurofeedback is thus completely safe for you and your kids.

Not yet convinced? Contact us and get your free consultation where we can explain specifically on your person how the device can help you.