What is Neurofeedback?

“Your brain is the organ of your personality, character, and intelligence
and is heavily involved in making you who you are.” 

— Daniel G. Amen

Does Neurofeedback suffer from an identity crisis?

• Is it medical?
• Is it education?
• Is it self-improvement?

Those of us involved on a daily or frequent basis with Neurofeedback understand it, though we may have difficulties with or disagreements about defining it. For us, we say no. There is no personality crisis. However, for those on the outside looking in, or those who are in the initial stages of becoming aware of Neurofeedback, it can certainly seem an enigma.

The International Society for Neurofeedback and Research (ISNR) defines biofeedback as:

“A process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance.”

A more descriptive definition might be:

“Neurofeedback is a non-invasive method of direct brain function training. It is a type of biofeedback, and is also called EEG Biofeedback.”

So, since defining the exact nature, scope, and meaning of Neurofeedback may seem to be somewhat elusive, a reasonable place to start might be to determine what Neurofeedback is not.

• It is not strictly medicine.
 • It is not recognized generally by insurance.
• It is not in common practice in the medical world.
• It is not exactly health care.
• It is not exactly self-improvement.
• It does not fit squarely into the model of diet, exercise, or other
“evidence-based” systems.

Neurofeedback evolved from principles of self-regulation and optimization; it is an outlier to most mainstream fields. It is a tool that enables the brain to learn. This does not in itself determine in which domain the practice lies. It is not unlike a scalpel, in that many devices can be used in either a medical or a non-medical context. The distinction lies in the intended benefits, and the user’s scope of practice.

While being registered with the US FDA and internationally as “medical devices,” neurofeedback systems may be legally used by any licensed professional for the indicated purpose of relaxation training and stress reduction. Applicable licensure can include fields as diverse as medicine, psychology, counseling, occupational therapy, education, rehabilitation, hypnotherapy, nursing, and massage among others. The possible uses under this definition are vast, as illustrated by the more than 300 international publications that discuss the effective utilization of Neurofeedback equipment for applications ranging from clinical treatment to non-medical uses — such as meditation, sports performance, and self-awareness. In fact, Neurofeedback is used most often outside the mainstream medical arena for mental, emotional, or physical disorders. Yet, insurance rarely covers any such Neurofeedback treatments, treatments which it typically covers when they occur in the mainstream medical arena.

In the post-WW2 era, television opened up new avenues not just for entertainment, but also for education and life improvement. One of the early formats included live exercise programs in which a noted individual (think Jack LaLanne, Paige Palmer) demonstrated and led the viewer in the basics of fitness, diet, and lifestyle. This led the way for celebrities like Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, and countless trainers, authors, and business innovators to create the multi-billion-dollar fitness/wellness industry. While these were performers and not doctors, their work led toward positive outcomes through behavior and attitude. It would be interesting to estimate just how many heart attacks, strokes, or diabetic episodes have been averted by those who followed their guidelines. However, despite the extent of these benefits, exercise, diet, and lifestyle maintain a strong non-medical presence.

In the 70s and 80s, Neurofeedback was considered a “soft” practice, impacting only general relaxation using alpha waves. The picture changed, however, with the consideration of ADD, ADHD, and related disorders as bona fide medical conditions. By the 1990s, attention disorders were firmly entrenched into the medical world as something that elevated the need for clinical testing and medical intervention, to the extent that: Neurofeedback became “a form of brain and mental health care.”

And that is where BrainMaster comes in.  Here is our mission statement, unchanged since 1995:

Our Company, BrainMaster Technologies, Inc., one of the fruits of the BrainMaster Project, aims to help put low-cost, effective electroencephalographic (EEG) brainwave monitoring and analysis into the hands of everyone with the interest or need. We provide information and resources on the development and use of small EEG brainwave machines for a variety of uses such as Neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback. Over the years, thousands of people have used this project and the internet to learn about important uses of brainwave technology, Neurofeedback, and EEG biofeedback.

As of now, we have documented more than 6000 practitioners using more than 12,000 systems, and 600,000+ clients having been served more than 23 million treatment sessions. There have been more than 300 published research reports from more than 30 countries, documenting the use of our equipment in a full range of applications.

We see ourselves as a global supplier of hardware, software, systems, education, and training in the broad field of brain and mental health care, operating without boundaries or limitations, finding use in any field in which the health of the brain and mind are relevant and important, which is just about every field that exists.

And for us, that is what Neurofeedback is and has become.

Tom Collura

BrainMaster CEO, Ph.D., QEEG-D, BCN, LPCC-S BCIA ID – E5319

“I am not what happened to me,
I am what I choose to become.”

— C.G. Jung