Many clinicians add additional tools to their practice. Some of these are easy top send home with clients to reinforce training at home. For clinicians new to neurofeedback, there’s no reason to rush into these other options. It’s best to gain a better sense for neurofeedback before adding new tools.

Based on feedback from many clinicians, all the below tools seem to help, though some are more appropriate for certain situations than others. Thus far, no one has really quantified if any one is better than another. Since all clients are different, they may respond differently to each.

There’s a clear clinical sense that the combination often helps speed up the brain’s self-regulation process, though it depends on the clinical problem. Here’s a brief discussion of some common options.

Hand Temperature Training

Raising hand temperature has had a track record of success with migraines. It’s inexpensive, and easy to send home. Some clinicians say they have good success with neurofeedback and migraines, so why bother. Others say they get more consistent results when their clients do hand temperature training at home.

Heart Rate Variability

There are several companies that make devices to measure heart rate variability. HeartMath has conducted major research into heart rate variability. Poor heart rate variability has been associated with conditions from heart disease to poor learning. It’s a very good indicator of stress.

AVE – Audio Visual Entrainment

This is a light and sound device. Considered a biofeedback device, it’s a tool for self-regulation. You put headphones on to hear beeping tones – auditory stimulation. You also put special eye frames on with flashing lights for visual stimulation.

Breathwork

Breathing regulation may be the earliest and most common method of improving brain regulation. Some clinicians say they teach proper breathing and breathing exercises to everyone. They feel it helps or supports the neurofeedback training. Of course, you can do breath training as part of any therapy, and there are a variety of ways to teach it. There is some reported research that poor breathing may contribute to excessive slow EEG activity (theta activity.)

Binaural or Other Types of Special Sound CDs

These CDs, made popular by the Monroe Institute but now available from other companies, help regulate mood and can be used to “entrain” brain wave states. There are a number for improving sleep, reducing anxiety, helping focus, etc. They can be useful adjuncts or used by themselves with various clients.

Alpha-Stim

This FDA-registered, medical device has growing popularity among clinicians for anxiety patients, in particular. They can also be made available to patients to use at home. It produces a tiny, low-level, electrical stimulation that is often calming and can help sleep onset. Though it does not provide a strong training effect that holds over time like neurofeedback, it can be useful.

HEG

There are two types of hemoencephalography (HEG), which is another form of biofeedback. Instead of using EEG, it uses either oxygenation in the blood or infrared as the measure for feedback. It’s often added as an effective adjunct to EEG biofeedback.

The Infrared EEG has been reported to be a very effective tool for migraines. There are those HEG advocates who argue it replaces EEG biofeedback, and it can be done standalone. In talking with lots of experienced clinicians, most clinicians start with EEG biofeedback and use HEG as an additional component of training. If you’re going to use both of them, you want training to help you understand how and when to combine them with neurofeedback for maximum effect.

pRoshi

pRoshi is not very well known. It’s a unique device with flashing lights only, but with a proprietary algorithm. It’s not biofeedback, and it’s a bit hard to explain actually what it does. Some call it a disentrainment device, which can help desynchronize (flatten) the EEG, though we’re not sure if that’s a proven explanation. Some clinicians say it can be a very powerful adjunct to neurofeedback, or even used standalone with patients. It can be sent home with them also.

LENS

LENS is less well-known than EEG biofeedback. It’s described as another form of neurofeedback, except it’s really not. It uses a very low-power electromagnetic field to stimulate changes in the EEG. It’s a more passive tool. The client doesn’t have to engage in learning the way they do with neurofeedback where they learn to change their own EEG.

Though it’s quite a different mechanism than EEG Biofeedback, and hard to explain well, the effect is supposed to create better regulation of the EEG. It is often touted as being very fast in making changes. Sometimes sessions for this electromagnetic stim may last 6 seconds or less. It’s a very interesting tool and has some strong proponents. In our discussions with clinicians, if you’re going to choose this tool, we still think the combination of this tool with others, such as EEG Biofeedback as the core, is the most powerful approach for maximum change in clients. Time will tell.

Interactive Metronome

Another form of biofeedback, it uses timing as its mechanism of action. In simplistic terms, the client tries to clap to a beat that plays through headphones. There are sensors on your hands. The closer you get to clapping exactly on the beat, the better your timing becomes. You get very clear measures of your improvements. With better timing comes better sports performance and better attention at school.

Often used by Occupational Therapists, there are several neurofeedback providers who report the combination of neurofeedback and Interactive Metronome very beneficial for many clients. Learning how to combine them is useful. There are logistic issues in running both neurofeedback and Interactive Metronome with the same client that a clinician needs to be aware of.

BioRegulation Therapy

Coming Soon.