The “beep” is the sound heard during neurofeedback training. It  reminds your brain to return to the goal (to relax, to focus, or whatever the goal is with a particular client). As you train and get better at it, you don’t have to think about the “beep” in order to remember how to be more focused, less anxious, or in a better mood. It’s like learning any new skill.

In everyday situations, clients don’t have to recall the effect of the training to experience it. The effects tend to generalize. You tend to be more stable, with greater resilience, and with more appropriate flexibility. The brain is being trained for better self-regulation.

When attention improves or someone is less angry or anxious, it’s not because he or she is remembering the neurofeedback training. Clients often report that they seem to manage themselves better, with less effort, as a result of neurofeedback training.

This “generalization effect” is sometimes a bit difficult for people to get. But think about it as exercise. If you work out and get in better shape, does that only effect what you do while you’re exercising? Doesn’t it help you feel more awake and alert also? Exercise is, of course, an important part of keeping blood actively flowing to the brain. Neurofeedback is very much exercising the brain. When someone changes their brainwaves, they’re physically changing the activity in their brain.

Fortunately, unlike exercise, after a while the effects of neurofeedback training tend to hold. Why? Because the brain is a learning machine. Once the pathways have been fired often enough, it learns the new behavior, or activation pattern. Constant exercise is no longer necessary if the task is well learned.