Frequently Asked Questions About Neurofeedback Therapy

Consultations are free and can be scheduled by calling our Warwick office at 845-986-5500.

Neurofeedback is designed to be safe and to normalize brain function. Those special talents and gifts you cherish in yourself or child will not be affected. We ask that patients or parents give us constant feedback. If we see that a given protocol or location of treatment doesn't seem agreeable we can quickly alter our approach.

Neurofeedback is so effective that after looking at all the research studies conducted over the last ten years the American Pediatric Association recommended neurofeedback as a ‘Level 1’ best treatment for ADHD in November of 2012. ADHD is the condition most studied in terms of neurofeedback but at present and with further research neurofeedback seems quite effective in regulating brainwave function for those experiencing autism, Asperger’s, anxiety, bed wetting, OCD, insomnia, chronic pain, depression and a host of other brain related conditions.

Neurofeedback began in the 1960's when a young research scientist by the name of Dr. Barry Sterman was working with a large number of cats. He was training them to press on a lever to get milk, as he monitored their brain waves via sensors placed on their heads. After the cats learned to press on the lever for their milk, Dr. Sterman decided he would play a tone during which the cats could not receive their milk. As they waited on ‘high alert’ for the tone to stop, they produced a brain wave frequency that had never been seen before. Dr. Sterman named this an SMR wave. It was a wave frequency of 12 to 15 cycles per second, just between the slower Alpha wave and the faster Beta wave. Next he decided that he would see if he could train the cats to produce the SMR wave to get their milk and within a few weeks they were! This was the first time that it had been demonstrated that the brain was capable of modifying its own brain waves with training and the start of neurofeedback! In a research article that rocked the scientific world Dr. Sterman became an overnight celebrity.

In 1967 NASA was having difficulty with the Mercury space program. Ground crews exposed to their ‘rocket fuel’, monomethylhydrazine, were going into violent seizures. Further, the astronauts orbiting earth were telling ground control that they were seeing the south pacific natives waving at them as they orbited earth! Understanding that the rocket fuel vapors were affecting the astronauts NASA needed answers fast. NASA hired Dr. Sterman to research the issue of exposure and what was happening in the brain to produce the seizures. Again enlisting a large group of cats and exposing them to rocket fuel all exhibited seizures but ten. Unable to explain why these ten cats were seizure free he and his staff began looking through their records and soon realized that they were from his earlier experiments where he had taught them to produce SMR waves! There was something about the increased level of SMR wave production in the brains of these cats and these cats only that prevented seizures! Extrapolating from these studies he went on to work and reduce or cure seizure activity in various groups of seizure patients. His work was embellished by Dr. Joel Lubar, at the University of Tennessee, who went on to treat and reduce or cure countless ADHD patients. (Dr. Lubar went on to become the Dean of the University of Tennessee and was there treating ADHD children at the same time I was there doing my undergraduate work.) In the 1990’s Dr. Eugene Peniston broadened this work to treat, with great success, individuals suffering from drug and alcohol addiction and PTSD.

Today the military uses neurofeedback to treat returning soldiers with PTSD, depression and addiction. NASA continues to apply neurofeedback training to increase their astronaut’s focus and vigilance on long missions and hundreds of neurofeedback therapists around the world are changing abnormal brainwave function associated with a variety of brain related conditions.

Neurofeedback is generally not covered by insurance at this time. However, our office desires to make neurofeedback affordable to all. Therefore we remove financial roadblocks to receiving neurofeedback therapy by offering an in office payment system. The plan is simple. You authorize our office to withdraw two hundred dollars per month from your checking account until your treatment plan is paid in full. There is no interest change as long as monthly payments are enabled.

Treatment plans and prices: All plans begin with a QEEG (quantitative electroencephalograph). The cost is two hundred dollars paid at the time of mapping. Following mapping if treatment is desired we will suggest the number of visits we feel would be appropriate however a choice or treatment plans is available.

***20 (forty-five minute sessions) is $2350.00 including subsequent mappings.

***40 (forty-five minute sessions) is $4150.00 including subsequent mappings.

***60 (forty-five minute sessions) is $5850.00 including subsequent mappings.

We offer in office financing. Our plan is simple and unique and reduces your cost to $50.00 per week! You authorize our office to withdraw $200 per month from your checking account until your treatment plan is paid in full. There is no interest change as long as monthly payments are enabled. Click here to download our Neurofeedback Agreement.

Brainwave patterns used to be measured with handheld instruments and only time-tested neurofeedback researchers, with years of experience could determine the correct treatment approach. Only a few doctors had this experience and they were mainly associated with higher centers of research and learning. Today with the advent of the modern computer, neurofeedback has become accessible to the general practitioner. Now your doctor, in just a few seconds, can access huge databases with thousands of studies and years of research to analyze brain wave patterns and formulate the most effective therapy to change and normalize brain wave function.