Neurofeedback can benefit many individuals, especially those with brain dysregulation-related conditions. The groups that may experience significant improvements include:

Individuals with ADHD: Neurofeedback helps improve focus, attention, and impulse control.
People with Anxiety and Depression: It can reduce symptoms, enhance mood, and improve emotional regulation.
Patients with PTSD: Neurofeedback aids in managing hyperarousal, intrusive thoughts, and emotional stability.
Those with Sleep Disorders: It helps improve sleep quality and addresses issues like insomnia.
Individuals with Chronic Pain: Neurofeedback can reduce pain perception and enhance overall quality of life.

This therapeutic approach provides a versatile, non-invasive option for those seeking relief from various mental and physical health challenges.

Boost Mental Control and Performance with Neurofeedback

Do you know an athlete looking to boost instinctive control, reduce overthinking, and quickly recover mentally after an error? Mental control under pressure can be the key to winning. Neurofeedback technology has unlocked the ability to measure and enhance mental performance, helping athletes access the “zone” with greater consistency.

Performance Brain Training uses brainwave sensors to provide real-time feedback, allowing athletes to see and train their brain’s optimal states for focus, reaction speed, and mental recovery. Our advanced equipment, used by top facilities like the Canadian Olympic Team Headquarters, is designed to elevate performance under pressure.

Key Benefits:

Sustaining Focus
Increasing Reaction Time
Managing High Pressure
Mental Resetting After Errors
Who Can Benefit?

Professional Athletes
Minor Leagues
Collegiate & Junior Athletes
Executives & Recreational Competitors

Ready to enhance performance? Connect with us today!

The Hawaii Biofeedback Association (https://hawaiibiofeedback.org/) is a valuable resource for biofeedback and neurofeedback professionals, offering access to a provider directory, educational content on feedback modalities, and details about our monthly Zoom meetings. Held on the third Monday of each month, these meetings are open to everyone interested.

Meetings are moderated by Chiyo Churchill, Chair of HBA, who also helps distribute the Zoom information. For more details or to receive the meeting link, please email Chiyo at chiyo.churchill@catholiccharitieshawaii.org.

Whether you’re a practitioner or just curious about biofeedback, we invite you to explore Hawaii Biofeedback Association and connect with our community!

Explore this website for clear, concise insights into how neurofeedback works and the conditions it can help improve. Whether you’re considering neurofeedback treatment or just curious about its benefits, this resource is a great place to start.

Learn more about Neurofeedback

https://neurofeedbackalliance.org/

Parenting a child with ADHD is a partnership where both parent and child aim for the child’s eventual independence. However, this journey can feel like a battle for control, as children with ADHD often struggle with memory, organization, and impulsiveness. Here’s how to nurture that partnership effectively:

1. Put the Brakes On: Teach your child to stop when asked by using clear cues. Use a simple hand signal or verbal command like “Look at me” or “Quiet now,” paired with an attention-grabbing sound like a clap or buzzer.

2. Keep Instructions Simple: Give clear, concise instructions and have your child repeat them. For example, for homework: “Write it down, bring it home, and put it on your desk.” Repeat variations of these reminders throughout the day to reinforce the task.

3. Create Organizational Systems Together: ADHD kids forget things easily. Set up a consistent system they can rely on:
o Place a box by the front door for school essentials.
o Use morning and afternoon checklists for items like homework, books, and lunch boxes.
o Use favorite devices (like a Game Boy) as strategic spots for reminders.

4. Use Timed Reminders: Set alarms for transitions between activities. Use gentle prompts from parents and teachers to guide your child to the next task without disrupting their focus.

5. Daily Room Organization: Encourage a daily room tidy-up with a set time and a reward afterward. ADHD kids can get overwhelmed by clutter, so regular, small clean-ups help maintain a manageable space.

6. Embrace Your Child’s Creativity: Enjoy and celebrate your child’s unique perspective and creativity. With your support, they’ll grow into an imaginative and original adult.

7. And consider neurofeedback intervention: Neurofeedback, a gentle, noninvasive, and fun treatment which improves focus and memory while keeping your child’s creativity.

With patience and structured support, you can help your child navigate their challenges and build the skills needed for a successful and independent future.

Peggy

Neurofeedback, like aerobics, weight training, walking, fast walking, etc., is simply a form of exercise using a biofeedback device like the fitbit to monitor and encourage progress. A neurofeedback therapist is simply a fitness coach with extensive knowledge of the brain and of self regulatory techniques. Neurofeedback addresses a large number of psychiatric and emotional issues, in the same way fitness training addresses a large number of physiological issues, simply by providing graded, monitored and behaviorally rewarded brain exercises that move the brain into a more centered, and regulated place, just the way physical fitness reduces cholesterol and blood pressure.

Because the brain is extremely sensitive, neuro providers have to know what they are doing. And because so many of our clients have psychiatric conditions, we need to be proficient in diagnosis and treatment of those conditions, or we’ll be in malpractice and harm patients

However neurofeedback, and all biofeedback, techniques, simply teach self regulation. Self regulation just happens to be at the root of many, many issues.

As far as ADHD research, if you look at ALL the literature (and I’ve looked at most of it), NFB outperforms stimulant medication in about 80 % of the cases studied only because the effects aren’t reversed when the nfb training stops. As you know, stimulant meds + CBT and parent training, out perform stimulalnt meds alone – and stimulant meds alone are effective in about 40% of treatment cases, but the gains are reversed when the stimulant meds are withdrawn. With nfb the treatment effects remain after 40 treatments in about 80% of all clients treated. When we did the demonstration project at TIFFE (with protocols I disagreed with), we got 75%. That’s not a placebo effect. (if I remember correctly that’s about 30%) And it’s way better than stimulant meds.

Science News
from research organizations
Insomnia linked to damage in brain communication networks

Date:
April 5, 2016
Source:
Radiological Society of North America
Summary:
Using a sophisticated MRI technique, researchers have found abnormalities in the brain’s white matter tracts in patients with insomnia, according to a new study.
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Using a sophisticated MRI technique, researchers have found abnormalities in the brain’s white matter tracts in patients with insomnia. Results of the study were published online in the journal Radiology.

Primary insomnia, in which individuals have difficulty falling or staying asleep for a month or longer, is associated with daytime fatigue, mood disruption and cognitive impairment. Insomnia can also lead to depression and anxiety disorders.

“Insomnia is a remarkably prevalent disorder,” said researcher Shumei Li, M.S., from the Department of Medical Imaging, Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, China. “However, its causes and consequences remain elusive.”

For the study, Li, along with colleagues lead by investigator Guihua Jiang, M.D., set out to analyze the white matter tracts in insomnia patients and the relationship between abnormal white matter integrity and the duration and features of insomnia.

“White matter tracts are bundles of axons–or long fibers of nerve cells–that connect one part of the brain to another,” Li said. “If white matter tracts are impaired, communication between brain regions is disrupted.”
The study included 23 patients with primary insomnia and 30 healthy control volunteers. To evaluate mental status and sleep patterns, all participants completed questionnaires including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and the Self-Rating Depression Scale.

Each participant also underwent brain MRI with a specialized technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI allows researchers to analyze the pattern of water movement along white matter tracts to identify a loss of tract integrity.

“We used a new method called Tract-Based Spatial Statistics that is highly sensitive to the microstructure of the white matter tract and provides multiple diffusion measures,” Li said.

Results of the analysis showed that compared to the healthy controls, the insomnia patients had significantly reduced white matter integrity in several right-brain regions, and the thalamus which regulates consciousness, sleep and alertness.

“These impaired white matter tracts are mainly involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, cognitive function and sensorimotor function,” Li said.
In addition, abnormalities in the thalamus and body corpus callosum–the largest white matter structure in the brain–were associated with the duration of patients’ insomnia and score on self-rating depression scale.

“The involvement of the thalamus in the pathology of insomnia is particularly critical, since the thalamus houses important constituents of the body’s biological clock,” she added.

The study also found that underlying cause of white matter integrity abnormalities in insomnia patients may be loss of myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers.

The researchers caution that further study needs to be done on a larger sample to clarify the relationship between altered white matter integrity and insomnia.
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Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Radiological Society of North America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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Journal Reference:
1. Shumei Li, M.S.et al. Reduced Integrity of Right Lateralized White Matter in Patients with Primary Insomnia: A Diffusion-Tensor Imaging Study. Radiology, Aprilo 2016
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Cite This Page:
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Radiological Society of North America. “Insomnia linked to damage in brain communication networks.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160405093052.htm>.
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The New South Wales Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), in Sydney,  is one of Australia’s leading organisations that helps refugees recover from their experiences and build a new life in Australia.  Most of these refugees have been exposed to multiple traumatic events and suffer severe PTSD.

STARTTS currently employs over 170 professionals from a diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds speaking at least 25 different languages and they utilise a bio-psycho-social model in assessing the impact of trauma, planning treatment and framing interventions. Their services include:

• Neurofeedback and biofeedback
• Counselling and psychotherapy
• Physiotherapy and acupuncture
• Naturopath consultations
• Psychiatric assessment/treatment
• Group therapy/treatment
• Yoga, Capoeira classes

Neurofeedback was added several years ago, and their rate of success in fully rehabilitating these refugee victims has skyrocketed. The Neurofeedback group had reduced symptoms of Trauma, Anxiety and Depression from Pre to Post assessments compared with the waiting list control group. They also increased their cognitive and verbal ability and were able to discharge many of the experimental group as fully rehabilitated citizens able to contribute to society.

The results have been so meaningful that STARTTS now offer neurofeedback to all their clients.  

In the US, where trauma treatment is fragmented, driven by the pharmaceutical companies, and dictated by insurance firms, wraparound services are not available, neurofeedback is offered only to clients who search, and our treatment outcomes are poor.  Perhaps we could take the Australia lead and provide a wide range of services to those who are in need.

It’s been a year – and our results adding brain mapping to existing protocols have been phenomenal. Now we understand how to work with a person showing signs of dyslexia, for example. We’re so pleased!

Aloha – we are also proud to announce that 4 channel training is now available at Windward Biofeedback Associates.  4 channel training means that 4 times the amount of training can be provided within the clinical hour.  Now, this is not for everyone!  A client needs to build up capacity to train, otherwise sleep is the order of the following hours.  However when a client is ready for it, the results are amazing!