Neurofeedback Therapy

The Brain Map (qEEG) – Bridging The Gap Between Therapy And Neuroscience

A brain map, also known as a quantitative EEG (qEEG), is a detailed assessment of electrical activity in the brain. It draws on what we know about the human nervous system and serves as a guide to understand how a person’s brain is functioning compared to typical patterns.

This assessment helps clinicians identify areas of dysregulation that may be linked to symptoms like anxiety, depression, ADHD, poor focus, or insomnia. It is the starting point to facilitate change, healing, and growth in people of all ages.

How A Brain Map Is Created

1. EEG Recording – The process begins with placing a 19-electrode cap on your scalp. These sensors record your brain’s electrical activity while you are at rest with your eyes open and closed.
2. Data Collection – The EEG system collects data on various brainwave frequencies across different regions of the brain (frontal, central, parietal, occipital, etc.).
3. Quantitative Analysis – The raw EEG data is then processed by a licensed neurofeedback practitioner and converted into visual and statistical maps. These are compared to healthy individuals’ brain activity, matched by age and gender.
4. Visual Map Output – The result can show overactive, underactive, or imbalanced brainwave activity in different regions of your brain. For example, excess theta activity in the frontal lobe might correlate with attention difficulties, while high beta activity in certain areas could indicate anxiety.

One of the things that sets Denver CAC apart from other practices that offer neurofeedback therapy is that we have an expert read your raw EEGs. Since we believe that still-developing technology can’t catch everything perfectly at this point in time, having an experienced clinician read your raw brain map rather than a computer helps us get the most accurate evaluation possible and protects you from inaccurate readings due to factors like movement, muscle tension, etc.—all which could be misinterpreted by the computer assessment.

Is A Brain Map Worth It?

Though not a diagnostic tool in the traditional medical sense, we find the brain map to be a highly valuable tool. It offers us important insight into your brainwave imbalances and how those might relate to your symptoms. We use this insight in a couple of ways:

• Personalized Neurofeedback Plan – The most important use of the brain map is to guide us in creating a more precise and effective neurofeedback training program tailored to your neurological profile. It helps us identify which brainwave frequencies to target and in which brain regions.
• Progress Tracking – Our clinicians may repeat the brain map creation periodically during your treatment to assess changes and track progress. Improvements in the map often correlate with reduced symptoms and better cognitive and emotional functioning.

While neurofeedback therapy can be done without a brain map, it is comparable to blindly throwing darts and hoping they stick. At Denver CAC, our clinicians use a 22-channel machine that allows us to monitor your brain activity directly. This way, we’re not just guessing based on trial and error.

Each brain-mapping session will last about 50 minutes to an hour, while a brain-training session typically takes around 30 minutes. Because we are training brainwaves, consistency is important. We recommend using neurofeedback over multiple therapy sessions since its effects are gradual but cumulative. Our clients generally participate in three sessions a week to ensure changes last. (Although, if that’s not within your budget, we can meet once a week.)

Most of our clients start to experience consistent change within 20 sessions, with around 40 sessions being the standard length of neurofeedback treatment to maintain permanent changes.

Why Should You Choose Neurofeedback Instead Of Other Therapy Approaches?

Over the years, numerous studies have attested to the power of neurofeedback therapy. It has been proven to help alleviate concussions, sleep problems, and many psychosomatic issues (1). And it can also assist with addressing ADHD by enhancing the parts of the brain responsible for memory, attention, and cognition (2).

At Denver CAC, our neurofeedback program is uniquely personalized to you and can be life-changing if you want to improve your focus, decrease your stress, sleep better, and feel happier in day-to-day life.

In many ways, neurofeedback brainwave training is like learning to ride a bicycle. Repetition is key. You’re essentially training the muscles in your brain to operate differently. And although that process takes time, it eventually becomes like second nature.

Moreover, neurofeedback treatment can provide an alternate route for those who don’t want to take psychiatric medication. In particular, it’s highly recommended for parents who are looking for an ADHD treatment for their child that doesn’t use medication, as it is a low-risk intervention with few side effects.

Experience The Transformative Power Of Neurofeedback Therapy

At Denver CAC, we offer neurofeedback because we want to provide our clients with an additional tool to complement talk therapy. To learn more about how we harness the power of this unique approach to initiate deeper healing and growth, you can use our contact form or call us at 303-817-3250. We look forward to working with you!

(1) https://www.research.va.gov/currents/0425-Individualizedneurofeedback-relieves-concussion-symptoms.cfm

(2) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6538574/