Clinicians OnlyOur recommendation for the hardware, courses, and mentoring to help neurofeedback succeed in a practice
|
Interested in adding neurofeedback to your practice?
What's the best equipment?
What's the best training?
What's the most common mistakes?
by Michael Cohen, President, Neurofeedback Solutions
I've been in neurofeedback for 10 years. Over the years, I've helped hundreds of clinicians get started in
What others say . . .
"Mike (Cohen) has been an invaluable resource to me in developing the neurofeedback program at the Neuro-Development Center. He was also quite helpful with the task of determining the most appropriate authors for the Child and Adolescent Clinics of North America special issue on neurofeedback. He seems to know virtually everyone in the field, and has discerning judgment in knowing who can be helpful with what." Larry Hirshberg, Ph.D. Neuro-Developmental Centers, Providence, RI
"Mike has been the single most valuable resource in my foray into the field of neurofeedback. As a consultant, Mike can analyze a situation, technical or strategic, and make a series of recommendations, honestly examining the advantages and disadvantages of each. " David A. Mitnick, M.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Paramus, New Jersey "Mike has a superb understanding of the different models for doing neurofeedback and is knowlegeable about the advantages and disadvantages of the variety of equipment on the market." Glenn Weiner, Ph.D., Richmond, VA
|
neurofeedback. Many have grown their practices significantly because of the success of neurofeedback at helping their patients. The training produces observable, measurable results. It can help reduce client's and clinicians' dependence on medications. (For a good explanation of neurofeedback and how it works, click here.)
There's a consistent pattern of success. Clinicians (psychologists, LCSW's, masters level therapists, MD's, Psychiatrists, RN's. other health professionals) who become successful in a relatively short amount of time have done the following 3 things:
1) Take the best educational courses available
2) Invest in very good equipment
3) Get good clinical support/mentoring
If you do all 3 of these steps and you really pick the best courses, equipment, and support, it's hard to fail in neurofeedback. But it's not so easy to choose the right ones. Here's a description of some of the challenges. .
Common problems with getting started
If any of these 3 steps don't get executed well two things often happen.
Delays in success. I've seen many clinicians take 6 months to a year or more to research neurofeedback before they started. I've seen many others jump right in, pick equipment, take a course and then spend a year or longer before they really got productive in neurofeedback. Productive means producing consistent predictable results with patients across a range of problems. It's knowing what to change when the current training isn't working.
Many of those clinicians struggle but end up becoming productive. They don't realize how much time and money it cost them to go through that process - they just figure that's the cost of becoming productive. They don't realize how much lost revenue and extra costs there were. The costs are all hidden. If you ask their advice, they'll recommend the equipment, the training and approach they took to learn - not realizing there is now a faster, better way.
Failure. There are clinicians who fail after investing the money and time in neurofeedback equipment and training. They quit, they try to sell their equipment, and they wonder - what happened.
=========================================
It's easy to pick the wrong equipment, training or mentoring.
A mistake in any one of these will likely cause you delays in being productive. It could trip you up enough that you fail.
You'll hear other reasons for failure. But once a clinician gets some predictable results with neurofeedback patients, it becomes hard to give it up. Patients will seek you out. It gives you a tool to help in particularly patients not responding to meds, or non-compliant to meds. As you see results, you become more confident in explaining and using it. Many clinicians tell me they never advertise neurofeedback, yet it's an integral and often growing part of their practice).
If you'd our recommendations about what equipment, training and mentoring options works well, email us at info@aboutneurofeedback.com .
1) Choosing the wrong equipment.
It's so easy to get "wowed." It's a natural response. We're attracted to neat technology, neat games, neat graphics, neat wireless. If it works with Sony Playstation and is NASA technology, that must be better - right? If the software can do anything we want and be customized, it must be better. It all seems very credible.
None of those technology issues turn out not to be the right criteria for determining clinical success. Here's just 3 examples.
Highly stimulating games. There's serious concerns as to whether highly stimulating games produces consistent long term learning. There's no research or clinical experience to support it. The long term outcomes in the field of neurofeedback have come from simpler, less stimulating games that promote learning and require the brain to pay attention on it's own.
Customizable or more options. The more options, the more complexity. There are few software programs that are really easy to use. More "bells and whistles" quickly become burdensome to everyday operations.
A neat new wireless amplifier. It simply doesn't not help produce better neurofeedback outcomes.
COSTS. Another equipment decision point is cost. It is common to hear the following criteria: 1) lets just get the cheapest good system possible; 2) since I don't know neurofeedback yet, this will allow to me to not invest much till I know what I'm doing and I'm sure it works.
Important Criteria for Equipment
Having seen many clinicians succeed and struggle, here's equipment criteria that has become clear:
Pick the easiest to use system that will make you productive faster. This is the number one criteria. Being productive a few months faster - and seeing a few more patients pays for ANY system. Most systems out there are not so easy to learn on - no matter how they look when you see their demo. They take longer to create revenue, because it takes you longer to get up to speed. If you ever add staff, the system that's easiest to learn will get them productive much faster also. We've seen clinicians buy a second piece of neurofeedback equipment within months because they could not figure how to use the first one they bought effectively.
It's almost impossible to judge the ease of use till you already know what you're doing - which could take months or longer. There's so many factors - from setting up protocols, to adjusting frequencies and thresholds, to monitoring progress, to knowing the differences in EEG displays.
A more productive system pays for itself many times over in increased revenue, reduced time. (One neurofeedback client generates a minimum of $2800.) If you learn it faster, you see clients faster. If you're going to try neurofeedback, invest in it. With a professional level machine, you'll be successful and productive much faster - and helping patients faster.
2) Choosing the wrong course
Your beginning education is critical. A good course provides the foundation. You can build on that foundation and then add education from various sources once you have a solid base. Every "getting started" neurofeedback course sounds good. I've met many people who went to a course, spent 3 to 5 days there, and weren't able to go back and even start the neurofeedback or really struggled. Then usually end up at a different course, since they've often invested in the hardware by then.
You can learn something from every course. At this moment, one course in particular clearly stands out from other courses, based on consistent feedback from clinicians who have been to multiple courses. It's provides the best curriculum and the best teaching materials. It's very hands on, they have lots of equipment and help at the course. The teachers are excellent and explain the concepts simply, and practically. The quality of the teachers is very important.
The course has solid roots in neuropsychology and neuroscience as a basis for the training model. It discusses the role of the qEEG in a practical way. It never oversells the capabilities of neurofeedback. Quite frankly, a couple of other courses oversell the simplicity of neurofeedback and don't provide appropriate cautions on it's limitations. It's very hard for a professional to know this in advance.
Sometimes, clinicians choose to go to several courses before they get started. This also has significant problems. The end result are clinicians who are confused about what to do, and who delay becoming productive. There are differences in approaches from different courses. If you're new, it's impossible to reconcile those easily. We recommend pick a good course and learn its model for at least 6 months before adding in other courses and approaches.
3) Choosing the wrong mentor
It's easy to choose the wrong mentor. Your natural inclination is to choose the closest clinician to help, or to pick a very experienced clinician relatively close by. Unfortunately that often doesn't work.
Here's a true story. It's not typical, but it can happen. A very bright psychologist went to a good neurofeedback course and bought some equipment. She used a experienced local clinician to help provide neurofeedback advice on certain very challenging clients (we typically suggest not starting with such difficult clients). Within two or three months, she felt frustrated and confused about what to do with her patients. They weren't making the progress she wanted and she didn't understand what was happening. Over the next 5 months, she used 2 other very experienced clinicians to help her with cases. At the end of 8 months, she became so frustrated she was almost ready to quit. She called me and ended up at a small advanced workshop I teach.
After discussion, I quickly figured out her problem. I knew the clinicians she consulted with. They were bright and knowledgeable. The problem was they had forgotten how much they had learned and how advanced they have become. Someone new needs a mentor who can help them build step by step on their knowledge base. When a mentor gives you that, you accelerate progress rapidly. All 3 mentors were over her head - perhaps because she was so smart they forgot she was still learning. But they really did not know how to scale down their current knowledge for a beginner. They gave her too many options and didn't explain each one enough. She thought it was her fault for not understanding. It wasn't. Even people who are well known teachers in the field frankly often aren't that good at mentoring. The best mentors are great clinicians you'll seldom if ever hear of.
===============================================
Having a good mentor to get started is INVALUABLE. It's the difference in getting going fast or not. You need one that's a good teacher, that won't overwhelm you, and that helps you learn to make the decisions yourself - not that tells you what decisions you should make. They have to start by teaching limited options. Within 4 to 5 hours of good phone mentoring, a clinicians confidence, competence, ability to have success with clients increases dramatically.
WE HELP find you a good mentor. There's a group of tried and true mentors I've met over many years who produce successful clinicians. They work by phone - so it doesn't matter where you are. As far as I know, there is no one other group that can offer this service.
===============================================
If you choose to find the best equipment, training and mentor on your own, we hope we've give you better criteria to consider. I encourage you to learn as much about neurofeedback as possible. Our web site www.AboutNeurofeedback.com has a lot of explanation and brings up a lot of issues. The more you know the better.
============================================================
If you'd like recommendations on equipment, courses, and more on our mentoring approach, please email us at mcohen@AboutNeurofeedback.com. Include your name, city and state, and the type of practice you have. You can also call directly at 561-747-0565.
Note: We do not sell the equipment or courses. We refer you directly to the company that we recommend. This may change as we find new equipment and courses. We provide you contact information to the recommended companies.
We are available on a consulting basis to provide additional information as needed.
Michael Cohen
President, Neurofeedback Solutions, Inc.
561-747-0565