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Who offers neurofeedback? 

Neurofeedback is not yet widespread. But a growing number of psychologists, Licensed Social Workers (LCSW's), marriage and family counselors, RN's and other therapists offer it.  There is a very small number of neuropsychologists and MD's who have adopted it, though that is also growing.    On occasion, there are non-health professionals or unlicensed providers who offer it. 

Many locations have relatively few clinicians who offer neurofeedback.   St. Louis, Nashville and Atlanta are just three examples of good size cities that have few providers for their size.  New York City has maybe 10 or 12 providers, perhaps a few more we don't know about. That's quite a small number.  Even in Los Angeles, the number of clinicians are still a tiny minority. 

As an FYI, the largest "per capita" locations for neurofeedback are Northampton, MA, and Asheville, NC. If you are curious why, click here.  

Finding providers - on the web

Check out the credentials and experience of the clinicians before you visit them.  Ask as many questions as you can (a list of questions is below.)  No web site provides a guarantee of someone's experience, training, knowledge or skill at using neurofeedback.   Most of these lists require some kind of membership fee to be on the list.  

www.eegspectrum.co/providers

They are the largest provider of professional training courses for neurofeedback.  They have some criteria for education and licensing to take their course and to become a member and be listed.  This includes a specific required course that meets education requirements by the APA and BCIA.  Those listed are supposed to meet licensing or credentialing requirements. 

www.ISNR.org/isnrlist.htm

www.ISNR.org/isnrlist.htm is a large membership organization for neurofeedback professionals that are is made up primarily of health professionals.  They hold an annual conference in the fall on neurofeedback and qEEG brain mapping.   

www.BCIA.org

This is the primary certification group in the field of biofeedback and neurofeedback. www.BCIA.org certifies that anyone listed meet their minimum criteria which means they have a certain number of practice and supervision hours, education requirements, and passing the certification test.  Some highly credentialed clinicians are not BCIA certified.  That's because BCIA certification is not currently a state requirement, so some haven't taken the time to be certified or feel their professional licensure is sufficient.  Those who have obtained BCIA certification have invested time and effort to meet the the criteria set and passed the test.  Note - passing the test does not measure clinical or applied neurofeedback skills, but it does suggest this is a person who has put some effort forward to study neurofeedback.

www.AAPB.org

This is the other biofeedback membership group (in addition to ISNR).  They include all types of biofeedback, including EEG/Neurofeedback, and many other traditional types such as EMG, breathing, and many others.  They also hold an annual conference for biofeedback (in spring). Most of their members are health professionals.

Other Lists

www.eegdirectory.com has more non-licensed members because they do not require members to be licensed.  They also provide training courses, and do not require attendees to be licensed.  A good percentage of their clinicians are probably licensed. You should always check credentials of any clinician you are working with.    

Other sites may list neurofeedback providers also.  For example, some vendors list individuals who have purchased their hardware and have asked to be listed as providers.  We cannot list all of them.

The lists don't assess competency. 

None of the lists are attempting to assess competency, or even clinical knowledge. This you need to check carefully.   For the most part, people pay to be on them. So you need to do some digging. 

Questions you might ask

Look carefully at credentials, and at their experience, at their experience and training in neurofeedback. 

Be willing to ask specific questions about their background. If you don't already have a reference, how else are you going to know?  There are some professionals who act like you shouldn't be quizzing them.  Explain that you don't know them, you don't know anything about them, and you'd appreciate if they could work with you.  If they are highly regarded, then they should be able to point to someone outside themselves or their staff who can confirm that.

• Find out where they got trained professionally.  If the credentials sound unusual or you are unfamiliar with their graduate schools or licensure, write it down exactly.  Then check them out on the Internet.  We are not suggested you have to choose someone with the highest credentials.  We've seen clinicians who are excellent who are not heavily credentialed.  But you want someone who doesn't hide their credentials and are up about them. 

• How much training do they have in Neurofeedback? How many courses have they had.  How often do they take additional courses?  Once every two to three years is not an optimum answer - the field is changing constantly.   

• Are they licensed or certified?  If you want to get their license or certification number and the name of the licensing board, you can always call (or sometimes look on the internet) to verify they are still licensed.  Note that because they are licensed does not guarantee competence or knowledge.  But it does mean that if there is a problem, there is a licensing or certification board you they (and you) can report to. .

• How long have they been doing neurofeedback?  How many clients have they actually done neurofeedback with?  Note: some clinicians who have only been doing neurofeedback for 6 months can be good.  They may do a lot of training, and work with a mentor or get supervision on difficult cases.  You just want to know.  You may not be able to find out all this information.  Really good professionals are very up front about what their experience is.  If they are the only one close by, they are very worth talking to carefully. 

• How many people with your kind of problem they have dealt with? 

• What other kinds of therapies and modalities do they use for this problem

• References of clients/patients are a good thing.  That's not foolproof, but you get more information.  There are many who may not be willing to share names, because of confidentiality.  However, it is possible for clients to sign a paper indicating that their name can be shared. Perhaps they have a client who has provided permission?   (If you want to be sneaky, go to their office from 3 to 5PM.  That's usually a pretty busy time.  You're very likely to run into clients.  However, we should probably not suggest this). 

We'll be providing more information on this over time. We appreciate any suggestions or feedback you have about this (and any other section).