Brain Training for Life: How Neurofeedback Boosts Performance

Paula: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of Chatting with the Experts with me, the host, Paula Okonneh. Every week, I bring to you women from Africa, from the Caribbean, and from the Diaspora. And I sometimes include men. The mission of this show is to empower, educate, and inspire women globally. And that’s what I try to do every week.
So, today’s no exception, but I’ll tell you a little bit about this show. Topic today is Wired for Wellness, The Neurofeedback Revolution. And I’ll tell you a bit about that, in Wired to Wellness, my guests explore how neurofeedback [00:01:00] transform mental health and wellness. So we ask that you join us to learn about how brainwave training can enhance wellness, focus, reduce stress, and improve well being. You’ll hear from the experts who have experienced the benefits firsthand. And these experts today are Dr. Affie Ben-Edet and Dr. Guy Annunziata. And with that, I want to welcome both of you to Chatting With the Experts.
Affie: Thank you. Hi, Paula.
Paula: Hi. Thank you for joining us today to tell us all about the neuro revolution. I mean, this is really exciting for me. Neurofeedback revolution. So with that, would you like to both introduce yourselves to the audience?
Affie: Yeah.
Guy: Sure, Dr. Ben-Edet, you can go first.
Affie: Okay. [00:02:00] That’s fine. Hi everyone. Hello, Paula. Thanks for having us. We are happy and excited to be on your show. I’m really, really excited to talk about neurofeedback. It’s something I discovered in the last three years. I am Dr Affie Ben-Edet. I am a physician. I’m a public health specialist. And for the last three years, I have You know, being a brain core certified neurofeedback provider, and I’m thrilled to share my passion for this work and how it has transformed lives and how it’s still transforming lives. I strongly believe that God has given me this platform, neurofeedback, to be able to train one brain at a time, helping people become the masterpieces that he created them to be.
Paula: I love it.
Guy: That’s wonderful.
Paula: Yes.
Guy: Very nice. My [00:03:00] name is Dr. Guy Annunziata. I’m a chiropractor by trade. I’ve been doing neurofeedback now since 2006. I first got into neural feedback when my nephew was diagnosed with autism, and my sister came to me with tears in her eyes, basically asking, what can we do for him? At the time, he was just two years old. And and so I went on a search, I started searching high and low to figure out what we can do and I learned as much as I could about autism and all the different alternatives that are out there because quite frankly, there really wasn’t anything mainstream that could help him.
And and that’s when I stumbled upon neurofeedback and I read a book called Symphony in the Brain, which I recommend to everyone. It’s a wonderful book. If you get interested in neurofeedback. And and from there I I started to realize, you know, what a powerful tool neurofeedback was. And so I went on a mission to learn everything I could about it. And then I went ahead and bought my first machine and I started using it with my patients. And it was [00:04:00] miraculous. The things that I was seeing in my office were just amazing. My nephew, unfortunately was too young at the time, but he’s done it since. And. I’m pleased to say that he is now an actor.
He actually acts and plays. It’s amazing. And he’s got his first job and he’s got his license now, so we’re all very proud of him. But from there, I started realizing how beneficial this could be for a lot of chiropractic patients. You know, our chiropractic patients come in with insomnia, anxiety, ADHD you know, all the different mental health conditions that we can address with neurofeedback. So, I went ahead and created BrainCore Neurofeedback which is a company that that I founded. I have two partners as well, Dr. Ken Eagle and Dr. Russell Lamboy. And together we embarked on a journey to basically bring, BrainCore Neurofeedback to as many people as we could.
And I’m proud to say we currently have 350 offices throughout the country, and throughout the world, actually. We’re in several countries. So we’re real excited and you know, anytime I get a chance to speak about [00:05:00] neurofeedback and the benefits of neurofeedback I’m there. So thank you for having us, Paula. We appreciate it.
Paula: Absolutely. So I’m here listening to the two of you talk about this. And, you know, all the people that you’ve helped. I know Dr. Ben-Edet had mentioned to me, not today, when we spoke about two, three weeks ago, that, you know, she’s always wanted to be a physician to help people. And so, when she heard about this, she at first was a bit skeptical, but now she has actually used it on herself and she realizes it works. So what exactly is this neural feedback?
Guy: Okay. Do you want to take that Dr. Ben-Edet or would you like me to?
Affie: Yeah, I can start off.
Guy: Okay.
Affie: You’re going to bring in your wealth of knowledge to whatever I say, but in the last three years, I’ve learned a lot about neurofeedback and, and just like Dr. Guy, I got involved in neurofeedback because I had terrible insomnia. I was having [00:06:00] trouble sleeping. My last job in the corporate world, I was traveling a lot. And so I had a lot of time zone issues and I would wake up and I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep or I wouldn’t even be able to get to sleep and I tried neurofeedback and it’s amazing.
Three days into the therapy, I woke up and I said to my husband, I’ve never slept like this. I slept like a baby. And since then, I’ve not needed to use sleep aids, really. I can go to sleep when I want to. And it’s amazing. It’s a beautiful feeling. And I felt this was something that I should share with others. So neurofeedback really, it’s a non-invasive drug free therapy. It’s a unique way of addressing mental health issues. It also helps to improve peak performance and brain function. It empowers individuals to [00:07:00] take control of their cognitive and emotional function. When neurofeedback, you’re actually in the driver’s seat.
So what neurofeedback does is that it uses feedback tools, real time feedback tools, and teaches the brain to learn how to regulate itself and produce what we call healthy brain waves. You know, your brain activity generates what we call brain waves. And those are the things that help regulate the neural pathway that helps you think and do the things you do as a human being. And so when we have clinical conditions that like ADHD, autism, as Dr. Guy mentioned, those brainwaves are dysregulated. With neurofeedback, you can actually train the brain to regulate itself. And that’s what neurofeedback does. It’s simply brain training. It’s a learning modality. You [00:08:00] can think of it as a personal trainer for your brain.
It’s like going to the gym, just that you’re not going to lift weights, you’re going to the gym to train your brain. You know, with our company, Masterpiece Brain Core, we always tell our clients, train your body, but also train your brain. You know, there’s so much fight about walking out and building muscle. We all need to build our brain muscles. And that’s what neurofeedback does.
Guy: Well, that is so true. Dr. Ben-Edet. We walk into the gym and everyone’s there pumping iron and running on bicycles and whatnot. You walk up to someone and say, do you do anything for your brain? Cause it’s the most important organ in your body. It controls everything. But that’s a great explanation. I’m probably going to get a little more scientific with it. You know, you had mentioned that the brain produces electrical activity. We call those brain waves. There are four main types of brain waves and each type of brain wave is responsible for a different state of mind.
So for [00:09:00] instance, we have Delta brain waves, which are produced mainly when you’re sleeping. So when you’re getting that nice restorative sleep where your body is healing from the day’s activities you know, you need to have that Delta brain wave being produced in the brain. Theta is the next brain wave. And that’s more of your twilight brain wave. That’s, you know, just before you’re falling asleep you get that sensation that you don’t know if you’re awake or you’re not awake. That’s theta. So your brain is producing a lot of theta at that time. It’s also the time when, believe it or not, you’re the most creative.
I don’t know how many of you have experienced this, but for me, I actually have a pen and pad next to my bed because when I’m falling asleep a lot of times, just as I fall asleep, I’ll have a phenomenal thought and I’ll do one of two things. I’ll either say, Oh, I remember that in the morning, which I don’t or I get up and I write it down. And so there’s a very creative aspect to theta. Alpha is your meditative brainwave. So that’s when your brain is kind of in an idle state of mind. And then beta is when you’re you know, log engaged in logical thought and [00:10:00] problem solving and things like that. And your brain produces all these brain waves all the time the thing that’s important to understand when you’re speaking about neurofeedback is that there are patterns of brain waves, and the patterns can be identified on what we call a brain map.
So we actually record the brainwave activity coming from your brain using what’s called an EEG, and and then we compare that those patterns in your brain to what’s considered normal patterns, and that helps us identify the patterns that need correction, and then we use neurofeedback to make those corrections, and it’s a very simple process. We basically have someone sitting in front of a TV screen or computer screen watching a movie or watching a TV show. And the screen is going to actually get dark when their brainwaves are dysregulated, when they’re not doing what we want them to do. But when the brainwaves happen to do what we want them to do, the screen gets bright.
And like you said, Dr. Ben-Edet, it’s a learning modality, so your [00:11:00] brain is learning, and it’s called implicit learning, which means you’re not aware that your brain is even learning. You know, when you think about riding a bike you know, that’s kind of implicit learning, right? You’re not even sure how you’re doing it, right? But you, your brain learns how to do it, and that’s what happens with neurofeedback, and when your brain learns how to activate the proper circuitry, the brainwave patterns normalize, and as the brainwave patterns normalize, we see time and time again, the symptoms start to alleviate. And they alleviate to the point where you can get off medications, just like you did, Dr. Ben-Edet, when you got off the sleep aids. You know, I’m sure you’ve seen this a million times in your office, how many times we get people off of medications and, you know, medications serve a purpose and they’re, they’re wonderful. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-medication, but I think all of us would agree that if we didn’t have to be on a med, we’d rather not be on a med, right? So neurofeedback helps us get off those things. So that’s how I explain neurofeedback. That’s my elevator speech.
Paula: And I [00:12:00] mean, I listened to you and I’m bowled over with both of you actually, because I’m thinking, okay, when you said it’s non-invasive, so like, how does it work? Do you put a cap on the person’s head? Tell me more about this.
Guy: Yeah.
Affie: Yeah, so, it works, like Dr. Guy has said it’s a learning modality. So, we use audio or video feedback to help train the brain and help the brain learn. And the feedback tool could be you watching a movie. That’s the beauty part. You can get to watching any movie you like while training. Ha ha ha. You know, he talked about implicit learning. So your brain is training in the background. Even as you’re enjoying your movie you could be playing a game or just listening to sound. So it uses those different feedback tools and the way we conduct neurofeedback, we have training sensors. We’ve mentioned earlier that it’s a computerized [00:13:00] process.
So we have training sensors that are placed on certain spots. That have been predetermined from your initial assessment that these are the personalized areas that we need to train to help regulate your brainwaves. And so those sensors are placed on there, and as you’re watching your movie, enjoying it, your brain is getting the feedback. When your brain is producing the brainwaves that are balanced, the movie is nice and clear, and when it’s not, you can hardly see the screen. Or you can hardly hear the audio and that feedback begins to train your brain to know that it needs to keep that screen clear so that you can enjoy your movie.
Paula: Okay. So
Affie: the sensors that are there, just like putting a stethoscope to listen to your heartbeat.
Paula: I was about to ask how because the
Affie: Sensors just pick up the brainwaves.
Paula: [00:14:00] Okay.
Affie: They don’t put anything into your brain. So it’s completely non-invasive.
Guy: Yeah, that’s a question we get all the time. What are you going to do to my brain? What are you putting in my brain? And we always use the stethoscope analogy because and sometimes I’ll even take the stethoscope out and I’ll put it on their chest and I’ll say, am I doing anything to your heart right now? No, I’m just listening to it. That’s all the sensors do. They just listen to what your brain is saying. And it does that in the form of electricity coming out of the skull. So yeah, it’s non-invasive in that respect that we don’t put anything into the brain. All the healing that takes place with neurofeedback is healing that is based in the individual’s ability to learn how to normalize their brainwave patterns.
So, in that respect, you can’t really hurt anyone with neurofeedback. As a matter of fact, the FDA basically says that, you know, there’s never been an issue where someone got hurt with neurofeedback. So the non-invasive nature [00:15:00] of neurofeedback is very appealing to people because there’s no risk involved. They’re not going to get hurt by doing it. It’s a learning modality. So
Affie: That’s what sounds so exciting about it, you know, and it works on two very well known principles. One is called open conditioning, which is just basically,
Paula: Oh, we lost you.
Guy: We’re losing Dr. Ben-Edet.
Paula: Yeah, we’re losing you. Can you repeat that? You said it.
Guy: Yeah, you kind of froze for a second there.
Paula: Yes.
Affie: I’m sorry.
Guy: It’s okay.
Affie: I was talking about operant conditioning that it’s a way you learn through a reward system. Like when your brain is doing the right thing, it gets to see the screen brighter. It’s like when you’re training a dog and you say, sit and it sits and you give a treat. That’s a reward system. So the dog gets to know that whenever he says sit and he sits, he will get a treat. So operant [00:16:00] conditioning is conditioning your brain to know that it gets a reward each time the brainwaves patterns are normalized and what we want to see.
And the other principle is a principle of neuroplasticity. We now know that the brain can actually grow and reorganize itself. And that’s an amazing principle. And so neurofeedback works with that. And so each time you go through regular training sessions, just like going to the gym and working out regularly to build your muscles, the more consistent you are in training, your brain is getting that reward system is getting to learn that the neural pathways are meant to be in this way. The correct way that would alleviate the symptoms. And so your brain begins to learn. And before you know it, you have improved many symptoms.
Guy: Beautiful explanation, Dr. Ben-Edet. Thank you.
Paula: So, okay, so I’m a lay-person and I want to, [00:17:00] you know, get some neural feedback on, do I have, okay, so I guess my quick question is that must I be suffering or have a problem with some neural-related disease and, or could I be just like, well, I have migraines. Well, I guess that isn’t your related. Oh, I have asthma. So can you use it for something like that?
Guy: It’s pretty much mental conditions. So I the ones that we typically see are going to be… ADHD is a big one.
Paula: Okay.
Guy: And a lot of the times with ADHD, the, you know, the child or the adult comes in and they’ve been misdiagnosed. Because what I found, and I’m sure Dr. Ben-Edet would agree, is that most ADHD is actually underlying anxiety. So, you know, we work with ADHD, we work with anxiety, we work with depression, negative moods, we work with sleep disturbances, our specialty. We love sleep. We love when that comes in our office. You know, [00:18:00] PTSD is another really, really big one. We’ve helped many veterans with PTSD. You know, I mentioned autism already but you know, dyslexia, obsessive compulsive disorder.
So pretty much anything that’s mental. With something like asthma, that’s probably more organically related to the lungs. So, and Dr. Ben-Edet, you would probably know more about asthma than I do, but but that really isn’t something we would address with neural feedback. The other thing I wanted to mention about it is that people will ask a lot of times, what do I have to do? I’m looking at the screen, but what do I have to do? Do I need to be thinking about something? I had one person ask me, you do I need to, I’m going to do math problems in my head, right? And I was like, no, you don’t have to do anything. The only thing I’m asking you to do is pay attention to the movie, because as long as your brain wants to see that movie, as long as you have a desire to see that movie, your brain’s going to figure out how to play that movie in its highest, brightest resolution.
So it will rearrange the circuitry in your head [00:19:00] so that movie is playing bright. And that’s what we want. And at that point, that’s where neuroplasticity takes over. And that’s where the rearrangement of the nervous system happens. And that’s why it’s actually long term, permanent change that occurs.
Affie: Yeah. And I know you mentioned PTSD, also women that have gone through domestic violence. So those kind of conditions, trauma…
Paula: Trauma.
Affie: Conditions, childhood trauma, all that can be held with neurofeedback. We also have another group of people that are in the wellness fire group and they just want to improve their peak performance. And you can use neurofeedback for that. So on the job, on the field, athletes have used this to sharpen their skills. Their response time on the field. Managers have used it to improve their meditation and cognitive function at work. So you can actually use neurofeedback for other things. It’s like that.
Paula: Okay, so.
Guy: Performance is a [00:20:00] big thing, actually.
Affie: Yeah.
Guy: There’s right now you’re seeing more and more athletes using it. There was just a special on HBO the quarterback for, I think he plays for the Falcons Kirk Cousins was actually on TV using neurofeedback. And so you’re seeing athletes use it more and more. CEOs of big companies have been using it forever. That’s been something that they’ve done for a long time. So peak performance is one of the wonderful things and one of the wonderful benefits of neurofeedback.
Affie: You know, Dr. Guy, you say everybody should actually use neurofeedback, you know, it all could do with some rewiring.
Paula: Yeah, because I was just about to ask that. So that, I mean, you know, you listed some you know, some diseases, you know, like, sleep disorder, ADHD, autism. But you’re now talking about, you also use it for peak performance. So one doesn’t have to have any of these problems. They can just want to be better at whatever they do.
Guy: Yes, absolutely. And if your brainwaves are [00:21:00] functioning in a normal regulated way, you’re going to perform at your optimal and if there’s any dysregulation there, you may not be clinical in the sense of having anxiety or radiation or any of that, but you’re not optimal. And so neurofeedback helps you become that optimal person.
Paula: All right. So two quick questions for me, because probably other people in the audience are thinking that what is the definition of optimal? I mean, what is the norm? What are we looking for that we need to normalize, especially for people who want peak performance. If they don’t have any of the underlying problems that we spoke about earlier on, the ADHD, autism, and I wrote it down. That’s why I’m looking to the side. What do we consider as normal that you’re trying to achieve? Does that make sense?
Guy: That’s a great question. That’s a really good question. I mean, in my opinion, and Dr. Ben-Edet, you can give your opinion as well. But in my opinion, optimal is when you are functioning at your potential, your maximum [00:22:00] potential, who knows what that is. I mean, there are people say that we only use 10 percent of our brain, right? So, I mean, our maximum potential could be anything, you know, it just depends on the physical limitations. So, when I say peak performance, what I’m saying basically is, , you know, God has given you this body and, you know, are you using it to its, you know, fullest potential? And when you are using it to its fullest potential, you’re performing optimally. That’s how I see it.
Paula: Yeah, I like that definition. I do like that definition. Dr Ben-Edet.
Affie: Now I was just going to say that it will look different for everyone because everybody has different goals and different ideas of what they aspire to achieve and you really want to be your best on the job, you want to be your best in school, you want to be your best on the field. You could have maybe the quarterback, he wants to improve his speech and response [00:23:00] time and so he could train just for that. Yeah.
Guy: Yep.
Paula: So basically, as you’re saying, it’s for everyone, whether you have an underlying illness or disorder, or you just want to be your best self.
Guy: My kids grew up with neurofeedback. There was nothing wrong with him. They grew up with neurofeedback. You know, my son came to me one day. He was playing baseball. I think he was like six years old. And he was like, Dad, I want to be better at baseball. I was like, we got to do neurofeedback. And we started doing it. He’s done it ever since. He still does it like five or six times a week. He loves neurofeedback. He feels like it helps him sleep better. He feels like it helps him remember things better, stay focused more, be able to communicate better with people. You know, so he’s always been into it. My daughter as well. They’re two wonderful people.
Affie: And I’ve had that feedback from clients. I mean, I had a mother who said the son writes better since he started doing neurofeedback and that he’s no longer shy talking to people. And he’s doing [00:24:00] much better in his grades. So it’s very versatile. He can achieve so much.
Guy: When you mentioned handwriting, I did a little experiment a few years back with my patients. All my patients, I had them write out like three sentences on a piece of paper before they started doing neurofeedback. After they did neurofeedback for 20 sessions, I had them write out the same sentence, and you put them two next to each other, you couldn’t even tell they were the same person because the handwriting got so much better. That’s a very common thing with neurofeedback. I’m not saying that people are going to do neurofeedback to improve their handwriting, but it’s a nice side effect.
Affie: That’s white people.
You
Guy: should get some of those medical doctors to do it because we’ve seen him write out prescriptions.
Affie: Don’t go there.
Paula: No judgment.
Affie: Don’t go there.
Paula: So, another question. Well, I have two others, but next one I was going to ask is, okay, so for people who have had a stroke, does that help [00:25:00] or is that like, I mean, that’s way beyond what neurofeedback can do?
Guy: The stroke is an interesting one because there’s been physical damage to the brain so we’re not only dealing with you know, the mental and emotional aspect of things, but we’re dealing with some physical damage. I have worked for a lot of stroke patients and I will tell you that they will improve with neurofeedback, but it takes a long time. So, you know, it’s not unusual to go over a hundred sessions with a stroke victim and maybe a year. You know, so, but, but the improvements in incredible, I mean, you can get a lot of things back.
I’ve watched people get used to their hands back be able to talk where they couldn’t talk before. We see that a lot with non-verbal autism to where all of a sudden now they start talking, which is phenomenal. So I would say yes. If I knew someone that had a stroke, I would encourage them to do neurofeedback. Absolutely.
Affie: You just need to let them know it’s going to be a long therapy.
Guy: Yeah. It’s a long, and they got to [00:26:00] be committed because they’re, they got to train consistently like, you know, two, maybe three times a week even. So it’s definitely a commitment for sure.
Paula: Now, is this covered by major insurance companies?
Guy: Do you want to take that one, Dr. Ben-Edet?
Affie: Unfortunately, no.
Guy: Well, no, actually, it is covered by insurance.
Affie: Not everything.
Guy: Yeah, it’s,
Affie: Okay, I’ll let you take it.
Guy: Very little coverage. Very little. Yeah. It’s not some, I mean, I don’t take insurance for it but I do know people that do bill it, and you know, it’s just not something that insurance companies are willing to pay for unfortunately.
Paula: Okay. All right. So I guess that’s probably it becomes more mainstream than that may change.
Affie: It could.
Guy: It could.
Affie: It could be.
Paula: Okay. Alright.
Guy: I mean, in one respect, I like the fact that more people would be able to get it because, you know, if they have insurance coverage that covered [00:27:00] it. That would be great. But in another respect, you know, insurance companies tend to start to dictate our care and that can get a little, you know, a little bit of a slippery slope. So I prefer not to deal with insurance companies.
Paula: So, okay. One other question. I can’t believe the time has gone by so quickly.
Guy: Oh, wow. Look at that.
Paula: Yeah, look at that. It’s almost 30 minutes. Can’t believe that. But another question is that you mentioned, both of you mentioned that you could be watching a movie and that’s when, you know, being able to see the brainwaves for someone like me that I don’t really like movies. Is there a way around that? I mean, let’s say I wanted to start and I wanted to be a patient of yours.
Guy: Dr. Ben-Edet, do you want to do that one?
Affie: You can play. We have games. You can play games.
Paula: Like what?
Affie: Sorry.
Paula: What? I was gonna say, what type of games, like, dominoes, I mean like board games or must it be something else?
Affie: Computer, computer based games.
Paula: It has to be computer based. Okay.
Affie: It has to [00:28:00] be computer based games because everything is computerized. The sensors are connected to the computer, so you can play games on the computer. You can also just listen. You can do the audio feedback part of it without the vision.
Guy: Yes. Listen to beautiful music.
Affie: To music or listen to an audio book or listen to something and you…
Guy: What happens with the audio is that the music gets lower when your brainwaves are dysregulated, and then as your brainwaves become more regulated while you’re doing the therapy, the music gets louder. So if you wanna hear that music, you’ve gotta activate the right circuitry in your brain and you will activate that circuitry as long as you love the music that you’re listening to. And same thing with reading a book. If you want to read a book on the TV on the computer screen, you could read a book, but the screen’s gonna get dark and bright depending on your brain wave patterns. So yeah, there’s a lot of different things and we’re building a new game actually now it’s a tracking game because we’re finding that there’s a new therapy out there called [00:29:00] multiple object tracking and I don’t want to get off on a tangent here. But And Dr. Ben-Edet and I don’t think you know, we’re doing this yet, but
Affie: You mentioned the other day, last week.
Guy: Yeah, and it’s amazing, multiple object tracking. There’s a lot of research on how it improves cognitive abilities such as working memory, sustained attention spatial awareness things like that. And so, basically there’s like eight different little balls on the screen and three of them get highlighted. And then the highlight goes away and then the ball start to move around and then they stop and you have to identify the three balls that were highlighted in the beginning. So, we are going to be able to do that with neural feedback overlaid on top of it. So you’ll be getting the benefit of multiple object tracking along with the neurofeedback.
Paula: Wow.
Guy: Yeah, we’re looking forward to that. That’ll be out this year.
Affie: That’ll be exciting. Yeah, I like playing those games anyway.
Paula: Yeah, that sounds like fun. That’s really fun. You said that’s going to be out this year, Dr. Guy. We are in November. [00:30:00] So by December?
Guy: Oh, I’m sorry. No, I’m talking about next year.
Paula: Oh, 2025.
Guy: I forgot what we were in November. Time goes by too quick.
Paula: Too quickly. Talking about time. So, almost at 30 minutes. How if I wanted to get started just, I mean, this is hypothetical. What do I do? Well, who do I need to speak with? I mean, of course, with you, Dr. Guy, and of course, you, Dr. Ben-Edet, but how do I get started?
Affie: So, it’s basically a two step process.
Paula: Mm-Hmm.
Affie: For initial assessment and then we get you started on therapy if you are eligible. At Masterpiece Brain Core, we actually offer you a free 20 minutes introductory call just to find out what your needs are and whether you are a candidate or you qualify for the neurofeedback. So we need to determine whether you really need neurofeedback or not, and following that initial discovery call. And you can do this anywhere. You can go on the [00:31:00] web and find a neurofeedback provider, a Brain Core neurofeedback provider near you and many of them offer the same thing. And you can book this on our website.
We have booking contacts on our website where you can schedule a call and then we send you evaluation forms. And that gives a bit more detail about whatever the conditions or the issues that you would want to discuss about. And then we schedule a virtual interview with our therapist, and I would actually do that interview with the individual, and determine if all the information I have received is enough to get me to set a protocol to start training with neurofeedback, or if he needs further testing. And further testing, by that I mean, QEEG, which is the quantitative EEG that we do, that actually measures the brain wave. And gives us a report that [00:32:00] helps determine the protocol that we put the individual on. And once that is established, we set a personalized protocol.
So the protocol is not generic. It’s based on your presentation and based on the evaluation and then it’s customized to your needs. So when we say put sensors on your brain, I mean, on your scalp, we are specific on where we want to train based on your report. And the beauty of the Brain Core home training units comes into this because you can take the units and you can train from the comfort of your home.
You don’t have to go to the office. And the beauty of that is many people, you know, can train once or twice a day. You can train at your convenience. I’ve had clients who train first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and they get very good results with that.
Guy: Yeah, the home training units have revolutionized neurofeedback. We started offering them during the COVID pandemic and we’ve really grown with them [00:33:00] now. So there’s a lot of providers such as Dr. Ben-Edet that actually will provide a home training unit for an individual, a patient or a client. And that person can do that training at home. And the wonderful thing about it is that Dr. Ben-Edet can actually. monitor that from her office. So it’s not just like, here’s a machine, go home and do it. Dr. Ben-Edet is keeping our eye on that. She’s, you know, making sure that it’s being done right and being done correctly. So, that’s been a phenomenal aspect to neural feedback that’s just been developed in the last five years or so.
Paula: Wow, this is sounding really good. Cool. Much cooler than I thought. And, you know, just talking with you, the two of you, makes me feel a bit more comfortable because, you know, typically when it comes to the brain, most people are wary, like, what’s going on? I mean, as you mentioned, Dr. Guy, I mean, the brain controls nearly everything. You in the gym, it’s your brain that’s controlling you being able to lift those weights and move. Yeah. [00:34:00] When it comes to the brain. People are a bit wary, you know.
Guy: They are.
Paula: Yeah.
Guy: And they’re afraid to, but there’s nothing to be afraid of with neurofeedback. We’re not putting anything into your body. It’s all you learning how to control your brain waves.
Affie: Somebody has asked me, why do you want to monitor my brain? I can’t see your brain. All I see are brain wave patterns.
Guy: Yeah.
Affie: And I can tell whether they are regular or they’re not.
Wow.
Paula: This is really cool. So, you know, so what we’re going to do is stop for now so that the audience who I’m sure have tons of questions for y’all will have that opportunity to ask you and hear from you guys directly, as opposed to me just asking all the questions that I have, and I assume other people may want to hear. So, but before we have the active audience take part in the show, how can other people who are listening to the recording [00:35:00] with you? I know you mentioned it, Dr. Ben-Edet, a few minutes ago, but can you again, reiterate how they can get in touch with you?
Affie: So we have a website, which is masterpieceneurofeedback.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. ABC as neurofeedback and you can call our number. We have a standard line 281-913-557 call or text that number and you can schedule your 20 minutes free call.
Paula: Pretty cool. And Dr. Guy, I want to make sure I pronounce your last name right. This is my challenge, Annunziata.
Guy: Beautiful. Perfect.
Paula: How can people get in touch with you?
Guy: Well, if somebody would like to go to braincoretherapy.com, that’s the website for BrainCoreTherapy. And if you want to email me, I’ll be glad to answer your questions. It’s [00:36:00] Dr. Guy, that’s D R G U Y @braincoresystems.com.
Paula: So yours is pretty simple. Pretty simple. All right. And so for me, if any of you listening, I would like to be a guest on the show. Like these two awesome people have been, please reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com. I’m also on LinkedIn. You can reach out to me there or on Instagram, my handle there is at chat_experts_podcast, and I am on Facebook as Paula Okonneh.
So the two doctors here, this has been amazing. And so let’s open up the floor now so that other people can ask all the questions that they’ve been jotting down or wanting to talk, ask, and just haven’t had a chance to as they’ve been listening to us. Thank you again for being guests on Chatting with the Experts TV show.[00:37:00]
Guy: Thank you, Paula.
Thanks for having us. Thank you, Paula.