Neurofeedback For Anxiety

Neurofeedback for anxiety is a kind of brain-training therapy that has been proven to treat anxiety successfully. Both children and adults can suffer from anxiety; it may be transient, chronic, or may simply show up as stress. Adults and children whose daily lives are disrupted by anxiety experience a variety of symptoms like fear, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, feelings of impending doom, and difficulty managing their overall emotional states. All of these symptoms can be successfully treated and improved by neurofeedback therapy.

On a functional level, neurofeedback training is a type of brainwave biofeedback where the brain’s electrical activity is relayed to a computer through electrodes (electrical conductors) that are placed on the scalp and near the earlobes. ⁽¹⁾ The brain’s electrical activity can tell the client how they are reacting to a stimulus, and a personalized protocol can help to normalize these brain waves in stressor situations. After a series of sessions, clients are able to regain more control over their anxiety and experience an improved quality of life as a result.

At NeuroZone, we offer neurofeedback for our clients at our offices in Culver City, Santa Monica, and Redondo Beach. Erin Badour, Co-Founder and Executive Director of NeuroZone is board-certified in neurofeedback and has tailored neurofeedback protocols to her individual clients. To schedule your free consultation at NeuroZone, call the office that is most convenient for you:

If you would prefer, you can contact us by filling out our contact form. In the meantime, you can explore our blog to view discussions on how current events may be impacting clients’ mental states, as well as in-depth elaborations on certain conditions and therapies.

About Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural human response to life’s stressors. Feeling anxious before an important test or when speaking in front of a crowd is perfectly normal. However, if you struggle to relax, or regularly experience physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, muscle weakness, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, stomach aches, or headaches during daily activities, you may be dealing with chronic anxiety. Anxiety, chronic anxiety, and other anxiety disorders can make it difficult and sometimes nearly impossible to perform successfully at work, at school, and even during social situations. ⁽¹⁾ Chronic stress induced by anxiety symptoms may also damage overall health by weakening individuals’ immune systems. ⁽²⁾ In fact, around 60-80% of primary care visits are reportedly stress-related. ⁽³⁾

Childhood Anxiety

For parents of children who have anxiety, it can be especially challenging to determine the best way to help. Oftentimes, younger children with anxiety may experience frequent nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, bedwetting, or teeth grinding. These issues can affect a child’s quality of sleep and thus may lead to behavioral and learning problems in school. During childhood and adolescence, the brain undergoes crucial developmental stages in emotional learning and regulation. ⁽⁴⁾ What’s more, difficulty managing emotional extremes during adolescence can lead to higher chances of emotional dysfunction later in life. ⁽⁵⁾ Shaping and training neural networks linked to positive emotional regulation, especially at a young age, can have long-term benefits for future mental health. ⁽¹⁾

Anxiety & Other Conditions

Anxiety can overlap, or share a comorbidity, with many other disorders such as ADHD, Autism spectrum disorders, and types of cognitive impairments. ⁽⁶⁾ The presentation of one individual’s anxiety disorder can vary substantially in scope and intensity relative to another’s. It is important that clients speak with their medical practitioner about their stress and other symptoms that are impeding their ability to enjoy life. In many cases, neurofeedback training will also remediate the brain function responsible for the other comorbid disorders.

Anxiety and anxiety disorders are extremely common issues in the United States, affecting as many as 40 million adults every year. ⁽²⁾ Clients may hold constant anxiety about the future, have an unbreakable fixation on a traumatic event, or experience frequent panic attacks. Daily tasks may feel overwhelming and exhausting. ⁽¹⁾ And socializing, or feeling happy in general, can feel impossible for people who feel fearful and stressed. Thankfully, neurofeedback therapy can alleviate these paralyzing feelings by training the brain to respond to stressors calmly and with a clear mind. ⁽¹⁾

What is Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback therapy is a type of biofeedback. It is a non-invasive brain-training tool that can regulate the brainwaves responsible for anxious behaviors through audio and visual feedback. ⁽¹⁾ This training focuses on improving the functions of the central nervous system, aiming to teach brainwaves to respond in a way that is more mentally beneficial for the client. ⁽¹⁾ This can include improved breathing, heart rate, and blood circulation. ⁽¹⁾

Over a series of sessions, brainwave behavior gradually shifts, which results in the elimination of the undesired response. Anxious behaviors or reactions can be replaced with a more functional response of a quieter, calmer mental state. Neurofeedback protocols often involve the use of auditory and visual images. Clients can see their reactions to these sounds or videos, and from there they can better know how to achieve positive feedback. ⁽¹⁾

Why Choose Neurofeedback for Anxiety?

There are many different types of treatments for anxiety. Traditional therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and psychotherapy, as well as pharmacological intervention (medication), or a combination of these, are commonly practiced as ways to help clients manage the condition. ⁽¹⁾ However, many clients struggle to see desirable results come out of any of these treatment options. They may experience negative side effects from their medication, or have difficulty finding a therapist or psychologist who is able to help them address their concerns. ⁽²⁾ Both of these modes of treatment also require a long-term commitment from a client in order for them to be fully effective.

Neurofeedback provides a more natural alternative to taking medication for several reasons:

Neurofeedback is the safest, most non-invasive solution for those who are struggling with stress and related anxiety disorders. Through the process of operant conditioning, it helps the brain learn how to self-regulate while strengthening the synaptic connections. ⁽⁷⁾ Neurofeedback can be used in isolation or in conjunction with other methods of therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy and psychotherapy.

Neurofeedback sessions are painless and time-efficient, as they only take about 30 minutes or less. ⁽²⁾ Clients often find neurofeedback sessions themselves generally relaxing and may notice positive results after around 10 sessions or sooner. ⁽²⁾

Candidates for Neurofeedback

Clients who experience anxiety may want to consider neurofeedback as an alternative to medication and therapy–or, as an addition to current treatment. However, it is important to talk to your doctor and not discontinue any medications without the help of a professional. All individuals older than 4 years old may be eligible for neurofeedback candidacy.

Neurofeedback treatments are best implemented on a case-by-case basis after a thorough evaluation and testing. Even though anxiety presents in many ways with a variety of different symptoms, today’s advanced brain imaging technologies make it possible to tailor neurofeedback therapy protocols to successfully treat a wide variety of symptoms related to anxiety. Neurofeedback therapy can potentially retrain your brain to respond to stressors with calmer brain activity, instead of fear and panic. Once your brain waves learn healthier responses to anxiety, as a result of the neurofeedback training, you may find more enjoyment in everyday life.

Personal Consultation

If you have found that anxiety is having a negative impact on your life, you should schedule a complimentary consultation at NeuroZone today. At your personal consultation with Erin Badour, you will have the chance to explain exactly how anxiety has impacted your daily life. Throughout her years of extensive experience, Erin has worked with patients of all ages to help them achieve new levels of behavioral and mental wellness. She will recommend a neurofeedback protocol that is tailored to your situation and explain how neurofeedback therapy works. Call the office that is most convenient for you, or request an appointment online to learn more about neurofeedback training and treatment for anxiety.

You can also contact us by filling out our contact form.

qEEG Evaluation

Our treatment for anxiety involves quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) brain mapping– guided neurofeedback evaluation. During this kind of neurofeedback therapy session, we attach electrodes to areas of the head to evaluate brain activity. The client sits comfortably and watches something on a screen, like a movie or video. The results of this testing will inform Erin of the best neurofeedback protocols for individual needs.

Neurofeedback Brain Training

Once Erin has identified the most effective protocol, the client will attend regular neurofeedback sessions. When the client’s brain produces the brainwaves that contribute to those feelings or states related to anxiety, the neurofeedback equipment will register the corresponding brainwave activity. If that brainwave activity is not in the desired range, the computer’s feedback mechanism, which is audio or visual stimuli, will be interrupted in some way. The client will then receive an audio or visual indication that they are currently exhibiting the brain behaviors that are undesirable. Through this operant conditioning, the software assists the brainwaves to move in a different direction until they shift to a more desired response. Eventually, the protocol will train the brain to respond to the positive feedback on its own, subconsciously.

Results

The goal of neurofeedback therapy is to change the behaviors that clients experience during periods of stress and anxiety by retraining the brain’s production of brain waves that are linked to those behaviors. Neurofeedback training improves anxiety and stress, which in turn reduces the negative impacts that these behaviors can have on a client’s overall health and well-being. Some individuals are able to regain control of their body’s stress responses through a regiment of neurofeedback treatments alone, while others see the most effective results from a combination of neurofeedback treatments with individual psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapies.

Cost of Neurofeedback Training in Culver City

The cost of neurofeedback for anxiety will reflect the type of neurofeedback protocol Erin elects for your situation and the number of sessions she recommends. To get a better idea of what neurofeedback therapy will entail, please visit NeuroZone for a complimentary consultation at any of our locations.

For our Culver City and Santa Monica offices, call (310) 821-3640, or call (424) 247-8193 for Redondo Beach. You can also request an appointment or other information by filling out our online form.

References

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2. Duke G, Yotter CN, Sharifian B, Duke G, Petersen S. The effectiveness of microcurrent neurofeedback on depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and quality of life. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Published online September 8, 2023. doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/jxx.0000000000000945
3. Nerurkar A, Bitton A, Davis RB, Phillips RS, Yeh G. When Physicians Counsel About Stress: Results of a National Study. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2013;173(1):76. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.480
4. Casey BJ, Heller AS, Gee DG, Cohen AO. Development of the emotional brain. Neuroscience Letters. 2019;693:29-34. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.055
5. De Berardis D, Fornaro M, Orsolini L, Ventriglio A, Vellante F, Di Giannantonio M. Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescents: Implications for the Development of Severe Psychiatric Disorders, Substance Abuse, and Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors. Brain Sciences. 2020;10(9):591. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10090591
6. ​​Wu M, Ernesto J, Kumar D, Assadi ND, Nguyen H. Variations in Anxiety and Related Psychiatric Comorbidity Levels Among Youths With Individual Diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Those With Both Diagnoses. ProQuest. Published online 2023. doi:https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.41759
7. Mirifar A, Keil A, Ehrlenspiel F. Neurofeedback and neural self-regulation: a new perspective based on allostasis. Reviews in the Neurosciences. 2022;33(6):607-629. doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/revneuro-2021-0133