The Full Picture: How Remote Neurofeedback and QEEG at Home Works
Peak Brain's comprehensive remote neurofeedback (brain training) Programs offer you the complete attention and support that you would receive in our offices – but from the comfort of your home!
We work with all of the same neurofeedback technology in our home neurofeedback program – same sensors and gear, same software and Coaches, and help you pursue the same goals to improve focus and attention, train mental states to be more resilient, improve sleep and stress, and to give you the tools and support to move through a neurofeedback training schedule and integrate neurofeedback into other strategies you have for health and cognitive performance.
We can help pursue goals of attention, stress, sleep, sensory, social, stability from seizure or migraine, speed of processing and recovery from brain fog, creativity and flow, and improvements in academic or athletic performance.
From a treatment or traditional psychology view – a mental health perspective – these are labeled things like ADHD, Anxiety, and other disorders or symptoms. Instead of diagnosing you or “treating” you, we want to teach you how your brain works, show your brain resources and help you understand how different performance aspects are operating, and then teach you to change it to operate how you want!
Think of Peak Brain Institute as a cross between your pocket neuroscience team and biohacking coaches to help guide you through understanding more about yourself and then pursuing changes. We teach you how to read your QEEG and how to use neurofeedback devices for brain training in a supported way with tailored and individualized plans.
Our team of highly skilled Coaches are available 7 days a week and make it convenient to gather QEEG brain maps and participate in our ongoing neurofeedback brain training programs – whenever and wherever you need. Our programs provide a guided and tailored experience, with realtime live support and education, and regular check-ins as we watch progress towards your goals.
Getting Started with Neurofeedback at Home: QEEG Brain Mapping and Attention Testing
Before training at home we help you get a brain map!
After signing up we will ship the neurofeedback device kit (the amplifier or neurofeedback machine, as well as laptop, neurofeedback software) and the QEEG remote assessment kit to your door.
During the first three days of your neurofeedback experience, we help you get a full head EEG with QEEG cap and device. We assist you with the (fun!) process of putting a cap containing EEG sensors on your head, filling it with gel, and getting some good baseline recordings with your eyes closed for 10 minutes and your eyes open for 10 more.
We also have you do a really boring executive function test, or computerized go/no-go test, to measure visual and auditory executive function, or control over attention resources.
It takes a couple days for us to process and analyze your data, and to create the personalized view of your unique resources and brain function – after that, you can meet with our senior science team (Dr. Hill and our other neuroscientists) to review your QEEG and CPT data and walk through it, learning to understand what it shows.
We teach you to read the data, and then you teach us what is important, as we review brain and cognitive performance. Looking at the QEEG is more a process of exploring your brain and resources, versus a diagnosis.
The most reliable features we tend to see in these resting patterns of electrical activity in the brain, are resources of stress, sleep, attention, speed, and other broad resources of brain function.
Meet Your Brain. Meet Your Experts.
Your Peak Brain Coaches will guide you through getting data (EEG and performance testing) and then Dr. Hill will meet with you for a video review of your data. Dr. Hill and your Coaches will teach you how to gather and then look through data – and learn to read it and learn about your brain performance and goals.
As you teach us what is important in your brain data and experience, these goals and data help us develop a tailored and personalized neurofeedback plan.
Setting all this up on your own may seem daunting, but we have a team of Coaches specially trained to remotely walk you through every step of the process, so the data we gather at home is the same quality you would get in a Peak Brain office location.
Your initial brain mapping assessment and remote neurofeedback training sessions will be done with live video calls and screen shares. We practice with you for a couple of weeks, and your Coaches are available 7 days a week in a private chat set up just for you, to help you learn and get support as you go.
After your first assessment we'll schedule a functional neuroscience consult with Dr. Andrew Hill to share insights into how to look at data and what you can learn from your brain! Here, you will have a chance to visualize and refine brain goals to direct the path of your training.
To learn more about your Coaches, visit our About us page, or book a Consultation now. To dig into the details – keep reading!
What is QEEG? Remote QEEG Brain Mapping at Home
A Quantitative ElectroEncephaloGram is a recording of your brain waves (EEG) using a passive headset (no zapping). And yes, you can record your full QEEG in a home use environment – we will help! This EEG is used to create a visual representation of your brain activity, in patterns that are stable day to day – we call those biomarkers or phenotypes.
Our experienced staff sits down with you and teaches you to walk through data, and you can start to learn your unique neuroscience. We rely on this initial QEEG, and getting one is a step before we start your neurofeedback training.
In addition to the EEG, we use a CPT evaluation, aka Continuous Performance Task, also called a Go-No/Go test or Executive Function Test, to tease apart how your attention performance is operating. Once we process your QEEG and performance data, and teach you to read it, you teach us what is important in that data. Together we gain greater understanding of how to design your individualized brain training program.
At Peak Brain we perform an initial QEEG and also a follow-up after every 20-30 sessions of neurofeedback.
Most of what you see in QEEG and CPTs are stable across time, so tracking the changes you make will help you refine goals, and help us design refined neurofeedback protocols.
Home Neurofeedback Devices and Support: Remote Neurofeedback Equipment
No Peak Brain office or other neurofeedback practitioner near you? Looking for the best home neurofeedback or remote neurofeedback program, without making any compromises? Not sure you can do neurofeedback remotely? Fear not! Peak Brain Institute's remote neurofeedback programs uses the same tools and software used in our offices, and we provide support 7 days a week. Our neurofeedback systems include everything you'll need to get your brain into the best shape of your life while training at home, with simple brain-activity contingent games and auditory feedback.
For neurofeedback equipment we use EEGer software – a standard in the field of neurofeedback therapy – and we use Neuroguide QEEG databases to prepare your baseline data sets for review. On the hardware side we use Cognionics full-head EEG devices for the QEEG assessments, and a couple different 2-4 channel EEG devices with EEGer for your training. We also might include other biofeedback tools, including pirHEG and HRV, if they make sense for your goals.
We are here to teach you, and to help you become your own expert over time. We'll start your neurofeedback sessions off with a couple of weeks of live guided support and practice with a brain coach, where we can orient you to all the equipment and practice setting up your devices for home neurofeedback training.
Peak Brain also gives you a live chat – private to you – with all of your Coaches on it, and we provide real-time ongoing support, 7-days a week! This is not phone or email support – every client gets a private chat with their coaching staff for neurofeedback at home.
The day to day interaction and guidance you receive from Peak Brain Remote is the best part of our program – not the equipment. This is personal training for your brain, basically. Your experience in the home neurofeedback program is very similar to the in-office program. Your Coaches will check in on you day to day (and have you fill out sleep and day surveys) to keep adjusting your neurofeedback plan, often changing or adjusting the path a couple times a week.
Think of this process like personal training for your brain, more than therapy. While neurofeedback helps many brain health goals, we want to help you pursue different brain resources versus provide a diagnosis and treatment without making it about your goals.
For kits, we use the same equipment in our home devices that we do in our Peak Brain office locations, and we have the same highly trained and competent Coaches, you can expect the same improvement you would see in-office from the comfort of your own home.
How Does Neurofeedback Work? How Does Remote Neurofeedback Therapy Work?
Neurofeedback training uses the psychological principle of operant conditioning and the neurological phenomenon of neuroplasticity — basically, your brain is flexible and is always learning whether or not you're trying! Neurofeedback at home works the same way – and sticking a few wires to your head is not the hard part. Knowing how to build and develop the best neurofeedback plan for your brain training sessions – and how to change that plan to meet your changing brain – is the hard part, and your Coaches will be there throughout the process to keep your training supported.
To break down a neurofeedback session, the process involves putting a couple of earclips on, and then one or two sensors stuck to your scalp. We teach you to find these locations, don't worry (and provide realtime spot checking as you need it).
The goals for each neurofeedback session will help determine where on the head and what brainwaves you are measuring. Based on the training plan, the software simply watches your EEG bands (i.e. things like the amount of theta or beta waves) and when your brain briefly moves (on its own) in the “right” direction, the computer “applauds” that electrical activity of your brain, by showing audio and visual game activity. We don't send any electricity back – no zapping – just a passive audio/visual reward stream, reacting to your brain.
Essentially, neurofeedback – often referred to as EEG biofeedback – provides information to the brain about its own activity in real time, allowing it to learn and change based on the feedback it receives. The feedback takes the form of visual (like a simple on-screen game) and auditory stimuli (like a ‘beep’ or ‘ding’) but this only occurs when the brain has just done something we want to reinforce.
Neurofeedback sessions are about 30 minutes, and done 2-4x per week. Initial effects are usually felt in 3-5 sessions, but some people feel the first session. Effects are initially transient, and subtle. Often there is a feeling of focus or calmness, or even slight tiredness or energy, and then it recedes, although once the brain starts moving from neurofeedback you can start to observe changes building up, with sleep and attention changes often being the first things to shift.
Typical goals of sleep, stress, and attention often need 30-50 sessions to make larger and stable changes (3 months).
Throughout your personal neurofeedback program, Dr. Hill and your Coaches will use the data from your QEEG and the brain performance goals you set to inform and direct your neurofeedback protocols.
Why Choose Peak Brain for Neurofeedback at Home?
Convenience and Consistency — with real time support.
We are here to help you get the neurofeedback sessions in, and will ask you to let us know as you notice things shifting – both via quick goal tracking daily surveys (sleep and day experiences) as well as getting help when you need it via your own private chat. We provide initial live sessions with guidance and instruction, and can hop on your neurofeedback machine and help troubleshoot and hand-hold when you need it.
Like with physical exercise, consistency is important if you want to experience a change. However, unlike exercising your body, exercising your brain with neurofeedback typically requires only between 30-40 sessions to make lasting changes! Each session is about 30 minutes plus some setup and cleanup time, and we recommend you train 3 times per week – even 4 times is great, but we suggest you don't train 3 days in a row. It's rather like exercise, and does take your brain some time to learn and shift and change.
Personalized via QEEG — and then every day of the week
Like personal trainers at your favorite gym, our coaches at Peak Brain Institute work with you to refine the plan to reach your cognitive goals. We use your QEEG data to see what kind of activity your brain produces on a day-to-day basis and to inform us of the most direct path to reaching your goals. Throughout your program, we'll gather a few more brain maps to see how your brain waves have taken the shape of healthier patterns.
We have coaches around the world, ready to answer your questions and assist you in your training no matter where you find yourself — our kits are even portable enough to travel with you. We employ twice-a-day self-report surveys to closely monitor your growth, and our Remote Program clients each have a live, private-chat set up for them for realtime support.
As your brain responds to your personalized brain training plan, we adapt to your experience and set new goals as you continue. At any point in time, you can schedule virtual meetings with Dr. Hill and our coaching staff to assess your progress and receive counsel on things like diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes like sleep hacking, supplement strategies, and how to reduce harm from recreational substances.
Finishing Your Program: Ongoing QEEG Access and Referral Program
Approaching the end of your neurofeedback program, you can send the system back to complete the program, or renew your membership at 20% less than initial rates. We'll provide a prepaid shipping label to return your remote training kit. When you finish an active program, you still have 1 full year of QEEG access – no charge at our office locations, with discounted a-la-carte Remote QEEGs also available.
Renewal pricing and our Referral Program remain available to you as well.
Referral Program
If you send someone in, they get $250 off. For every person who signs up for neurofeedback (including family members), you'll earn a free month in your remote supervision (or office program) bank of training time.