In my work with clients, I have generally used the analogy of working at the gym. If you go once a week, you may feel better after the workout, but you are unlikely to produce any long-term changes. On the other hand, working out every day may not give a lot faster changes. I believe […]

Skull Thickness I’ve heard from a number of folks who are experts in EEG that the single factor that accounts for about 85% of overall differences in absolute EEG amplitudes is thickness of the skull.  The reality is that some people just have thick skulls.

Training Specific Bands I’m careful about trying to train down just a narrow frequency band (i.e. just delta). It’s very possible to reduce delta and increase theta or even (if there is dissociation involved) high beta. Squashes and windowed squashes are a good alternative in that they allow you to put a ceiling on a […]

When to Finish Training Usually by around 3 cycles through the blocks of training, you should be beginning to notice that changes are becoming more stable–not fading after a session. At that point I usually start stretching out the sessions. If you’ve been doing them 4 times a week, try dropping to 2; if 2 […]

Calming It is typical to see activation go up across the board when you focus on training up and go down across the board when you focus on training down. Since, for a great majority of clients, the EEG is overly active and noisy, reductions in activation generally precede clinical improvement. Usually if you can […]

Chronic Fatigue See also Pain/Fibromyalgia Chronic fatigue is usually a really wound up ANS (long-term Tone issues), so it can be related to any of the various strategies for dealing with Tone. Look for them in the order you normally would follow and try training each in that order. Remember with this kind of client […]

Cognitive/Processing Issues I like the Dan Maust Squash, F7/CP5/g/F8/CP6 for any kind of cognitive processing issues.  That trains to reduce the difference in all frequencies between Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas and their analogs on the right hemisphere.

Compulsive Behavior/Obsessive Thoughts Obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors are a common way for brains to defend against fear, anxiety or depression.  Since they are not primary problems but defenses against primary problems, it’s very important to train the underlying emotional derive issues first or at least concurrently. That’s why the Whole-Brain Plan is so important.  […]

Coordination Coordination seems to be related to the link between the basal ganglia and the cerebellum.  The cerebellum sends some kinds of motor instructions and the basal ganglia reviews the results to see how accurate the output was relative to what was expected. Of course, the motor impulses are planned and sent from the frontal […]

Creativity As to the question of creativity and depression, I personally believe that true creativity comes THROUGH me, not FROM me.  I am the instrument, not the creator.  Hence, I seek an alpha state which allows me to be “played” by that creative force, so the same alpha state which would help me avoid depression […]