Impulse Control For impulse control problems, I would also work at Cz, using the Frequency 1C design, training down 2-38 Hz and perhaps one other band that is dominant (e.g. alpha) and training to increase 9-13 Hz or 12-16 Hz, depending on where SMR appears to be.  It’s likely you’ll have to slide the frequency down to find an exact frequency for SMR.

Intuition In my approach to the EEG, I see beta (neuron-based) activity as being conscious and more likely logical/rational/sequential. When beta stays off and the cortex receives more freely the frequency of the subconscious, intuitive thought tends to occur more frequently. To train to “produce” intuitive thought, however, may be counter-productive. You can work an algebraic theorem most any time, but you have to leave the door open and allow intuitive flashes to arrive–and value them enough not to shove […]

Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS is an autonomic rebound effect, related to excess tone in the autonomic nervous system. I would look at the assessment and train for whatever basic level issues you find. You need to bring down the stress level and unwind the parasympathetic system, and the problem (in my experience +/- 5 cases) goes away.

Jet Lag From 2001 through the beginning of 2007, I traveled about half of each year, pretty much all around the world doing workshops. The longest trip was three months without returning home. It was not uncommon for me to do west coast Alaska, then Washington, then Zurich, then Sydney and then Seoul. I would leave a place after the workshop that ran that day, travel and arrive, then start the first of 8-10 days the day after I arrived. […]

Learning Disabilities In the back of the head, especially at P3 and P4 and T5 and T6, the brain is integrating sensory information before sending forward to the prefrontal cortex to be processed.  Dominance of slow activity there can be related to problems with sensory integration and learning problems.  Some functions of working memory are also handled in the parietals.  My inclination is to look at the sites and see what appears to be blocking activation (sometimes alpha, sometimes theta and […]

Meditation Meditation is a process of allowing the brain to enter into the highly-efficient phase-synchrony state and stay there.  Alpha synchrony has long been recognized as the state of still mind/present in the moment–the meditative state, but also a peak performance, zone or flow state used by athletes, performers or others to perform tasks over which they have achieved mastery.  Gamma synchrony has more recently been identified as a state in which intercommunication among areas of the brain happens rapidly […]

Memory When I see an adult, especially mid-40s and beyond, with fogginess and memory issues, I would look at levels of frontal alpha and look at alpha frequency distribution.  If the alpha levels in the front are relatively high–as high or higher than theta levels–then I would train them down.  If the slow alpha to fast alpha ratio is high, indicating a generalized slowing, then I would train up, say, 10-15 Hz and train down 3-5 and 8-10 Hz.  Working […]

Menopausal Symptoms Doing an assessment and working from a training plan would be a good guide to dealing with lots of things, but specifically for the hormone-related symptoms.  The Othmers claimed to have gotten good results. They did C3/C4 one-channel bipolar training to reduce the amplitude of the whole EEG (squash) and increase amplitude in Sensory Motor Rhythm.  Another traditional training for hormone-related issues is SMR training up at C4 or Cz.  All SMR training should be done with eyes […]

Migraines Migraines are parasympathetic rebounds of the autonomic nervous system.  They occur when a client has experienced (or created) a fairly chronic level of stress over a significant period of time, changing the Tone of the ANS, which is responsible for maintaining the internal environments of our bodies and linking them with our emotional states.  Migraines don’t occur during periods of stress. They occur immediately following significant stress. Instead of re-opening the blood vessels to the head by relaxing the smooth muscles, the […]

Motivation I have personally found Fp01 (referenced either to F3 or F7) beta up and theta down in a (relatively) normal adult male can have a galvanizing effect on motivation (one of the functions of the left orbitofrontal cortex). The only negative I’ve experienced doing it has been that I never finish a session–end up pulling the leads off and going off to DO SOMETHING. Slow wave activity and slow alpha are common findings [for procrastination] frontal midline is often […]