If This Works, Do I Have to Keep Coming Forever?

There is a question that comes up in this office and it almost always comes last.

Somebody has sat through the whole explanation. They understand what the map does. They are nodding along. And then, right as we are finishing up, they ask the thing they have been holding the entire time.

"If this works, am I going to be coming here forever?"

It is a fair question and it is the right one. I have not been good about answering it before anybody has to ask, so here is the whole arc, written down, start to finish.

First, the honest version of what you are agreeing to

You can stop at any time. That is true of neurofeedback here and it is true of neurofeedback anywhere. Nobody is signing anything that takes that away.

What we ask for is a commitment to a block of training, because of what training is. Larry on our team puts it plainly: it takes a commitment in time and visits, just like anything, for training to stick.

Thirty visits, and what thirty is about

The plan is thirty visits.

Thirty is about whether the training holds. Everyone responds differently, and that does not mean it is going to take that long to see a change in how somebody feels.

This is training the brain the same way you add a healthy habit into your life. It takes time for those to accumulate. Feeling better in the first week of a new habit is real, and it is also not the same thing as the habit being set. A habit is set when it holds without you deciding on it every morning. Brain training works on that principle.

How it goes for any one person depends on what their qEEG is indicating and on other healing factors in their life. That is the whole argument for mapping a brain before training it rather than guessing at it.

The thirtieth visit is a re-evaluation

We stop and we sit down together.

We look at two things side by side. The objective side is what the maps have been showing. The subjective side is what you tell me has actually changed at home, at work, at school. Those two have to mesh. Your own words carry as much weight in that conversation as the data does, and neither one settles it alone.

The re-evaluation is included in the plan. It costs nothing extra. I have been letting people discover that when they arrive at it, which is backwards.

There is no second full qEEG at visit thirty. It is not needed at that point.

A map gets made at every single session

This is the part almost nobody outside this office knows, and it is the part I would want to know if I were the one sitting in the chair.

Every training session produces its own map. The one at the front door is the first of many.

That map shows how the session itself went. Whether the training took hold that day. Whether something got in the way. And we go over it with you.

So nobody here is being asked to pay for thirty visits and hope. You watch the picture as it goes, and you get told what it says.

What happens after visit thirty

There are three stages and they have names.

Relief and going into regulation. That is what the first block of training is for.

Regulation holding. If the maps and your own report agree that things are moving, visits get spread further apart on purpose. The point of spreading them out is to find out whether your brain is holding the pattern on its own without the training propping it up. That is the test.

Maintenance. Some people go on to occasional sessions after that. In our experience that has tended to land somewhere around every two to three weeks, and I will say in the same breath that each patient is an individual and cannot be put in a box. It is decided case by case, with the person, and it is never something we assume.

A full qEEG brain map typically gets repeated within nine to twelve months. That is the checkpoint after the checkpoint.

And if the maps are not showing what we hoped for

That happens, and there is a plan for it that does not involve me guessing.

I get on a call with the BrainCore clinical team, the people who own BrainCore nationally, and we build a revised plan together. Then I bring that revised plan back to you at the re-evaluation and we talk it through.

I am not doing this by myself in a room in Elizabethton. That is worth knowing before you start.

The one thing I will not put a date on

Response varies from person to person, and no timeline gets promised to anybody in this office. When somebody asks me how long until they feel better, the honest answer is that I do not know yet, and that the mapping is how we find out.

The shape of the thing I can give you today. Thirty visits. A re-evaluation at the end of them, included. A map at every session in between, shown to you. A decision made on your data and your own words together. Stages that have names, and checkpoints that actually arrive.

That is a finite thing with a door on it, and you can walk out of it whenever you choose to.

Four questions worth asking anybody

Here is something you can use tonight that has nothing to do with this office.

Before you say yes to any course of care, for yourself or for your child, ask these out loud:

1. How many visits is this, and what happens at the last one?
2. What gets measured along the way, and do I get to see it?
3. What happens if it is not working?
4. What happens if it is working? Do I stop, or does something change?

Ask them here. Ask them at your child's doctor. Anyone who has thought their care through can answer all four in a couple of minutes, and most of us are glad to be asked. It is a better use of an appointment than nodding.

Where to start, if you want to

BrainCore Neurofeedback is drug-free and non-invasive brain training. We work with mental stress, learning challenges, negative moods, attention and focus. It works alongside your medical care and it does not replace any of it. It is not right for everyone, which is exactly why the first step is finding out whether it is right for you.

Individual responses vary. Nothing here is a diagnosis and nothing here promises an outcome.

See if you qualify. Start with the brain health assessment and we will go from there: braincoreofelizabethton.com/pages/brain-health-assessment

Or just call the office. 423.542.3337, or text 423.380.0877.

If you or someone in your house is having thoughts of self-harm, or you are worried about someone who is, please call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Please note: we will be closed October 22nd and 23rd. Dr. Dennis will be at a BrainCore neurofeedback symposium on Hilton Head Island, learning the latest settings so the training we run here is current. Call or text if you need to be seen that week and we will get you in before we leave or right after we get back.

Office Hours

Mon & Thu: 7:30am–Noon and 1:30–5pm
Tue & Fri: 7:30am–Noon
Wed: 8:30am–Noon and 2–6pm

Phone: 423.542.3337 | Text: 423.380.0877

Yours In Health,
Dr. Dennis & Your BrainCore of Elizabethton Team