What happens during a Neurofeedback intake assessment?

Some people are nervous when they come to their intake appointment. Fortunately, there’s no need to be anxious at all. There’s no need to prepare anything and it won’t last for more than an hour. Are you curious to know what will happen? Make sure to keep reading.

Objective of the intake assessment

When you visit us for an intake assessment, it can be that you got in touch directly or that a doctor referred you to us. In the first case, we will need to assess with as much certainty as possible if neurofeedback can help you. We never invite someone for an intake if we think we can’t help them. However, it’s only after the intake assessment that we’ll have a clearer idea about what we can do exactly.

This means that the objective of the neurofeedback intake is to make a QEEG brainscan, which allows us to get insight in the way your brain functions. Based on this brainscan, we will formulate our advice for the next steps.

A Neurofeedback intake in 1-2-3

1 Intake conversation

During this conversation, we will get a better idea of your symptoms and your brain’s history. After this, you will receive some explanations from us about what we’ll do, and we’ll introduce you to our equipment. Finally, we will verify that the information we have about you is correct. You are always welcome to ask us any questions about the process.

2 Recording the QEEG

After the first step, you will get to wear an electrocap (measuring instrument) and we will record your QEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalogram), also called “brainmap” or “brainscan”. Thanks to this QEEG, we’ll get insight in how you brain works, and we will be able to estimate if and how neurofeedback can help you.

3 QEEG Analysis

After your intake, we will analyse your data. This takes us several hours, so you don’t have to wait at the office while we take care of it. In general, you or your doctor will receive a full report within 4 to 5 days, including our findings and advice.

Taking the QEEG recording

To allow the recording, you’ll need to wear an electrocap. This is a cap with 21 electrodes woven into it, and that is going to measure your neuronal activity. Our software measures your brain activity en saves it so that our neurofeedback specialists can analyse it later on.

We will always take a recording under the conditions “eyes open” and “eyes closed”: this is because we expect a change in brain activity when you have your eyes open vs when you have your eyes closed.

In some cases, we can take an extra recordining where we ask you to complete a task, such as mental calculations. Don’t worry if that’s the case for you: when we take an extra recording, it’s only to get more insight in your functioning and no reason for concern at all.

Please not that we will not be able to tell you our findings immediately after this measurement. After the recording, we have several hours of work to carefully analyse your data. You’ll receive a report with our findings, generally within 4 to 5 days after your appointment.

Example of QEEG tracings in NeuroGuide.

A few tips and tricks for your neurofeedback intake

Please note that we need to apply some gel in the electrocap, which means you will leave with some gel in your hair. Usually it’s easy to remove with a comb.
Try to get to the intake appointment well rested. Are you exceptionally tired or did you sleep poorly? Please let us know so we can take it into account.
Do you have questions for our specialist? That’s never a problem. If you’d like to have extended conversation time, just let us know beforehand and we’ll try to book you some extra time.
Try to moderate your coffee and alcohol consumption at least 6 hours before the appointment.