To make our services as accessible as possible, NeuroGrove offers a variety of virtual options for training and therapeutic services! These services can be accessed from wherever you are, at whatever time works best for you. Based on your individual needs and goals, we’ll design you a personalized program and provide you regular support via videoconferencing platforms. Some of our virtual services include: remote neurofeedback, tele-psychotherapy, nutrition and wellness coaching, and virtual movement therapy.
Remote Neurofeedback
Using a technology-based brain training called neurofeedback, we can train our brains to behave in different ways by rewarding certain electrical patterns and activity within various brain regions. It’s a service that has traditionally required the use of a complicated brain-computer interface system, and thus meant clients needed to come to the clinician’s office for regular sessions. However, with recent technological advances, we are now able to bring the clinician and neurofeedback to clients who are unable to come into our center, who travel frequently, or who would like supplemental training between sessions. Using our convenient, empirically supported, home-based brain-training systems, you can now engage in neurofeedback training (and optimize your brain health) from anywhere, at any time.
Although there is currently no good option for remote swLORETA training, our remote neurofeedback option (i.e., amplitude neurofeedback) offers benefits of its own – including the ability to train as many times as you’d like throughout the week! This means that you can use it whenever you need it most, such as when you feel your anxiety levels increasing, your mental energy waning, or your mood dropping.
There are many benefits to doing home-based brain training. Not only does it give you more control over when, where, and how often you train, but it also gives you more autonomy in your healing journey. Because you’re receiving in-the-moment data about your brain, you gain a better understanding of how brain activity can affect mood, energy, thoughts – and vice versa. With more awareness comes more knowledge about how to improve your overall brain behavior.
Remote neurofeedback is also helpful for use in-the-moment for specific tasks or purposes, such as assisting your daily meditation practice, enhancing your focus before starting a project, or calming your brain before bedtime. With direct, conscious feedback about specific brainwave states, you can learn to identify when your brain is in a dominant theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), low beta (12-16 Hz), or high beta (16-30 Hz) state, which then allows you to voluntarily induce each state in accordance with the task at hand (e.g., meditating vs. working).
How does it work?
NeuroGrove has partnered with Muse, an EEG brain-sensing headband, and Myndlift, an easy to use home neurofeedback system, to provide you with an effective, clinician-supervised remote training option. As with our in-person swLORETA neurofeedback, Dr. Bell will design a protocol based on your brain’s unique needs, as well as monitor your progress from a distance and continually adapt your protocol as necessary. Our clinicians are also available to assist you with getting the device and software set up, as well as provide tips and guidance for optimizing your training in accordance with your set brainwave targets. We can even watch your training sessions in real-time, access your EEG readings, monitor progress, and provide you with additional feedback and training data.
To get started with remote training, we’ll first provide you with a specific type of EEG brain-sensing headband (Muse) that uses 7 calibrated sensors to read your brain activity. The headband may also include an external sensor that can be placed on the scalp in a location pre-determined by your clinician. This means we’re able to be even more specific in the regions and activity we’re trying to target.
This headband is then used in conjunction with an app (Myndlift) on your smart phone or tablet to translate the EEG into usable data for training. Through our provider dashboard, we are able to create a neurofeedback training program specific to your needs, monitor your progress, and adjust your training protocol as necessary.
Similar to our in-person neurofeedback training, this remote system uses audio and visual cues in the form of games, videos, and music to provide your brain with feedback around when it is on the right track toward our set brainwave targets. For example, if we’re training the brain to be more relaxed, then when the brain produces the brainwaves related to relaxation (e.g., alpha), it’s rewarded by a clear, pleasant image and sound. When the brain is in more of a stressed (i.e., beta) state, on the other hand, the rewarding imagery and audio will disappear. This allows you to learn when your brain is behaving as desired, and the reward process reinforces the brain to continue behaving in that way. You will also be able to track your progress between rounds and sessions for enhanced learning and understanding.
For more information about neurofeedback, click here.
virtual nutrition and wellness coaching
Looking to make changes to your health and wellness habits? Our remote nutrition and wellness coaching can not only provide you with personalized information pertinent to your unique health needs, but can also offer accountability and support in turning your health goals into achievable action steps—and lasting lifestyle changes. Our nutritional assessment will help to identify any nutritional deficiencies and create a personalized nutritional plan for your individual brain, body, and goals.
You’ll then have one-on-one videoconference sessions with your wellness coach to set achievable goals, identify and overcome barriers, and help you create a strategy for change that will set you up to succeed every step of the way! Intimidated by the thought of cooking? Your coach can even do virtual cooking lessons and provide you with some nutritious recipes, as well as easy tips and techniques!
For more information about our personalized nutrition services, click here.
Virtual Movement and Meditation
While we may not always have access to gyms and trainers, there are several exercises and movement-based therapies you can utilize within your home to release pent-up energy, improve your health, reduce muscle tension, and keep working on your brain. Our movement coach can guide you, via videoconference, with appropriate exercises and stretches for your individual brain, body, and goals. We can also lead you through our unique NeuroFlow movement therapy, which incorporates a variety of movement modalities and is designed specifically for brain-body wellness.
For more information about our movement-based therapies, click here.
Tele-psychotherapy
We believe that quality mental health care should be accessible to everyone, no matter the circumstances. It’s our hope that by providing remote tele-psychotherapy, we can reach remove some of the logistical barriers to getting support. We take an integrative approach to our psychotherapy services and thus incorporate a variety of tools into our process, such as mindfulness-based approaches, stress regulation techniques, guided meditations, cognitive strategies and more! These services can be provided in conjunction with our remote neurofeedback services or as a standalone therapy.
For more information about our integrative psychotherapy services, click here.
Do I have to be good with technology?
Although virtual services do require more use of technology than our in-person services, we have done our best to choose easy-to-use platforms and will walk you through how to use them in a simple, step-by-step fashion. We also have several options for assisting you from a distance to make the process as seamless as possible. Furthermore, we pride ourselves on providing excellent customer care, so should you have any technological challenges along the way, we will be more than happy to assist you!
Is it confidential?
Although all forms of telehealth present some risks to privacy, we have taken great care to choose the most secure, user-friendly platforms for the virtual services we provide. In attempt to mitigate the risks, NeuroGrove utilizes a secure, HIPAA compliant platform for all teletherapy sessions. We have also chosen a platform with a lower probability of technical issues than many other platforms and will provide instructions to help you easily connect to the platform. All notes related to your session will be maintained within our HIPAA-compliant medical records systems. Furthermore, all of our therapists and coaches have been instructed to meet with clients in a private location.