Clinician's Guide - Bio-Medical Instruments, Inc.

The Authors, Instrumentation at the Authors’ Centre and The
Production of this Guide
Our backgrounds span education, psychology, anthropology, learning centres, medicine,
family therapy, biochemistry, physiology, neuroanatomy and the EEG. We have had the
opportunity to learn this new emerging field through working with more than two
thousand clients over more than a dozen years. At the ADD Centre / Biofeedback
Institute we have 16 instruments (plus 7 spares) from 12 different manufacturers. We like
to emphasize that all the instruments from the different manufacturers have positives that
are helpful. The depth of programs and instrumentation from Thought Technology is the
reason it has been the most frequent choice of equipment by our staff. This manual has
been written to help with their training. The Centre has over 25 consulting staff who act
as trainers so maintaining consistent high quality work is a priority and staff training is an
on-going task. We also train professionals from many corners of the globe. This has made
us aware that there is a need for an easy starting point for other users of the Thought
Technology equipment and this is an additional motivation for writing this ‘Guide’.
Thought Technology did not ask us to write this nor are they, or could they, pay for the
time put into it. It started, like The Neurofeedback Book, as a manual for our staff and
for the professionals who come from many corners of the globe who we are training.
Thought Technology generously offered to have their staff work on the screens that we
suggested and get out the bugs. The Biofeedback Foundation of Europe then kindly
offered to pay the costs of reproducing disks and do the work of making this guide and its
accompanying screens available over the internet. The screens and this book are
purchased from BFE.org and payment is made to BFE. Profits made by BFE go towards
the educational work of the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe. We want to thank both
Thought Technology and BFE their time and their patience. A special thanks to Hal,
Larry, Frank, Theresa, Mark and Didier who have put up with unending frantic calls for
help without ever a murmur of complaint. They have even responded rapidly to our
suggestions for changes in the program to make it easier for trainers to use.
Our reward lies in the hope that this guide and the accompanying screens that we have
field tested with a hundreds of clients, ranging in age from 4 to 68, may be of some help
to you. If it is then it is worth all the time and effort. Thank you for trying out some of
these ideas. All feedback is most welcome and is encouraged. Our website is:
Hwww.addcentre.com and the e-mail is: addcentre@gmail.com.
Executive Summary
The screens that accompany this guide are in groups labelled A, B, C and so on. Each
letter designates a commonly used group of screens to meet the needs of different types
of clients. Group A and B are for SMR and task oriented beta training respectively.
Groups C, D and E are used mainly with older adolescents and adults. They can involve
combinations of biofeedback and neurofeedback . The NFB portion in these screens often
addresses problems associated with ruminations and anxiety and the high beta (> 20 Hz)
correlates of these symptoms. There are a few screens for specific purposes such as those
under F for learning to control mental states, H for heart rate variability, M for coherence
(at the present time these use a specialized channel set for this purpose) and hopefully
Copyright ADD Centres Ltd. Prepublication – 1 st draft. Please do not copy. Dr. Thompson 905-803-8066 Canada 6