Although I mentioned it last week, it is worthy of more reflection that March 5 was the twentieth anniversary of our son Brian’s first neurofeedback training session. Within a little more than a month thereafter, Sue and I had decided to contribute somehow to the development of this field. This happened not firstly because of Brian’s progress in the interim–the good news on that front were largely yet to come–but all of the other things we saw happening in Margaret Ayers’ office while we were waiting for Brian to finish his sessions. Here was a veritable breeding ground for enthusiasm about brain-training. No controlled studies needed. In Michael Tansey’s imagery, we were seeing crutches getting hung up on walls, figuratively speaking.
I continue to mention Brian’s history in our introductory training course, but I observe that the story changes over time as we continue to reflect on it, as our own understanding of neurofeedback deepens, and as we understand better the challenges that Brian was facing with his own brain. A continuing preoccupation on our part concerns the “worldview” that Brian was developing with regard to himself and to his relationship to the world, and how this changed over time. Continue reading “20 years with Neurofeedback”