Neurofeedback: Another Way to Treat Depression!

I am sitting at my dining room table wearing what looks like an old lady’s bathing cap, only this one comes with wires, electrodes and a battery pack.

It may look weird, but lately this safe but very powerful device has become my closest ally in keeping depression at bay. While I wear it, I am doing something called neurofeedback, a decades-old technique that not only has helped me, but also has dramatically improved the lives of others I know, people for whom no other depression treatments have worked.

One of those people is a dear friend in Denver, where I live during the winter months. Carol, whose name I have changed, has tried a boatload of different antidepresssants over the years, but has never found a drug that worked successfully to boost her mood. After my success with neurofeedback late last year, I mentioned the technique to her over coffee in January, and told her how much it was helping me.

The next thing I knew she had found a neurofeedback practitioner and had begun treatment.

When I met Carol for coffee last week, she greeted me by saying, "Claudia, I am deeply indebted to you for that recommendation." I was surprised and delighted, and asked her how she was feeling.

"I am a completely new person," she said.

A Well-Kept Secret in Mental Health Treatment

Carol isn't the only person who has responded so dramatically. I have, and so has my sister and at least one other person I know of. The question I keep asking myself is why did I have to wait until I was in my seventies to discover neurofeedback? Why is this antidepressant treatment such a well-kept secret? Like so many millions of others, I thought the principle way to treat depression was chemical, that is, to take oodles of anti-depressants.

One book I have consulted, called A Symphony in the Brain, by Jim Robbins, suggests why neurofeedback hasn't "exploded onto the treatment landscape."

"Brain wave training remains a victim of the fact that it is outside mainstream concepts, is far ahead of the science of how it works, has a persistent but undeserved reputation as a softheaded 'new age' idea, and is a model that -- unlike the drug model -- doesn't lend itself to astronomical profits."

In other words, Big Pharma hasn't found a way to make oodles of money on neurofeedback.

How Neurofeedback Works

When people learn about my experience, they inevitably ask me how neurofeedback works. Here is what I understand. I sit before a computer screen displaying powerful visual images -- like spectacular photos of the cosmos or gorgeous scenes from what looks like the Colorado Rockies where my husband and I love to hike.

But I don't see the entire image all at once. Instead, I receive it piece by piece, one small rectangle at a time. My brain in effect earns each new section of the image only when I'm emitting the optimal brain waves.

Through this process, my brain learns to reprogram itself. What do I need to do to generate these improved brain waves? Not much. I am instructed simply to relax and focus on the image. Often, I find myself smiling knowing I am effectively crafting a healthier brain -- it feels rather cosmic.

OK, but I can't say precisely how that brain reprogramming happens. How exactly do brain neurons that have been firing one way for years, suddenly change gears and fire in another way?

Even neurofeedback practitioners aren't exactly sure how it works. But the important thing is, they know it does work. And unlike many antidepressant drugs, neurofeedback doesn't seem to have any adverse side effects, either.

My Sister's Introduction to Neurofeedback

It was my younger sister, Karen Ricci, trained as an RN and public health researcher, who first introduced me to the idea of neurofeedback. She started working with a neurofeedback practitioner in Hadley, Massachusetts, Mark Gapen, PhD, last June and pretty soon Karen reported to me that her mood had lifted in a remarkable way, one that she had never experienced before. She wasn’t giddy; she simply felt like she had a buoyant new energy.

“I’m awfully glad I found it,” she says. It has made all the difference in how my sister feels about life. She is upbeat and energetic, and thinking about life in a positive way.

From Political Depression to Personal Crisis

I grew a lot more interested in neurofeedback after the election last November, when, like millions and millions of other Americans, I felt like I had rolled off a cliff into a deep dark crevass of fear, depression and terror at what was to come.

Meanwhile, a week later, my husband was told that he needed major back surgery. That too had me tied up in knots. The combination was deadly, or so it felt in late November.

I talked to my therapist and she mentioned that she had a client who was having remarkable results with neurofeedback.

“He’s tried everything,” Maureen told me, “including ketamine and nothing worked for him before, not until this!”

That was enough for me. I quickly called the neurofeedback practitioner that her client was seeing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. By some miracle, I was able to get an appointment.

Rapid Results that Seem Impossible

OK, this next part might strike you as impossible. But I swear it’s the truth: after a couple of intake discussions by phone, I had my first neurofeedback session in Pittsfield on December 10th with family therapist Margaret Dondiego, who is board certified in neurofeedback. I had two sessions with her the following week, on December 17th and 19th. I skipped a week or so for the holidays and had my fourth session on January 2, 2025, just a few days before my husband and I left for Colorado.

By that point, I was feeling a dramatic improvement in my mood.

Moreover, as I explained to Margaret, I was feeling more calm and resilient than I had in a very long time.

How is it possible that four sessions could have such an impact?

The short answer is that neurofeedback builds on the brain’s inherent “neuroplasticity,” its natural ability to change, and it leads the brain to function more calmly and effectively. As one website explains, neurofeedback is a safe and non-invasive technique that enables you to alter your own brain wave characteristics. “You can think of it as exercise for the brain.”

Or as Margaret keeps emphasizing with me, “you are rewiring your brain so that it can better regulate itself.” She adds: “It is, in a certain way, technology-assisted meditation.”

That’s something I can relate to, as I’ve been meditating every morning for decades.

The Science Behind the Treatment

Margaret’s initial instructions to me when I first started in her office were very simple. “Try to remain internally calm and externally focused.” Why? Because if you’re not calm and focused, you won’t get the brain reward that neurofeedback delivers.

The field of neurofeedback has been around as far back as the 1970s and 1980s, when researchers began studying the effects of neurofeedback on control epilepsy.

One of the biggest proponents of the field today is psychologist Sebern Fisher, who is based in Northampton, MA. Dr. Fisher trains practitioners in neurofeedback all over the world. Beginning in about 1996, she began using neurofeedback on children and adolescents who were suffering from severe abuse and trauma.

As clinical director of a residential treatment center in Massachusetts for many years, Dr. Fisher encountered some of the most difficult and destructive behaviors imaginable in a population of kids who never had love from a mother or other primary caretaker. Many of these kids were shipped from one foster home to another. Most suffered from neglect or complete abandonment.

What's amazing is that Dr. Fisher discovered that neurofeedback worked wonders in this hard-to-treat population. Neurofeedback acted on the so-called "primitive" brain, helping kids and young adults who desperately needed to deal with their fear, the emotion which is at the heart of so-called developmental trauma. What Dr. Sebern found is that after treatment with neurofeedback, these children were able to begin talk therapy for the very first time in their lives.

My Ongoing Journey

When I first saw Margaret,

I had the feeing that no amount of talk therapy would move me out of my slump. I was completely unwilling to consider that I might be able to meet the challenges facing me. Or think about life in a positive way. But after only a few sessions, I felt like I was back in the land of the living, feeling hopeful in spite of the problems I had perceived to be overwhelming only weeks before.

I have told Margaret several times over the last three months that I feel "resilient," that is, I have a calm feeling of confidence in myself. And I believe in a gut way that I can handle life's ups and downs.

My friend Carol in Denver describes a similar experience. Her mood is lifted in a way it wasn't before. And for the first time in her adult life, she is starting to exercise. Like me, she describes feeling resilient and energized.

Because my husband and I live in Colorado in the winter months, helping to take care of our grandson, I am not able to see Margaret for neurofeedback in her office in Massachusetts. But Margaret has helped me acquire (and wire) that silly contraption that I have on my head in the photo up top. Outfitted with my odd-looking cap, and an easy-to-use app on

my iphone, I can now do neurofeedback wherever I happen to be.

If all this sounds implausible, I assure you it isn’t.

I am living proof that neurofeedback works. I continue to marvel at its power to positively affect mind and brain. But it isn't just my experience. Jim Robbins, author of A Symphony in the Brain, writes, "The effects of neurofeedback are not subtle. They are extremely robust. There is nothing else like it, not even other kinds of biofeedback That's one of the reasons it has languished. There is nothing to compare it to."

Unfortunately, practitioners and researchers trying to get grants to study neurofeedback have been stymied. One highly respected researcher at UCLA, Dr. Barry Sherman, has done pioneering research on neurofeedback, and has published more than 150 papers in top journals. He has applied for grants to continue studying neurobeedback but the NIH has turned him down.

"...the National Institutes of Health will not give us grants," Sherman told author Robbins. "We've written solid grants but the minute you use the term neurofeedback certain people's minds snap shut. Sometimes I feel like Galileo."

This personal account reflects my own experience with neurofeedback. While it has been transformative for me, individual results may vary. Always consult healthcare professionals about treatment options for depression or other mental health conditions. If you are looking for a neurofeedback practitioner in your area, be sure to consult the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA), the organization that certifies individuals in the practise.

Resurrected Once Again by Art, and Love

It's no accident that it has been months since I last wrote a blogpost. The election leveled me (and so many millions of others.) It felt like the world had ended. What point was there in writing another blogpost? But then the most wonderful things started to happen, all to do with friends and their writing and their art. What follows is the story of those things. I posted it first on my Substack column, called "Here, Now."

One of my favorite Christmas cards this season comes from an old friend and lifelong political activist who turned painter in his retirement. Jeff Blum is a person I admire for many reasons, not the least of which is that he devoted his entire energy this past fall to the political fight in North Carolina. The fact that Dems did reasonably well in that state is testament in part to the work by him and so many other activists.

But it was Jeff’s holiday card to me and my husband Richard Kirsch, another lifelong political activist who introduced me to Jeff years back, that touched me. The painting on front is his own, an image of his precious granddaughter Kira sitting in a chair. Inside he writes:

“Peace? Justice? Democracy? Back at it. Glad to share the [political] work with you. And we still have art.”

I haven’t been able to write a word here in Substack since the debacle that was the election, but that card started me thinking that maybe, maybe, art could lead me out of my deep doldrums.

But then I dismissed the idea: who wanted to hear my voice, talking about the gut punch that was Dump’s win. Certainly not me.

The next nudge came from a student of mine, from decades ago, who is fighting a valiant battle against an aggressive case of Parkinson’s. The fact that Josh Powell is writing so furiously intrigued me. As did a long conversation I had with him a few weeks back, to discuss a very important memoir he is writing, called “Father and Son.” At the end of our talk, he encouraged me to start writing. “Don’t you remember what you used to tell all your students? That no matter what the feelings are, you have to sit down and just write?!”

Sure, I thought. But how do I do that with absolutely nothing to say?

And then came the texts from my wonderful sister-in-law Fawn Frome Walker, who is an extraordinary watercolor painter.

She texted to ask how I was doing since she had not heard from me in a while. I told her my energy post-Dump’s triumph was lower than Death Valley. I told her that I didn’t know how I was going to go forward. She wrote me back. Twice. The first time she said:

“Was thinking about you and your trump funk. I think the best way to get around this is to NOT waste time, energy or love on anything to do with it. You’re giving away your power by staying in a funk…”

🙏

Yes, what she wrote was absolutely right. And it made me think a little more about writing and painting. Her words, and her concern and love, gave me a tweak of hope. I was reminded that no matter what happens in life, we really have no choice but to live bravely and carry on. I learned that lesson very well when I had cancer 23 years ago. That’s when I started painting. (You can read my tale about art and healing here on MyStoryLives.)

I knew Fawn was right, that I was indeed leaking power, big time. Somehow, I needed to figure it out. I had to fight my way back on track. And then two days before Christmas she texted me this genuinely good tidbit from author Mel Robbins:

“Don’t give up on this year. Keep fighting for the good. Keep showing up. Keep loving. Keep being kind. Keep being brave. Keep caring. Keep trying new things. Keep showing grace. Keep on.

“This world needs you to believe in the good.”

All of what Robbins said resonated. That combined with Jeff’s card and Fawn’s words stirred me further, made me think, OK, I really must start painting. Nothing earthshaking happened. On a scale of one to ten, the energy I felt was about a four, but it was just enough to get me seeing myself smearing bright colors on white canvas. Some kind of buoyancy, a tiny creativity wave if you will, was set in motion. It started to roll and twist and pull something out of my heart.

And so a few days ago I finally took out some paint. I reached for tubes intuitively, in other words, I picked colors that resonated: bright yellow and tomato red and almost neon orange. Oh, and white and turquoise. I took a large palette knife and scooped up the squiggles of paint and shimmied them onto the white canvas. And as so often happens when I start playing with paint, I felt a twinge of joy. It wasn’t like it hit me over the head or anything. It was more like it gave me a firm nudge in the ribs.

I painted for a steady couple of hours that first day. I actually took out a second unfinished painting, one that’s been on hold for many many months and began working on that one too.

Meanwhile, during meditation, I continued to ask the Universe for help, invoking the Divine Feminine in Italian: Per favore, Divina Femminile, aiutamì a cominciare a dipingere e scrivere. There is power in asking the Universe for help.

And then finally, the last straw, or in this case, the match that was needed to rekindle my creative fire, was a particularly moving and magnificent essay by that friend and former student, Josh Powell. So powerful was this piece of writing, called “The Perfect Lens,” that practically overnight it acted on my subconscious, giving me the sustenance and psychic support I needed to begin creating again.

What Josh said in the essay was, basically, that even though he is quickly losing ground to the Parkinson’s, he is not giving up:

“While my physical capabilities diminish, my anger sometimes flares - not from depression or fear, but from the fierce desire to continue embracing life in all its fullness. This anger, too, is a kind of gift - evidence of how deeply I've loved this life I've been given…So I'll keep writing, keep loving, keep finding the divine in flowing waters and human hearts. There's such beauty in seeing life through the perfect lens of mortality - how it brings everything into sharp, precious focus. Every sunrise becomes a psalm, every shared laugh a hallelujah, every moment of connection a small miracle.”

I love Josh, and I love his writing. And knowing that he is as wildly courageous as a tiger at this time in his life — he turns 60 this year — made me see that Fawn was absolutely spot on when she said that that I can’t waste any more time wallowing in funk.

All of it came to fruition as I meditated a couple mornings ago, all of the messages — from Jeff, Fawn and Josh — began swirling around and around inside my brain and heart, and in an instant, I felt an exquisite ball of fire take over.

When meditation ended, I went back to work on the second painting — which I realized is for a very dear friend facing another serious health challenge. Hell, it may not be a great painting, but that’s not the point. I am painting again. With love for those who matter so much to me.

And all that got me writing this.

There are so many many people I love who are hurting right now, all of us dreading the dark chaos that awaits our nation. I continue to pray and meditate, asking for miracles. But I know that prayer is at heart a conversation with the divine, not a petition per se. Miracles may not be in store.

No matter what happens to us, though, I know my friends are right when they say we have to continue to believe that we have power. We have agency. We have the ability to try something new, both as individuals and as groups.

The best way I know how is to express power is through art. I tell people all the time, you should try throwing paint on canvas and see if it lifts your heart. For me, painting is all about play. As children, we play with the world around us, in simple and complex ways, and this play gives us unbridled joy, and teaches us a myriad of things. And it reaches inside our hearts and lights our imagination.

If you’ve ever thought about painting, if you’ve ever had the least desire to do it, I highly recommend you don’t wait. Take yourself to a store and buy yourself a canvas or a notebook. Try alcohol ink, which you blow through a straw. Or acrylics which I use in part because they’re so easy to wash away if you are displeased with what you are producing. Easier still, get yourself some lush crayons or lovely pastels and apply them to whatever surface appeals to you. Or stick to drawing, black charcoal pencil on white. The point is, let go, make a mess, but most of all, have a little fun, even if it’s just a bit. Somehow the act of making color and lines, or taking photographs. It all helps to ease the pain.

So if you’re not a painter and have no desire to be? How about going to a museum and just sitting on one of those cushioned benches and staring at a piece of art that moves you.

It’s a little like visiting old (or new) friends. It kindles warmth and love. Which of course is essential post-election.

Is it any wonder that art works so profoundly on our hearts and minds? Like everything else in the Universe, artistic expression is a form of energy. When it comes to healing, indigenous peoples down through the ages have known where to start: with the spirit, the energy and grace of the Universe, captured in song and sound and image and words expressed by human beings.

As the year ends, I keep returning to the Italian words that I have written in my journal and spoken out loud over and over again this year as I’ve been writing a novel about a very brave ancestor — my Great Great Grandmother, Filomena Scrivano — who grew up in the southern Italian region of Calabria, and had a baby (my great grandfather) out of wedlock in 1870. It is an absolute miracle he survived.

I’ve got so much to be grateful for. Sono così così grato. I am so so grateful.

For art of all kinds, for the love of family and friends, for health and well-being, for animals and nature in all its wonders. For life.