06/11/2026
In preparation for the Verve Wellness Fair in Danville this Saturday (3pm - 6pm - Front Street and Community Center) I'll be inside the community Center I want to show you something personal: my own brain map, and the neurofeedback protocol I built from it.
I talk a lot about neuroaffirming care. Today I want to show you what that actually looks like — using my own brain as the example.
First, the map.
This is a qEEG brain map. It compares my brain's electrical activity to a normative database. Green means "in the average range." Red means more activity than average. Blue means less.
Mine shows one clear finding: elevated theta and delta — the slow brainwaves — in the front and center of my head, a bit stronger on the right side. Both eyes open and eyes closed. Everything else (alpha, beta, high beta) sits comfortably in the average range.
Here's the thing. Slow waves are not a defect. Theta is the brainwave of imagination, internal dialogue, deep processing, daydreaming. Many neurodivergent brains run rich in it. It's part of why my inner world is loud and full of ideas.
But when there's a lot of slow activity running while I'm trying to focus on an external task, attention has to fight upstream. My performance testing matched this perfectly: slower reaction time, but solid impulse control. The engine works fine. It just idles slower than some tasks demand. If you have ADHD, you may recognize this feeling immediately — "I'm here, but I'm not fully here."
So I built a protocol for it.
🧠 Focus & Alertness
⏰ 4 rounds, 6 minutes each
📅 20 sessions
🔽 High beta (22–40 Hz)
🔽 Delta/Theta (1–7 Hz)
🔼 SMR/Low Beta (12–15 Hz)
📍 AF8 referenced to TP9
👀 Eyes open
🎯 53% thresholding
What all of that means in plain language:
🔽 Train down the slow waves (delta/theta). Not to erase them — I like my imagination. The goal is teaching my brain to dial down the "drifting inward" signal when I want to be present. Volume k**b, not delete button.
🔼 Train up SMR/low beta. This is the brainwave of calm, steady attention. Alert but not tense. Settled focus, not wired focus. This is the state most of us are actually reaching for when we say we want to "concentrate."
🔽 Cap high beta as a safety rail. High beta is the revved-up, anxious-effort signal. A lot of neurodivergent adults learned to focus through anxiety and white-knuckle effort. I don't want to train that. The inhibit makes sure my brain builds focus without building tension.
📍 Sensor placement matters. AF8 sits on the right side of my forehead — exactly where my map showed the most slow activity. TP9, behind the ear, is the reference. We train where the finding actually is, using channels my headband can read. The map drives the plan. Not a template. Not a guess.
👀 Eyes open, because that's the condition where I actually need focus in real life. I'm not trying to focus better with my eyes closed.
🎯 53% thresholding means the system is calibrated so my brain earns feedback a little over half the time. That's the learning sweet spot. Enough success to stay engaged, enough challenge to keep growing. Like setting a workout at the right weight — too easy and nothing changes, too hard and you quit.
Why I'm sharing this.
Because this is what neuroaffirming neurofeedback looks like. We didn't start from "what's wrong with this brain." We started from "how does this brain work, and where does it want more flexibility?"
My elevated theta is the same wiring that makes me a writer, a deep thinker, and honestly, a better therapist. I'm not training it out of me. I'm training in more access — more say in when I go inward and when I come back.
That's the whole philosophy. Not a different brain. A brain with more gears.
If you've ever wondered what your own map would show, or what a protocol built for your brain (not a generic one) would look like, that's exactly the work I do at Swift Mind Care.
🌿 swiftmindcare.com | [email protected] | (866) 866-1904
