NEUROFEEDBACK
Brain-Based Support for Attention, Anxiety, Sleep, Mood, and Regulation
Neurofeedback in Denver, CO
Here is something that does not get said enough
Two people can walk in with the same diagnosis, describe the same symptoms, and have completely different things happening in their brains. One person’s anxiety is running fast. Another person’s anxiety is stuck. One person’s ADHD is an activation and regulation question. Another person’s ADHD is a sleep question wearing an attention mask. From the outside they look the same. From the inside they are different problems, and they need different approaches.
That is why we get curious before we train.
Neurofeedback at LuxNeuro
At LuxNeuro, neurofeedback starts with a qEEG brain map, a recording of your brain’s electrical activity that helps us understand the story of the brain and create a targeted, cohesive plan. We also take into account your history, symptoms, sleep, medications, and what you are experiencing day to day. We look at what your brain is doing, where the patterns are showing up, and how different regions are talking to each other before we make any decisions about what to do with that information. The protocols we build come from your data and your clinical picture, not from a general template, not from a diagnosis, and not from a best guess.
Neurofeedback then gives the brain real-time feedback about its own activity, and over time the brain learns to produce the patterns it needs for better regulation, focus, sleep, and mood. The brain map tells us where to work. Neurofeedback is how the work happens.
We do this because we have seen what happens when the approach matches the brain. And we have seen what happens when it does not. The difference matters, and it is the reason we will never skip the map.
Whether you have tried a lot of things and feel like something is still missing, you are already in solid care and want to understand the brain layer underneath it, or you simply want a brain map to bring to your care team so everyone is working from more information, the brain map is where that starts.
How we work
1. Discovery Call
We hear what has been going on and start to make sense of it together. People often leave with a clearer picture of what may be happening, not just what it looks like from the outside.
2. Brain Map
We map your brain before doing anything else. Because the patterns underneath the same symptoms can look very different from person to person and need different approaches. What works for one brain may not work for another. The brain map is where we find out.
3. Neurofeedback and Counseling
From there our team builds a plan specific to your brain. Not a standard protocol. Something built around what we find, with your brain always as the guide. Neuromodulation may also be included when the brain map and clinical picture suggest it would be useful.
Coming for counseling only? We start with a discovery call and go from there.
How neurofeedback works
Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback that works specifically with the brain’s electrical activity. During a session, sensors are placed on the scalp at locations that correspond to specific brain regions. These sensors read the brain’s electrical output in real time, measuring the amplitude, frequency, and coherence of brainwave activity across multiple bands including delta, theta, alpha, SMR, beta, and high beta.
The brain receives feedback about its own activity through changes in the audio or visual experience the person is engaged with during the session. When the brain produces activity within a target range, which is determined by the brain map and the clinical goals, the feedback reinforces that pattern. When it drifts outside the target range, the feedback changes. Over many repetitions across multiple sessions, the brain begins to learn and reinforce the targeted patterns through a process called operant conditioning, the same basic learning mechanism that underlies most behavioral change. Or, easier to understand, over many repetitions across multiple sessions, the brain begins to learn and reinforce the targeted patterns through a process called operant conditioning. If you have ever learned to shoot a basketball by adjusting your form based on whether the ball goes in, that is operant conditioning. The brain is doing the same thing, adjusting based on the feedback it receives, except it is adjusting its own electrical patterns rather than a jump shot.
Our approach at LuxNeuro
No electrical current enters the brain during neurofeedback. The sensors are reading, not transmitting. The brain is doing all of the work itself, using the feedback as information about what it is doing and gradually adjusting its own activity in response. This is an important distinction from other brain-based interventions like TMS, tACS, or tDCS, which apply external energy to the brain. Neurofeedback is a learning process from the inside out.
LuxNeuro also offers neuromodulation in some cases, which is a separate approach from neurofeedback. Where neurofeedback is a read-only learning process in which sensors measure brain activity and the brain receives informational feedback, neuromodulation uses gentle stimulation-based approaches to support the brain more directly. These may include transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF), or photobiomodulation (PBM), depending on what the brain map shows and what the clinical goals are. Not every client receives neuromodulation, and if it is recommended, we explain why it may fit your specific brain map findings and what it is intended to support. The decision about whether to include neuromodulation is always guided by the qEEG data and the clinical picture, consistent with how we approach everything at LuxNeuro.
Why we start with a brain map
Every neurofeedback program at LuxNeuro begins with a qEEG brain map, a quantitative electroencephalogram that records the brain’s electrical activity at rest during both eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions using a 19-channel recording cap placed according to the international 10-20 system. The recording captures approximately 10 minutes in each condition, producing data that is then artifact-cleaned and analyzed against age-matched normative databases.
We use two industry-standard analysis platforms and read the raw brainwave data directly. Our recordings must meet strict reliability thresholds before we consider the data interpretable. This level of rigor matters because the protocols we develop come directly from what the brain map shows, and if the data is not reliable, neither is the plan.
The brain map adds a layer of information that we combine with your symptoms, history, medications, sleep, and clinical picture for a thorough and connected understanding of what may be at play. This is not siloed care where one provider looks at one piece. We look at all of it together, and the brain map fills in the part that everything else cannot see on its own. It can also show us patterns that tell us to slow down and be careful, things like epileptiform activity or beta spindling that influence how we approach the brain and what protocols are safe to use.
What the brain map review looks like
Once the brain map is recorded, we look at the data two ways. We run it through two analysis platforms that compare your brain activity to age-matched norms, which gives us a clear picture of what stands out. Then we read the raw brainwave data ourselves, which is where the more specific and nuanced information tends to live. The reports are useful and accurate, but looking at the raw data is like reading the original document versus reading a summary of it. You catch things in the original that the summary smooths over. We do both because we want the full detailed and robust picture, not just the highlights.
The map review is not a list of numbers and z-scores. It is a translation of the data into language that helps you understand how your brain works, where the patterns are, what may be contributing to the difficulties you came in with, and what the neurofeedback plan will look like based on what we found. If other providers are involved in your care, the report can be shared with them to support more informed and collaborative clinical decision-making.
What neurofeedback can help with
Because neurofeedback works directly with the brain’s electrical patterns, and because the brain is involved in pretty much everything you do, think, and feel, the range of what it can help with is broad. That can sound like an infomercial and I get that. But the reason the list is long is not because we are overselling it. It is because the brain touches so many aspects, and when the brain starts regulating differently, the effects tend to show up across the board.
People come to us for:
ADHD and attention
Anxiety and panic
Depression and mood
Sleep, whether that is falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleep that does not restore
Trauma and PTSD
Burnout and nervous system depletion
Neurodivergence, including autism and AuDHD
High sensitivity and sensory processing
Emotional dysregulation
Brain fog, memory, and processing speed
Peak performance and stress resilience
Who we work with
We work with adults, teens, and children. Many come to us early in their journey, knowing something is off and wanting to start with the brain before trying other things. And others have already done significant work on themselves before they arrive. They have been in therapy, tried medications, read extensively, and are looking for something that addresses the physiological layer they can feel but have not been able to reach through other approaches. Both pathways are welcome and both are appropriate.
We also work with clients who are referred by other providers, including therapists, psychiatrists, physicians, and school counselors. When another provider is involved in your care, we welcome collaboration and are happy to share brain map findings and clinical observations to support more coordinated care.
Training and credentials
Laura Mahony holds a Licensed Professional Counselor credential in Colorado, Board Certification in Neurofeedback through BCIA, and a Diplomate in qEEG brain mapping from the IQCB, one of the highest credentials available in the field. Her training includes mentorship with some of the most respected leaders in EEG, QEEG, and neurofeedback, along with ongoing consultation and advanced study in complex brain map interpretation.
Laura is neurodivergent and highly sensitive herself, with lived experience with anxiety, complex trauma, depression, and menopause. That combination of clinical training, advanced neurophysiological credentials, and personal lived experience shapes every aspect of how LuxNeuro operates, from how the brain maps are read to how the sessions are conducted to how information is communicated to clients and their families.
Before becoming a clinician, Laura worked in reinsurance underwriting for a major life insurance company, where she was trained to read complex medical documentation across providers and find the pattern across fragmented care that no single specialist sees alone. She brings that same precision into her clinical work now, synthesizing brain data, history, medication patterns, and lived nervous system experience into a picture that helps people understand themselves in a way that other approaches have not provided.
Neurofeedback at Home, With Clinical Guidance
Neurofeedback doesn’t always have to happen inside the clinic. For clients who are a good fit, LuxNeuro offers remote neurofeedback with clinical supervision, allowing training to continue at home while keeping the same individualized, brain-map-guided approach.
Remote neurofeedback begins with an in-person qEEG brain map in Denver. From there, we determine whether an at-home program is clinically appropriate and, if so, build the training around what your brain map shows. This is not a self-guided rental model; you have ongoing clinical oversight throughout the process.
Frequently Asked Questions About Neurofeedback
What is neurofeedback?
Neurofeedback is a way of working directly with the brain’s electrical activity. Sensors placed on the scalp read what the brain is doing in real time and provide feedback, usually through changes in audio or video, that the brain uses to gradually adjust its own patterns. No electrical current enters the brain. Nothing is being put in. The brain is doing the learning itself, using information about its own activity that it does not normally have access to. Think of it as giving the brain a mirror so it can see what it is doing and learn to do something different over time.
How does neurofeedback work?
The brain produces electrical activity across different frequency bands that correspond to different states, things like focus, calm, alertness, sleep, and processing speed. During a neurofeedback session, the brain’s activity is monitored at specific scalp locations and compared to targets that come from your individual brain map. When the brain produces patterns within the target range, the feedback reinforces it. When it drifts outside that range, the feedback shifts. Over many repetitions across many sessions, the brain gradually learns to produce the targeted patterns more consistently. This is operant conditioning, the same basic learning mechanism behind most behavioral change. If you have ever learned to shoot a basketball by adjusting your form based on whether the ball goes in, that is operant conditioning. The brain is doing the same thing, adjusting based on the feedback it receives, except it is adjusting its own electrical patterns rather than a jump shot.
What should I expect during a neurofeedback session?
A typical session begins with a brief check-in about how things have been going since the last session, including sleep, mood, energy, focus, and any changes you have noticed. Sensors are then placed on the scalp at locations specific to your protocol. You sit comfortably and watch a video or listen to audio while the neurofeedback system reads your brain activity and provides feedback in real time. Most people describe the experience as relaxing and surprisingly easy. You do not have to concentrate or try to do anything specific. The brain responds to the feedback on its own. After the session there is a brief check-out conversation and you go about your day. Most people feel calm and grounded afterward, though occasionally someone will feel a bit tired or activated depending on what the session targeted.
How long does a neurofeedback session take?
The neurofeedback portion of the session is typically about 30 to 35 minutes of active training time. With setup, check-in, and check-out, most appointments run about 55 to 60 minutes total. If counseling is integrated into the session the appointment includes this in the beginning of the session or we schedule a separate hour, which is discussed during the intake process.
How many neurofeedback sessions will I need?
This depends on what patterns are present in the brain map, how long those patterns have been established, and what the clinical goals are. We typically recommend a minimum of twenty to thirty sessions before evaluating results, with sessions scheduled one to three times per week. Some people begin to notice changes in sleep, mood, or a general sense of settling within the first several sessions. Others experience more gradual shifts that become clear over a longer period. We check in regularly throughout the process and adjust protocols as the brain changes. At LuxNeuro, we will give you a realistic picture of what to expect based on your specific brain map findings before you commit to a course of work.
Is neurofeedback safe?
Neurofeedback has been used clinically since the 1960s and has a strong safety profile when administered by a trained and credentialed provider. No electrical current enters the brain. The sensors are reading, not transmitting, and the feedback is delivered through audio and visual changes that the brain responds to on its own. What makes the biggest difference for safety is whether the protocols are built from individualized brain map data or applied from a generic template. At LuxNeuro, every protocol comes from the brain map and is adjusted throughout the process based on how the person is responding. We do not apply one-size protocols because the brain is too specific for that and the stakes matter.
Are there side effects of neurofeedback?
Side effects from neurofeedback are generally mild and temporary when they occur. The most common reports are feeling tired after a session, having a slightly different quality of sleep for a night or two, or feeling a bit more activated or emotional than usual. These responses are typically transient and can be signs that the brain is responding to the training. They are also information we take seriously, which is why protocol adjustment is an essential part of the process. At LuxNeuro, session data is reviewed regularly and protocols are adjusted in response to how the person is doing between sessions. If something feels off or different in a way that is concerning, we want to hear about it so we can respond clinically. Serious adverse events from neurofeedback appear uncommon in the published literature, particularly when the work is guided by individualized brain map data and supervised by an appropriately credentialed provider.
Is neurofeedback appropriate for children and teens?
Yes. We work with children, teens, and adults. For younger clients we involve parents or caregivers in the process, adjust our communication style to match the person in the chair, and pay close attention to sensory needs and comfort throughout the session. The brain map process and the neurofeedback sessions themselves are the same regardless of age, but the way we talk about what we are doing, the length of sessions, and the pacing of the work are all adapted to what makes sense for that individual. If you are unsure whether your child is a good fit, the discovery call is where we talk that through together.
How do I know if neurofeedback is right for me?
The best way to find out is to start with a discovery call. This is a free conversation where we talk about what you are experiencing, what you have already tried, and what you are hoping to understand or address. From there, if it sounds like a brain map would be helpful, that is the next step. The brain map gives us objective data about what your brain is doing, and the map review session is where we go through the findings together and discuss whether neurofeedback makes sense for your situation. Some people learn during the map review that their brain data points toward a different kind of support, and that is useful information too. We do not pressure anyone into neurofeedback. We want the approach to fit the person and the data, and we would rather tell you honestly what we think than sell you something that may not be the right match for what your brain needs.
What is the difference between neurofeedback and neuromodulation?
Neurofeedback and neuromodulation are both brain-based approaches, but they work differently. Neurofeedback is a read-only learning process. Sensors on the scalp measure the brain’s electrical activity and the brain receives real-time feedback about what it is doing. No energy enters the brain. The brain learns to adjust its own patterns over time through the feedback loop. Neuromodulation, by contrast, uses gentle external stimulation to support the brain more directly. LuxNeuro offers several forms of neuromodulation including transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF), and photobiomodulation (PBM), which uses specific wavelengths of light to support cellular energy processes. Each of these works through a different mechanism, and the decision about which to use, if any, is always guided by the qEEG brain map and the clinical picture. Some clients receive only neurofeedback, some receive neuromodulation alongside it, and some may benefit from neuromodulation on its own depending on what the data shows. We walk you through the reasoning behind any recommendation so you understand what is being suggested and why.
Neurofeedback and counseling together
At LuxNeuro, neurofeedback and counseling are available together or separately. Many clients benefit from both because they address different layers of the same picture. Counseling works with the story, the meaning, the relationships, the behavioral patterns, and the psychological dimensions of what someone is carrying. Neurofeedback works with the brain’s electrical patterns directly, supporting the physiological capacity for regulation, flexibility, and access to states that the conscious mind alone may not be able to reach.
When both are in place, the counseling work tends to land differently because the nervous system has more capacity to engage with it. Insights that previously felt intellectual become felt. Regulation strategies that previously required enormous effort become more natural. The person has more of themselves available for the work because the brain is functioning with more flexibility and less of the background noise that was consuming their resources.
For clients who are working with a therapist elsewhere, neurofeedback at LuxNeuro can complement that existing relationship without replacing it. We are happy to coordinate with outside providers when clients authorize it.
Begin Neurofeedback in Denver, CO
If what you have tried so far has not fully resolved what brought you here, it may be worth looking at what the brain is doing underneath.
Getting started at LuxNeuro is simple.
- Schedule a discovery call to tell us what has been going on.
- Complete a brain mapping session to identify your brain’s specific patterns.
- Begin a neurofeedback plan built around what your brain needs.
Other Services at LuxNeuro in Denver
Neurofeedback is one of the core services at our Denver neurofeedback and counseling clinic, but because the brain functions as a system, we often work across multiple areas. We also offer qEEG brain mapping, individual counseling, nervous system translation consultation and coaching available across the United States, and remote neurofeedback for clients outside the Denver area. We work with people navigating ADHD, anxiety, depression, sleep, trauma, burnout, neurodivergence, autism, high sensitivity, and menopause and perimenopause.
If you are not sure where to start, a discovery call is always the right first step.