Think of neurofeedback like a gym workout for your brain, where you can see your "brain muscles" working in real-time. Just like a gym has mirrors that let you see if you're doing an exercise correctly, neurofeedback uses sensors on your scalp to show your brain activity on a screen. You can literally see your brain waves in action.

Similar to how a personal trainer might guide you to adjust your form when lifting weights, the neurofeedback system gives you immediate feedback—usually through music or a movie— that tells you when your brain is producing the desired pattern of activity. When you're "doing it right," you might get a reward, like the music or video playing in a desirable way.

Like building muscle memory through repeated exercises, your brain learns to reproduce these healthy patterns through practice. If you're training to reduce anxiety, for instance, you're learning to create calmer, more focused brain wave patterns, just like you'd learn to activate the right muscles for a perfect workout.

And just as you might need several weeks of consistent gym workouts to see physical changes, neurofeedback typically requires multiple sessions before you notice lasting improvements in things like focus, sleep, or emotional regulation.