You function. You deliver. Nobody around you suspects a thing. But you wake up tired after eight hours of sleep, your mind will not stop in the evening, you lose the thread on tasks that used to be easy, and small things get a reaction out of all proportion. You are not „lazy" and you do not need to „try harder". Most likely your nervous system is stuck in a state of alert it can no longer come down from on its own.
Neurofeedback trains precisely this: the brain's capacity to regulate its own level of activation. Not through medication, not through electrical stimulation — through learning, measured at every step.
Do any of these sound familiar?
- You sleep, but you do not rest. You struggle to fall asleep because your mind is running through tomorrow, or you wake at three in the morning and cannot close your eyes again.
- Concentration has become a fight. You read the same paragraph three times. You open a document and close it again. The day passes and you do not know what you did.
- You are always „on". A background tension in your shoulders, your jaw, your stomach — even when objectively nothing is happening.
- You lose your temper over nothing. Traffic, a message, a question from your child. And then you feel guilty about how you reacted.
- Holidays no longer recharge you. You come back and within three days you are exactly where you were.
- You have already tried things. Sport, meditation, supplements, perhaps therapy. Something helped, but it did not hold.
If three or more apply, it does not mean you are ill. It means it is worth looking at data rather than at impressions.
A quick check — 8 questions, 2 minutes
This is not a diagnostic test and it does not replace an assessment. It is a quick mirror: how often have the following happened to you in the past month?
What actually happens in a session
You sit in an armchair with sensors on your scalp. A simple game or a film runs on the screen. When your brain's electrical activity moves into the pattern we are training, the image is clear and the sound flows. When it moves out, the image fades. You do not have to do anything consciously — the brain learns by itself, from feedback, exactly the way you learn to balance on a bicycle without being able to explain how.
With me, a 50-minute session includes two technologies in the same visit:
- EEG neurofeedback on the Braintrainer system — with a protocol set from your own brain map, not a standard programme applied to everyone.
- HEG (haemoencephalography) — training the prefrontal cortex: the area that focus, decision-making and the ability to stop before you react all depend on.
And it includes something the technology does not show: you work with me, not with a technician and not with a machine left running on its own. I am a clinical psychologist licensed by the Romanian College of Psychologists and a psychotherapist — if something surfaces during training that calls for more than a protocol, there is somewhere to take the conversation.
What the path looks like, concretely
1. Orientation consultation — 30 minutes, free
By video or at the practice. You tell me what brings you and what you want to change. I tell you whether neurofeedback makes sense for you — including when the answer is „no". No obligation and no follow-up pressure.
2. The brain map (BrainMap QEEG)
We measure your brain's electrical activity. You receive a written report and a session in which I explain what the map shows: where there is too much activation, where too little, what accounts for the symptoms you are living with. Only then do we set the plan. We do not settle on a path before I know what we are training.
3. The training — in blocks of 20 sessions
Two sessions a week, roughly 10 weeks for a block. Under 20 sessions, the changes do not have time to settle — I say so from the start, because I would rather lose a client than promise something that will not hold. At the end of each block we re-measure, look at data rather than impressions, and decide together whether we continue.
I am not the cheapest option. Here is why
Very different things are found today under the label „neurofeedback": automated systems that run the same programme for everyone, headsets with LED lights, sessions supervised by a technician trained over a weekend. All of them are cheaper. None of them is what you get here.
Before you choose — wherever you choose — ask these questions:
- Is there a QEEG measurement before the training?
- Is the protocol individual, or the same for every client?
- Who runs the session, and what clinical training do they have?
- Which technologies does a session actually include?
- How is progress measured objectively along the way?
- What duration is being recommended to me — and on what basis?
- What happens if I am not a suitable candidate?
The price difference between a clinical service and an automated one is around 30%. The difference between measured results and promised results is another matter.
Questions adults ask me
Do I have to stop my medication?
No. Neurofeedback does not replace medical treatment and nothing is decided without your doctor. Many people train alongside their medication; if changes appear over time, any adjustment is made by the treating physician, not by me.
Does it work alongside psychotherapy?
Yes, and usually better together. Therapy works with meaning and with the relationship; neurofeedback works with regulation. A better-regulated nervous system lets you stay with difficult subjects without being overwhelmed.
How long before I feel something?
The first changes usually show up in sleep, within the first 6–10 sessions. Concentration and emotional regulation come more slowly. Stable results require a full block. If someone promises you otherwise, ask what they are basing that on.
Are there side effects?
It is non-invasive: the brain receives only visual and auditory feedback, not electrical stimulation. Some people feel mildly tired after the first sessions; this passes. Situations calling for caution are identified at the assessment.
I am coming from Bucharest. Is the trip worth it?
The practice is in the Paradisul Verde complex in Corbeanca — a few minutes from Otopeni, Balotești, Tunari, Mogoșoaia and Buftea. For northern Bucharest (Băneasa, Pipera, Aviației) I am often closer than a clinic in the centre. I know the DN1 is a real problem: for clients coming from the city I schedule against the traffic — the middle of the day and weekends.
Do you work in English or French?
Yes — French as a native language, English at an advanced level. Welcome, bienvenue.
The first step costs nothing
A 30-minute conversation in which you tell me what is happening and I tell you honestly whether I can help. If I cannot, I say so — and, where I can, I tell you where to look next.
Ileana Vlad · clinical psychologist licensed by the Romanian College of Psychologists, integrative psychotherapist, neurofeedback specialist authorised by Braintrainer Europe
Aleea Brândușei 15, Paradisul Verde complex, Corbeanca, Ilfov, Romania · contact@ileanavlad.com