On 15 October 2022, BEE Medic GmbH will be holding an "Open Day". Under the motto of this year's Mental Health Action Week "Talking lifts your spirits - mentally healthy in our society", we will talk about mental health and show what role modern medical technology, such as neurofeedback, plays in this.

"Mental illness is still a taboo subject. A lot has already improved - especially in recent years - and people can talk more openly about mental illnesses, but hardly ever in the public sphere. That's why we're taking part in the nationwide Mental Health Action Week. We want to get people talking about what it actually means to be mentally healthy," says Johannes Spallek, managing director of BEE Medic GmbH, and continues: "Above all, we also want to show that the therapy of mental illnesses with technologies like neurofeedback can be easy and simply fun." 

The open house will take place on October 15, 2022 from 10 am - 4 pm at Sattlertorstraße 48a in 91301 Forchheim.

On site, the team of BEE Medic as well as the Dipl.Psych. Stephan Kolbe and Erhard Beer, occupational therapist from Nuremberg, are available for questions.

For professionals with a medical and therapeutic background, there is also the possibility of a live demonstration.

Webinar on World Mental Health Day
 

October 10 is World Mental Health Day. Based on the motto "Talking lifts your spirits - mentally healthy in our society", BEE Medic GmbH is hosting a free webinar entitled "Let's talk about neurofeedback" at 6:00 pm. Neurofeedback experts Dr. Meike Wiedemann and Veronika Kreitmayr will discuss the questions of what it actually means to be mentally healthy, what role neurofeedback can play in therapy and, above all, how therapists can benefit from working with neurofeedback.

Mental health is an essential factor for our quality of life. Especially the pandemic of the last years has increased the awareness for this, but the need for effective therapy as well as the load for therapists has increased significantly. Neurofeedback can play an important role here, on the one hand as an effective therapy module for patients, on the other hand it can also facilitate the everyday work of behavior therapists.

The expert webinar on October 10, 2022, will cover how.
"Let's Talk About Neurofeedback"
Live from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with Dr. rer. nat. Meike Wiedemann and Veronika Kreitmayr.

The webinar is aimed at therapeutic and health care professionals working in behavioral and psychotherapeutic settings from the fields of (child and adolescent) psychiatry, (neuro)psychology, or occupational therapy, as well as other professional groups.

All participants can ask questions and participate in live discussions via a chat tool.
Participation is free of charge and possible after registration under the following link.

Please be aware that the webinar is held in German language.

The experts:
 

Dr. Meike Wiedemann is a neurobiologist. In her research for European space agencies (ESA, DLR, CNES) she investigated the effects of gravitational conditions on the brain. She first encountered neurofeedback in 1995 as part of her university work. Fascinated by the effects, she completed a naturopathic training in order to be able to work with neurofeedback. Since 2002 she runs a neurofeedback practice in Stuttgart. Since 2009 she is active in teaching and leads the training department at BEE Medic. She is author and co-author of several articles and reference books, including the standard work "Praxisbuch Biofeedback und Neurofeedback", published by Springer Medizin Verlag, and "Neurofeedback: Wie eine spielerisch leichte Therapie dem Gehirn hilft, Probleme zu überwinden", published by Kösel Verlag.

Veronika Kreitmayr studied psychology at the University of Vienna. In her professional career, she worked for 12 years as a sports psychologist for the Red Bull Training and Diagnostic Center, where she worked with various neurofeedback approaches. In 2016, she founded her own practice near Salzburg, where she specializes mainly in peak performance, but also mental illness. She also works internationally as a lecturer in neurofeedback and trains colleagues in German and English to work with neurofeedback.

Mental Health Week

Mental health is an essential factor for our quality of life. Especially in recent years, the topic has become a focus of attention. At the same time, the need for support and therapy has increased, as has the workload for therapists. 

This is also illustrated by a study conducted by the DAK in 2021, which shows that the number of days of absence due to mental illness increased again in 2021. At 276 days of absence per 100 insured persons, a new all-time high has been reached. A large proportion of the absences are due to depression. The consequences are far-reaching. Both for patients, who urgently need access to therapy, and for therapists, whose waiting lists continue to grow.

Mental Health Week, which takes place October 10-20, also revolves around the topic. Under this year's motto "Talking lifts the spirits - mentally healthy in our society", the focus is on getting into conversation with each other, developing understanding for each other and removing the taboos surrounding mental illness.

Neurofeedback and Mental Health

We also want to join this motto on the World Mental Health Day. Therefore, we would like to talk about Neurofeedback, which can be a building block in the therapy of mental illnesses. Neurofeedback aims to improve the brain's ability to self-regulate and thus, above all, to alleviate symptoms of mental illness. By focusing on symptom improvement, Neurofeedback brings a certain lightness to therapy, because it usually becomes apparent very quickly whether patients respond to Neurofeedback. First successes motivate and also especially performance-oriented people usually find a good access to Neurofeedback, because it does not "feel like therapy" at all. The setting is relaxing and the brain does the Neurofeedback "by itself". And also for therapists Neurofeedback usually means calm work and thus also relief and ease into the daily therapy routine.

Expert talk on World Mental Health Day

Therefore, we will talk about Neurofeedback and mental health in an exciting webinar with Neurofeedback experts Dr. rer. nat. Wiedemann and Veronika Kreitmayr on October 10.  Among other things, they will talk about what mental health actually means and how Neurofeedback can help, as well as about their personal experiences and how they benefit from Neurofeedback. 

Please note that the webinar will be held in German. 

Inviation to the open house at BEE Medic

We would also like to meet you personally and therefore open the doors of our office in Forchheim on Saturday, 10/15/22. In addition to exciting presentations on the topic of Neurofeedback, you will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with our experts on site. For professional users we also offer live demonstrations of a Neurofeedback setting.

More information on the webinar and the open house can be found here.

Source: https://www.dak.de/dak/bundesthemen/krankenstand-2021-2526908.html#/

The brain is a very complex organ and the interaction between anatomical and functional networks of the brain is a current topic in psychopathology research and therapeutic discussion.
Olga Kara is a neuropsychologist and neurofeedback therapist with a strong scientific and research background. From early on Olga was fascinated by neurobiological and psychophysiological foundations of cognitive processes as well as their specific patterns in various psychological conditions. Besides Infra Low Frequency (ILF) Neurofeedback, she uses different training methods in combination with neurotechnology to help patients in her practice in Tampere, Finland and clinic in St.Petersburg, Russia. Olga moreover actively participates in the development of the latest approaches for the integration of brain functions analysis in treatment.

Olga, what do we understand under brain functions analysis? 

The Brain - as any other organ - has a specific anatomical construction and we can measure the thickness of the cortical layers, or the size of the ventricles, or identify some unusual swelling. All this information is highly important for diagnostics. At the same time, our brain performs an enormous number of different functions. It allows us to read, speak, run, feel the environment, adapt, learn and so on. This complex repertoire of behavior is performed by functional brain networks, or networks that are activated and working together to allow us to perform.Psychological and psychiatric symptoms often cannot be linked to anatomical deviations, but we can identify problems within functional brain network communication. And this helps us to link the deficiency within a specific functional brain network to the patient’s symptom. 

How do you use brain functions analysis in your practice?

Brain functions analysis helps me in several ways. I conduct brain functions analysis as part of diagnostics to e.g. exclude pathological conditions that should be addressed to another specialist, or to better understand the symptoms of my client. I have found brain functions analysis to be useful, when standard protocols do not seem to help the patients - this is when maybe a severe underlying functional brain dysregulation interferes. So I use brain functions analysis for therapy planning but also for monitoring of therapeutic outcomes.

What further information does brain functions analysis provide for the therapist? 

In ILF neurofeedback our primary source of information are the patient's symptoms and symptom changes. By the patients’ state and the relations within and in between neurofeedback sessions, we get information about hyper- and hypo arousal and can e.g. adapt the training frequency. Me as well as my colleagues get great results by this symptom-based approach. But sometimes - in e.g. patients with inconsistent symptom profiles, severe comorbidities or with practically no ability for introspection and self-report - one would like to consider a second source of information. This is when brain function analysis, EEG and ERP recording can be beneficial. 

Therapists could use this method if they have concerns about client conditions, for brain training protocol construction, for monitoring of progress (especially if customers cannot see the difference between initial condition and post-training changes). In some cases, especially for medical doctors, this method can be used to predict the responsiveness to a specific medication. The information one gets out of brain functions is complex and one needs to analyze the data and have specific knowledge therefore. 

Is brain functions analysis a necessity before starting ILF neurofeedback training? 

It is not a necessity. ILF is a symptom-based approach with clinically validated standard protocols that perform very well without brain functions analysis. 
However, in case your client shows unexpected reaction to ILF or you have some concerns about client progress, you may want to add an additional assessment to support your idea about customer condition, exclude some neurological abnormalities, or simply use this as an evidence-based approach, which can help you to measure the effectiveness of the therapy on the functional brain state.I would recommend brain function analysis for those neurofeedback therapists who are interested in the EEG and want to add a further source of information - EEG and ERP related data - besides symptom changes to their treatment evaluation. 

Olga will also share her knowledge and give insights into brain functions analysis and neurofeedback therapy in an Expert Talk on October, 20th 2021 at 5 pm CET. Register right now for free and learn about how neurodiagnostics, EEG/ERP technology and brain functions analysis can be integrated into a neurofeedback practice. 

We are enthusiastic about effective neurofeedback. Therefore, it is also important to us at BEE Medic that all our employees have the chance to participate in one of our basic courses and in this way also experience neurofeedback themselves. In addition to a better understanding of our product, this also serves as quality assurance and continuous improvement of our courses. Today our colleagues Linda and Jessica report about their self-experience at one of our Neurofeedback online basic courses in July 2021.

Hello Linda, hello Jessica. So nice of you to give us an insight into your experience at the Neurofeedback Basic Course today. What do you think about the self-experience in the course?

Linda: The self-experience was totally interesting! I perceived it very differently. Sometimes I felt very relaxed, then again more awake and concentrated.
Jessica: In the beginning we were a bit uncertain and didn't know exactly what to expect. By the end of the course, however, we were able to assess our reactions much better and determine when we had set a training frequency that was too low or too high. 

What surprised you most about the neurofeedback sessions?

Jessica: Although I knew a lot about the process and the effect of neurofeedback before, I was totally surprised how quickly you notice an effect or a change. It only takes a few minutes and even minimal frequency differences have a completely different effect. And that's even though you don't have to actively do anything at first and basically just look at a screen. 
Linda: I also found it very fascinating how differently people react to neurofeedback, which was especially noticeable during the following discussion in the small group. I also didn't expect that even a 10-minute session would be exhausting for the brain. I underestimated that a bit before. I also didn't necessarily think that a short neurofeedback session could have after-effects over several hours and days. I noticed this especially when my tinnitus in my left ear improved significantly.

What did you find particularly good about the feedback sessions?

Jessica: I personally preferred the quiet feedback animations, but there really is something for everyone because of the wide selection. Also, the "game character" of many of the animations increases engagement.
What were you able to notice about yourselves during the self-awareness?
Linda: As I said before, the effects were very different. From relaxation to concentration to laughing bursts and an elevated pulse. At times I also felt a slight tingling sensation and overall I felt that neurofeedback helped me increase my body awareness. 

Are you glad you were able to take the course and self-experience?

Jessica: Yes, I can really recommend it. The course was interesting and I was able to get a completely different insight. Of course, the week was also exhausting, because you got a lot of input and your brain has to get used to the neurofeedback first. But we learned and gained a lot, and the experience was just exciting! 
How did you get along with the online format?
Linda: The online format worked really well and all participants as well as the instructors were able to handle the technology very well.
Jessica: That's right. I also found it convenient that we could just participate in the course from home.
Great, thank you for your time and the insight into the neurofeedback basic course!

The increasing digitalization brings us many advantages in everyday life. However, especially when it comes to e-learning and in particular to professional and medical training, there are often concerns as to whether further education can really work online. 

With the online courses with training providers accredited by us, we have already convinced numerous of our customers. Of course, this is also a question of character, but with the following six reasons for digital learning, we would like to show you the advantages of online courses.

1. The technique: Online training works easily

When it comes to digital learning, questions about technical equipment often arise first. "Is my technical knowledge adequate to complete the course?", "Do I have the necessary technical equipment ?" and "What software do I need?" we are often asked.

This is not surprising, because especially in the field of mental health you work primarily with people and not on the PC. And a few years ago you might have had to install programs. Fortunately, this is no longer necessary today.

To take part in an online course you only need a PC or laptop with a steady internet connection. Of course, a webinar software is still required to allow several people to participate in a online course at the same time. You will see, we make sure that everything works perfectly. You do not have to worry about it.

When selecting the webinar software, we therefore pay attention to the following aspects:

• You do not need to install or download new programs or special software
• You simply need an internet connection and you will receive a link from us which will take you to the course with just one click
• We only use professional, well-proven software
• And we pay attention to the protection of your data

Technical support is available during the whole online course and can be reached at any time by phone, chat or e-mail. And for a relaxed start on the course day, we usually offer individual "pre-tests" 3 days before the course, in which a support employee checks the technology with you and shows all functions such as video and microphone settings.

2. Special group dynamics in the online course

Learning together connects. Everyone of us knows that. Usually you quickly notice if you feel comfortable in a course, with the lecturer and with the other participants and a specific group dynamic develops.

This is exactly what happens online, too. Because most participants may have already attended a webinar, but only have little experience with online courses lasting several days. This brings people together automatically. And often getting to know each other via monitor is very interesting: you are curious to see how the others are doing, you will be proud when everything is running smoothly and you gains insights into other practices and rooms - which can be more exciting and personal than coming together at a "neutral course location". Despite the physical distance, there is a fairly personal exchange, because you give insights into your personal environment and at the same time your are feeling very familiar.

At any time during the course you can see the lecturers and, depending on the screen settings, the other participants; you can talk and ask questions - just like in a face-to-face meeting. The advantage is that you can also deactivate your camera at any time.

3. online learning with a varied course concept

With the online courses with training providers accredited by us, you don't have to sit in front of your PC or laptop all day. Apart from presentations, the online course also includes:

• discussions
• workshops in small groups in virtual classrooms
• film sequences
• and the practical training

And of course there are regular, sufficient breaks, which you can spend at your favourite Italian restaurant around the corner. You can stretch your legs, do little things, greet the children from school or exchange ideas with other course participants.

4. Planning reliability and time savings

Online courses offer you planning security. The courses take place regardless of any regional or national travel or assembly restrictions or quarantine requirements. You also minimise your risk of infection. In particular, you save time by eliminating travel time. You will not have to travel the day before the course, which is usually necessary, nor will you have to make the return journey after several days, which is often considered to be particularly long. In addition, the cost of food and accommodation is reduced compared to a location-bound course. Rather, you can also process what you have learned in familiar surroundings after the individual seminar days.

5. Free use of the Neurofeedback equipment during the whole course

During the online courses, you practise with the Neurofeedback systems of BEE Medic GmbH, the NeuroAmp® amplifier and Cygnet® Neurofeedback software. In advanced and indicator-specific courses, you usually already have a system in place and can easily use it for the practical part, as well as for local courses, where many participants usually have their own system. For the Neurofeedback online basic courses, you can buy a complete system before the course starts. The advantage is that you can practice during the course and you can start immediately after the course in your practice. You can also borrow a free complete system for trying and testing during the course.

6. Train several employees or colleagues with little effort

Online training courses are ideal for group practices and if you want to learn neurofeedback together with colleagues. Several employees or colleagues can be trained simultaneously. The time off for the course can be well planned and is limited. There are also no costs for travel and accommodation. In 2020 you will also benefit from an attractive discount campaign.

Get more information and book now

E-learning in the medical field may still be new to many people, but you can see that there are also some arguments in favour of digital learning. Innovative e-learning concepts guarantee personal exchange and professional education at a high level.

In our course overview you will find numerous online courses for 2020, ranging from one to two-day advanced courses to our 5-day Neurofeedback Basic Courses, which you can either complete in one go or on two consecutive weekends.

Which animation do I need for my practice? Which feedback variant is used most often and is most effective? If you have asked yourself these and other questions in the past, our new offer from the online expert panel is just right for you!

As we are constantly receiving queries about our animations, we would like to invite you to a panel of experts with our lecturer Philippe Gauffriau! In this two-hour round we will present many of our animations in detail and answer your questions. Learn which animations are particularly suitable for which patient groups and which setting options are available. Become more confident in using Cygnet and the animations.

The course is aimed at all users of ILF neurofeedback therapy who have completed a basic course and have already treated some patients with the system. Expand your knowledge by the following points:

Overview of all available animations
Selection criteria of animations based on the target group
Demonstration of various animations
Setting options and customizability

The seminar is unfortunately in the past, a registration is no longer possible!

In many areas of medicine, technical, standardized measuring methods for diagnosis have already become established. Be it blood analysis from the laboratory or X-ray images at the orthopaedic surgeon. However, in the field of mental health, objective measurement data as a basis for decision making is practically not yet available. But why?

Learn in this one-hour webinar about the possibilities of modern EEG diagnostics and where its limits lie. The quantitative EEG (QEEG) uses a multi-channel EEG recording and the three-dimensional representation of the electrical activity in the brain. However, in order to be able to make statements about the state of health or even individual pathologies from these recordings, event-based potentials are recorded (so-called ERPs) and examined. Here, the patient solves a specific task several times in a row. The brain activity measured at each decision step allows the analysis of certain patterns and the identification of individual neuromarkers (biomarkers of brain activity).

Although there is already a lot of intensive research on these topics worldwide, the benefits in clinical application are still in their infancy. And yet there are already impressive possibilities. Learn in this English-language panel of experts which technical solutions in diagnostics already exist today and where science is still far from practical application. Prof. Dr. Juri Kropotov and Dr. Bernhard Wandernoth will answer your questions and show what is already available to today's doctors and therapists by means of various technological solutions.

The seminar is unfortunately in the past, a registration is no longer possible!