The Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA)-Australia has recently become the first fully autonomous affiliate of BCIA, certifying neurofeedback professionals in Australia, with requirements equivalent to those of BCIA. BCIA has also established a worldwide network of professionals, who intermittently meet to promote biofeedback and neurofeedback certification in each national community. BCIA accredits programs providing basic training and continuing education.

The use of biofeedback training to self-regulate EEG patterns with the aim of recovering or optimizing function and behavioral performance is becoming increasingly established. The most reasonable approach is to learn to generate and maintain optimal brain wave patterns and produce associated peak performance states on demand. We report two studies where 12 sessions of prefrontal EEG feedback were used to improve performance in both clinical and nonclinical populations. Neurofeedback using Focus, Alertness, and 40 Hz (Neureka!) measures resulted in improved selective attention and other cognitive functions. We discuss other potential applications of neurofeedback in the areas of “under-pressure” activity, where peak performance state is an essential part of the job, such as in sports or the performing arts, as well as for human operators, such as air traffic dispatchers and military personnel on duty.

This article describes the use of biofeedback interventions with PGA golfers, professional baseball players, and college athletes. The author advocates applying the optimal performance framework beyond the field of sport, to high performers in other areas, including business and medicine. Physicians are in many ways athletes and peak performers, and the outcome of their performance is life or death, recovery or disability. Physicians rarely participate in conventional employee assistance programs or stress debriefing, and would benefit from a wider application of a peak performance approach to their optimal wellness for themselves and their families.

Elites in business, academics, and sports, as well as in the performing and visual arts, seek techniques to dissolve barriers while enhancing innate and developing abilities. This case study illustrates a process that weaves together traditional stress-reduction tools, coaching, mental imagery training, psychology, and psycho-physiological technology and that permits individual clients to perform more efficiently at a higher proficiency.

MATTE Consulting Group has been providing individual and organizational development services for the past 23 years. Two years ago, it was brought to our attention that many of our clients (executives) were looking for tools to better perform under stress. We conducted a thorough search to identify executive coaching programs that integrated biofeedback, as well as studies that demonstrated a return on investment for such programs in the business community. We concluded it was preferable to design our own program and determine, with the help of our long-standing clients, how to ensure its efficacy. We also developed our first MindRoom with the help of a leading biofeedback equipment manufacturer, Thought Technology. We have been successful in assisting numerous individuals as well as complete teams of executives in optimizing their performance. We are now building a business spa, and we will soon start group training (eight people at a time).

Peak performance appears to emerge from a brain that is both talented in the chosen profession and firmly established in higher values. To the extent one can remain anchored in the higher values of selflessness, peak performances can be maintained. The moment values degrade, even at the level of thoughts and feelings, performance is adversely affected. Higher values could be quantitatively measured in terms of applied neuroscience by sensorimotor rhythm values that appear at CPz (or above the default network in the brain). CPz refers to a location on the scalp, defined by the International 10–20 system, along the midline between central (Cz) and parietal (Pz) vertices. The higher the amplitude of SMR, the greater the self-regulation over one's own default network. This would amount to the individual's staying in a passive listening mode; this allows the real-time input from the environment to trigger action, rather than one's actions being skewed by one's own prerogatives. More critically, interpretations become more sensitive as resources dedicated to perceptions diminish. It has been empirically observed that as the SMR values increase (provided the Z-scores are largely within a normative database with respect to people performing at their peak), people gain regulation, control, and mastery over emotional, executive, and sensory quiescence, respectively. The individual Alpha frequency is also maintained above 8–9 µV in the eyes open condition and task condition, as one improves proficiency even over sensory quiescence. Wellness at the physical, emotional, and intellectual levels is accompanied by enhanced performance at each stage of sustainable growth.

There is a strong interest in what separates top-level performers from those who have yet to achieve the same level, across all performance domains. Advances in psychophysiology give insight into where these differences may lie in the minds and bodies of athletes. The present study compared gymnasts who were selected for the competitive lineup to those who were considered part of the Division I gymnastics beam squad but did not compete. This study compared their initial baselines, their response to heart rate variability and neurofeedback training, and their posttraining levels. Baseline differences existed for self-perception of consistency and confidence. There were no pre or post differences in heart rate variability measures. Sensorimotor rhythm electroencephalography (EEG) biofeedback training was associated with a decline in busy brain waves for the competitors. The competitors also had a lower ratio of intensity (intensity/high alpha) in both the pre- and post-EEG measures.