<p></p><p>The field of electroencephalography (“EEG”) has been divided between the empirical eye of the neurologist/scientist and the humanistic lens of the mental health care practitioner/neurotherapist. &nbsp;The neurotherapist can also be called a psychophysiologist because it is they who study and actively apply psychophysiological findings in practice! This is clinical psychophysiology.&nbsp;<b>You, reading this text right now</b>, are on the path to becoming a neurotherapist, since an accreditation from the BCIA is the first step in establishing oneself in this career.</p><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/Neurotherapist.png" alt="Neurotherapist" width="691" height="483" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_left"><p></p><p>Psychophysiology is the field concerning the physiological basis of psychological phenomena. However, while neurophysiology is analogous with physics (objective, third-person), psychophysiology is not.</p><p>Psychophysiology is first-person and subjective (Ulrich, 2013).&nbsp; Clinical psychophysiology (also known as applied psychophysiology) aims to correlate the objective data with the subjective report, for example, linking EEG with behavior. Whereas the scientist-physician will link the EEG to neurological pathologies, the neurotherapist will link the EEG to psychopathology.&nbsp; The neurotherapist uses psychophysiological measures, such as quantitative EEG, to assess the client, and later treats the client with applied psychophysiology (i.e. neurofeedback, neurostimulation, and biofeedback), while the neurologist looks at the neurophysiology for assessment purposes, alone, typically prescribing pharmaceuticals or surgery as treatment.&nbsp; A neurologist is looking in EEG for remarkable abnormalities in the brain, signs of ischemia, lesion, tumor,&nbsp; or epileptiform activity. A psychophysiologist is looking in EEG for nuances that reflect the client’s symptomology.</p><p>It is of great import that the psychophysiologist first determines that the brain is neurotypical (meaning a neurologist would not find the EEG abnormal) before administering treatment. If the neurotherapists is concerned or knows the brainwave activity is abnoraml, and the patient has not yet consulted a neurologist, it is prudent to a) have the suspicious findings validated by a seasoned mentor, and/or b) refer the patient out to a neurologist.</p><p><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/Definition%20of%20Psychphysiology.png" alt="Definition o Psychophysiology" width="624" height="350" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_left"></p><p><b>An EEG-based psychophysiology is the holy grail of linking brainwaves with symptoms,</b>&nbsp;but it needs a theoretical justification for relating two logically incommensurable types of data, (i.e. brain electrical EEG patterns on the one hand and the manifold of inwardly and outwardly directed individual emotions and behaviors).&nbsp;</p><p>The former (EEG patterns) belongs to the field of&nbsp;<b><u>physiology</u></b>&nbsp;(or function) to be assessed quantitatively as objective data while the latter (emotions and behaviors) belongs to the domain of&nbsp;<b><u>psychology</u>&nbsp;</b>(or performance) to be assessed qualitatively as individual subjective data. The objective and the subjective domains of description are mutually irreducible as well as complementary. Both are needed to provide an entire or valid description of a person. The restriction of objectively measurable phenomena is the hallmark of the classical mechanistic and materialistic physics or natural sciences. The human being is, by nature, humanistic! And to reduce the human experience to mechanics is a grave error.</p><br><p></p>