Neurofeedback tends to sound futuristic — brain-wave maps, light-up glasses, sessions that promise to change the way a person thinks. Dr. Daniel Schneider, a chiropractor based in Ventura, California who is closing in on 40 years in practice, joined Mark Anthony on Great Minds of Today to make the idea more concrete: it's a way of reading how fast different parts of the brain are working, and training the ones running too hot or too slow back toward a more typical, balanced range.
Schneider's path into chiropractic started in martial arts, where he was drawn to the old Chinese idea that a kung fu teacher was often the community's healer as well as its warrior — one person looking at the whole picture rather than a single symptom. That interest carried him through bodywork and eventually into chiropractic, which he chose because it let a practitioner weigh biochemistry, movement, and neurology together instead of narrowing in on one diagnosis. He earned his license in 1986 and, that same year, discovered applied kinesiology — muscle testing used to assess how different systems in the body are functioning — which pulled his earlier training into one integrated approach. He added functional neurology around 2002 and neurofeedback in 2013.
Key Takeaways
- Neurofeedback maps brain-wave speed across specific regions of the brain, flagging areas running faster or slower than what's considered typical — Dr. Schneider has used it clinically since 2013.
- He's applied it to attention deficit disorders, anxiety, depression, anger reactions, memory difficulties, and trouble focusing — as well as with people who already function normally but want to perform at a higher level.
- In trauma work, a patient acts as a passive observer of a difficult memory while light-and-sound feedback shifts alongside their brain-wave pattern — Dr. Schneider compared it to rearranging the "furniture" of a memory rather than erasing it, usually over multiple sessions.
- He layers laser (red light) therapy and light electrical stimulation on top of neurofeedback to reinforce changes in brain-wave activity in specific areas.
- Dr. Schneider has practiced chiropractic for nearly 40 years, licensed in 1986, and built his approach around applied kinesiology and functional neurology before adding neurofeedback to the practice in 2013.
Mapping the Brain: What Neurofeedback Actually Does
Schneider described neurofeedback as, in essence, a map of brain function — a way of seeing which areas of the brain are working at rates that would be considered normal, and which are running too high or too low relative to established feedback-loop studies. From there, training can nudge an over- or under-active region back toward a more typical range. He uses more than one version of the technology: a larger unit that reads brain-wave speed more broadly across the scalp, and a smaller, portable device — worn with light-emitting glasses and headphones — that layers visual and auditory feedback into a session. He noted that brain-mapping technology is getting more granular over time, down to specific regions like Brodmann's areas, each tied to a distinct function, from processing what a hand is doing to a person's basic awareness of their own foot.
From Attention and Anxiety to Peak Performance
Clinically, Schneider said neurofeedback can touch a wide range of conditions: attention deficit disorders, anxiety, depression, anger reactions, difficulty with memory patterns, excitability, and trouble focusing mentally. Mark shared his own experience as a patient — an initial reading showed his brain running unusually fast, and training helped him slow down enough to stop "getting ahead of himself," making his thinking, in his words, more methodical.
Schneider also reframed conditions like ADD, ADHD, and autism spectrum differences as, in some cases, a brain running at a higher speed in one area at the expense of another — someone gifted at math, for instance, who finds social engagement harder. Rather than treating that as purely a deficit, he described the goal as bringing the underactive side up and creating more balance, which patients tend to experience as calmer and, in his words, more like "the way that we are supposed to be wired." He also works with people who aren't dealing with any diagnosis at all, but want to function at a higher level — citing tennis players as an example, where fine-tuning a person's awareness of their body and racket in space can sharpen precision on the court.
"I have never seen it be harmful for a person to explore their potential in a way that allows them to improve upon their abilities — and who they might self-identify as."
— Dr. Daniel SchneiderProcessing Trauma and Memory Patterns
Asked about patients carrying traumatic memories that resurface on a loop, Schneider said the timeline for change varies widely and depends heavily on a person's readiness to go through the process — some people, he noted, aren't interested in revisiting a difficult memory at all. When a patient is ready, he sometimes uses applied kinesiology-style muscle testing to help identify the emotions or time period connected to a pattern, which he said can shorten the process considerably. In session, using the light-and-sound device, the patient focuses on the traumatic event as a passive observer — separate enough from it to stay comfortable — while the changing audio and visual signals track shifts in their brain-wave pattern. He likened the effect to moving the "furniture" of a memory to a different place, rather than deleting it. These sessions typically repeat, he said, because working through one layer of a pattern can reveal another related event underneath it.
Layering In Laser Therapy — and a Word on DNA
Schneider also described pairing neurofeedback with laser, or red light, therapy — shining light on the brain region tied to a specific function to help shift its brain-wave activity, then reinforcing that change through repeated sessions. He uses both higher-power lasers, which can produce a change in seconds, and lower-power lasers better suited to longer sessions, choosing between them based on the area he's targeting and the time available. He's also combined light therapy with light electrical stimulation to compound the effect, and pointed to gut inflammation ("leaky gut") as one example of a separate system that can, in turn, affect the brain — part of why he favors combining tools rather than relying on one.
On DNA, Schneider was careful to frame it as an emerging area he described as "barely scraping the surface." His view: not every part of a person's DNA is actively expressed, and functional neurology techniques may help nurture beneficial genetic potential while keeping an unwanted expression quieter. He pushed back gently on the idea that people are simply stuck with the traits they were born with, framing exploration of one's potential — through neurofeedback or otherwise — as something he has never seen do harm.
