From Guesswork to Guidance: How the TrueBearing Method Brings Clarity and Confidence to Neurotherapy
Many mental health professionals eventually confront the limitations of traditional therapy models. Despite years of training and experience, we sometimes see our clients stall. Outcomes are inconsistent. And even when progress occurs, it’s often difficult to replicate.
For neurotherapists, this challenge is compounded by the fact that all too often assessment, protocol selection and training strategies are not taught systematically. Practitioners may learn how to implement an assessment or training approach that lacks a coherent framework, making it difficult to understand how the elements fit together or when to use them. Over time, this results in a fragmented strategy, over-reliance on intuition, and uncertainty around how to best serve each client.
The TrueBearing Method addresses this gap with a structured, evidence-based roadmap for neurotherapy. Based on decades of research and practice by hundreds of neurotherapists and formulated by Dr. Nathan Brown, this approach distills more than four decades of clinical and research experience into a teachable, replicable system that enhances precision, improves outcomes, and integrates easily with a clinician’s existing practice.
What Is the TrueBearing Method?
At its core, the TrueBearing Method is a comprehensive, assessment-driven approach to neurotherapy designed to guide clinicians in how to use assessment and training protocols with clarity and confidence. Rather than relying on trial-and-error, the Method provides a framework for identifying the brain’s functional imbalances and selecting customized, interventions to meet the client’s goals
The Method was developed to address two widespread problems in the field:
- The absence of a clear path from client assessment to protocol implementation
- The lack of standardization in neurofeedback training, even among skilled clinicians
The TrueBearing Method resolves these basic challenges by offering a step-by-step system that is both structured and adaptable. Far from a one-size fits all approach, the TrueBearing Method provides
- A sophisticated assessment tool, the TheraQ, that provides a nuanced picture of a client’s neurofunctionality to ground the training, and
- A set of standard protocols that are well-defined, and at the same time designed to be customized based on unique TheraQ patterns and observed client functioning.
The Method is built on five core principles:
1. Neurofunctional Assessment First
The cornerstone of the TrueBearing Method is its commitment to assessment-driven care. Every client begins with a comprehensive evaluation using the TheraQ assessment. This tool analyzes key neurofunctional data—such as asymmetries, slow wave patterns, and executive function markers—and based on extensive research and clinical evidence, shows the link between these brain-level patterns and the client’s expressed concerns.
This allows clinicians to move beyond symptom descriptions and into real-time brain data. Instead of asking, “What protocol works for anxiety?”, the clinician is guided to ask, “What brain patterns are most commonly associated with this client’s specific anxiety presentation, and what what established protocols does that alignment suggest?”
This shift dramatically improves treatment accuracy and efficiency.
2. Protocols Grounded in Scientific Research
Each step in the TrueBearing Method is anchored in established neuroscience. The protocols are not arbitrary or anecdotal; they reflect decades of data from cognitive neuroscience and clinical neurotherapy outcomes.
The Method draws heavily on operant conditioning principles. The brain has evolved over thousands of years to seek a specific balanced state, and it has evolved to use both internal and external cues to achieve this pattern. In neurotherapy, clients receive real-time visual or auditory feedback about brain activity that the brain receives as cues it can use to achieve the desired homeostatic state. This process primarily occurs at the brain level, rather than at the level of conscious awareness.. As the brain learns how to return to homeostasis, it begins to re-organize itself in order to strengthen this newfound capacity. Neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize and optimize itself through learning— literally strengthens the neural circuits that support emotional regulation, cognitive clarity, and behavioral flexibility, frequently leading to durable change.
Neurotherapy isn’t something that happens to the client—it’s something they do. It requires mental engagement and consistent practice. In fact, the degree of client engagement is the single biggest predictor of neurotherapy outcome. Yet in today’s environment of continuous distraction, sustained engagement can be challenging. Th TrueBearing Method goes beyond the technical aspects of neurotherapy to provide practical tools to encourage client engagement.
3. Brain Function Through an Evolutionary Lens
Another defining element of the TrueBearing Method is its functional mapping of the brain. Instead of focusing only on a superficial evaluation of EEG data, the Method encourages clinicians to understand each brain region in terms of its evolutionary role and primary purpose.
For instance, the right frontal cortex is closely tied to divergent thinking, emotional vigilance, and anxiety regulation. The left frontal cortex is more associated with task execution, decision-making, and emotional suppression. These complementary functions evolved in humans over millennia to increase the odds of survival. Understanding the functional differences found in different regions of the brain helps practitioners select protocols not just based on where dysregulation is occurring, but on why it may be occurring—and how it underlies the client’s symptoms.
By linking neurofunctionality to behavior through an evolutionary model, clinicians gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of client difficulties.
4. Client Engagement as a Catalyst for Change
The TrueBearing Method emphasizes the difference between treatment and training. Where treatment often positions the client as a passive recipient, training demands their engagement. This distinction is critical.
Research consistently shows that client expectancy, motivation, and participation strongly influence outcomes in neurotherapy. The TrueBearing Method fosters active involvement by using goal-oriented feedback tools, clear metrics for progress, and language that positions the client as a collaborator in their healing process.
In short, it teaches the brain—but it also empowers the client to trust their capacity to change.
5. Device-Agnostic, Scalable, and Clinically Flexible
A final benefit of the TrueBearing Method is its adaptability. The Method is not tied to a specific neurofeedback platform and can be implemented with various EEG systems and software solutions. Whether a clinician is running single-site training or advanced multi-channel protocols, the framework holds.
This makes it scalable across practice types—from solo practitioners to multi-site clinics—and ensures that training can be tailored to the needs of each client, without reinventing the wheel for every case.
From Fragmentation to System: The 13 Core Protocols
At the heart of the TrueBearing Method are its 13 Core Protocols. These serve as a foundational toolkit that clinicians can use to address a wide range of neurofunctional presentations. But what makes these protocols unique is how they work together.
Rather than existing as stand-alone techniques, each protocol is part of an interconnected system. They are grouped by neurofunctional objectives—tying specific latent traits observed in assessment to the concerns or goals expressed by the client. The Method’s integrated protocols are designed to identify the points at which specific latent and expressed traits co-occur, and to offer a systematic way to intervene on these patterns.
For example:
- Slow wave regulation protocols are often used first in cases of sleep disruption or compensatory over-arousal.
- Asymmetry-focused protocols (such as Right Frontal Stabilization or Broad Focus) target imbalances in brainwave activity often seen in anxiety, depression or cognitive impairment.
- Executive function and focus protocols may be deployed not just in cases where there is a clinical concern, but also with clients who do not carry a diagnosis, but wish to raise their game at work or in the personal lives
Each protocol includes:
- Evidence-based frequency and site recommendations
- Clinical indicators and contraindications
- Clear guidelines for when and how to modify based on the assessment data
- Built-in feedback metrics for tracking progress over time
Mastering the TrueBearing Method removes the guesswork from neurotherapy. Clinicians don’t have to build every plan from scratch or rely on intuition. They follow a data-informed process that evolves alongside the client.
The protocols are also tiered into an extended framework:
- Core (13) protocols: The each of these Core protocols is the foundation of a “family” of protocols targeting similar conditions, and can scale from a single channel up through as many as 19 channels
- X-Class protocols: Multi-site variations of the 13 Core add power and nuance to the training effect.
- Y-Class protocols: These protocols are designed to train the brain to shift state rather than maintain a given state. Y-protocols are often used in performance and resilience training
- Z-Class protocols: The protocols combine neurofeedback with somatically-oriented biofeedback, allowing a powerful way to promote self-regulation in addressing numerous stress-related conditions as well as performance goals.
Taken as a whole, the TrueBearing Method supports both consistent practice and the ability to customize training on the fly.
Why It Matters for Your Practice
Whether you’re new to neurotherapy or seeking to bring greater precision to your current approach, the TrueBearing Method offers a scalable, practical solution.
The TrueBearing Method gives you:
- A clear roadmap from assessment to protocol
- A structured and achievable learning path to mastery
- Tools to improve clinical outcomes as well as client empowerment
- The ability to grow your practice without sacrificing your standards
By integrating the TrueBearing Method into your work, you gain access to a system that can make your entire practice more effective, more sustainable, and more rewarding—for both you and your clients.