Self-regulation training to help you manage stress, attention and sleep better when tics affect everyday life, from age 5, in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne, near Paris).
Tics are brief, repeated, involuntary movements or sounds: eye blinking, grimacing, shoulder shrugging, throat clearing, sniffing, sometimes words. The term Tourette syndrome (TS) is used when several motor tics and at least one vocal tic have been present for at least a year and began before the age of 18. This is a clinical diagnosis and must be made by a doctor.
Tics fluctuate: they often increase with stress, fatigue or excitement, and many people feel a premonitory sensation before the tic, an urge that is hard to hold back. Suppressing them in class or at work is exhausting. TS often comes with ADHD, OCD, anxiety or learning disorders, which sometimes weigh more heavily than the tics themselves. According to the national care protocol of the French National Authority for Health (HAS), TS improves markedly in adulthood in about two thirds of cases.
Neurofeedback does not make tics “disappear”. It offers non-invasive and drug-free training in self-regulation: during the session, brain activity is measured continuously and real-time feedback, visual or audio, rewards the target states, such as a more stable level of arousal or calmer attention. The work focuses on what often fuels tics: tension, stress, restlessness, lack of sleep. Biofeedback complements the training: breathing and cardiac coherence (heart coherence breathing) to ease the pressure, measuring muscle tension (EMG) to learn to relax tense areas, and electrodermal activity (skin conductance) to visualise stress reactivity.
Step 1
An in-depth initial interview (history of the tics, when they get worse or ease off, associated conditions), questionnaires (attention with the SNAP-IV, sleep with the SDSC, anxiety, posture questionnaire) and a quantitative EEG (qEEG) compared with a normative database. This assessment is not used to diagnose tics: it guides the choice of training targets. Find out more about the programme or how the qEEG assessment works.
Step 2
A personalised protocol of swLORETA Z-score neurofeedback (19-channel) or two-channel neurofeedback, targeting the rhythms related to arousal, motor control or attention identified in the assessment, combined with biofeedback. Sessions last one hour, once or twice a week.
Step 3
The next steps are adjusted using a mid-point qEEG assessment compared with the initial one, the questionnaires, and your observations on how often and how strongly the tics occur. As tics naturally vary from one period to another, we interpret these changes cautiously, over several weeks.
Research on neurofeedback and Tourette syndrome is still in its early days. A double-blind randomised trial published in Biological Psychiatry (Sukhodolsky et al., 2020) compared real and sham neurofeedback targeting the supplementary motor area in 21 adolescents with TS. The tic score (YGTSS scale) fell more after real neurofeedback (from 25.2 to 19.9) than after the sham version (from 24.8 to 23.3). The study is small (two sessions per condition) and was conducted using functional MRI, a different technique from EEG.
Conversely, the randomised trial by Nagai et al. (2014), published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, tested electrodermal activity biofeedback three times a week for four weeks in 21 people with TS: tics decreased as much in the active group as in the sham group, with no specific effect demonstrated.
In France, the national diagnosis and care protocol (PNDS) for Tourette syndrome (2022), published by the HAS, mentions neither neurofeedback nor biofeedback. It recommends giving information to the person and their family, lifestyle measures (sleep, sport), and cognitive behavioural therapies such as habit reversal (CBIT), which are considered a first-line approach, as well as medication depending on the situation.
Enough sleep, regular physical activity, limited screens in the evening and moments of relaxation help ease the pressure. It is best to avoid pointing out tics or asking someone to hold them back, as this often increases tension. Parent coaching and, with your consent, contact with the doctor, psychologist or school round out the support. Soon, the Élan Minds app will help you continue this work between sessions. If attention or worry is the main concern, see also our pages on neurofeedback and ADHD and anxiety and stress.
Sarah Dehan, the centre’s founder, has volunteered since 2015 on the collegial governance committee of the French Tourette Syndrome Association (AFSGT), where she takes part in research-related work.
Children from age 5, teenagers and adults with chronic tics or diagnosed Tourette syndrome, especially when stress, attention or sleep make everyday life harder. Transient tics are common in children: if tics have appeared recently, are getting worse quickly or you have any doubts, see your doctor first: they can refer you to a paediatric neurologist or a neurologist.
We cannot promise that, and research does not allow us to claim it. The training aims to improve self-regulation: managing stress, restlessness, attention and sleep better, as these influence how intense tics are.
Allow around thirty one-hour sessions on average, once or twice a week. The qEEG assessment is followed by about fifteen sessions, then a comparative mid-point assessment that shapes the next fifteen or so.
Yes. Neurofeedback is practised alongside medical follow-up and behavioural approaches such as CBIT, without replacing them. Any change to medication is a matter for the doctor alone.
Movements create disturbances in the signal called artefacts. These are identified and removed when the assessment is analysed, and the training adapts accordingly: there is no need to try to hold back tics during the session.