Author: Gary Jackson

Biofeedback Therapy: Types, Uses, and Benefits

For example, the therapist may say, ‘Raise your shoulders’ or ‘Scrunch your face,’ using the muscle tension signal on the screen to point out the patient’s physiological responses. In thermal biofeedback, patients wear sensors that detect blood flow to the skin. Because people often experience a drop in body temperature during times of stress, such devices can help people better detect when they are starting to feel distressed. A low reading on one of these monitors can indicate a need to utilize some stress management techniques.

Eleven of the participants experienced a reduction in headaches and jaw-muscle discomfort on waking up in the morning. Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said biofeedback may open new avenues for cognitive and behavioral therapies. According to authors of a systematic review published in The BMJ in 2014, growing evidence indicates that neurofeedback could help with ADHD. Keep in mind that mindfulness mediation is a practice, and therefore it is not meant to be perfect. Your meditation session should be relaxing and should allow you to clear your head and accept your thoughts and emotions as part of your life and being. And in certain situations, your body goes through a stress response; it often has to engage in the fight or flight mode.

Who May Want to Try (and Avoid) Biofeedback Therapy

Biofeedback therapy is considered a safe treatment approach for health conditions. Often we use medication to control our body’s systems and sometimes these medicines can cause unwanted side effects. Biofeedback may help you gain control of some of these systems, like heart rate or breathing, without the use of medicine and without having to deal with the side effects. Mindful mediation is a technique used to help you to slow down your thoughts, be present in your mind, and let go of negative thoughts. It is often used during biofeedback to help you relax and relieve stress or anxiety, decrease your heart rate, and improve sleep.

You’ll need to participate actively and practice between appointments. Prior to starting biofeedback, your therapist should perform a brief evaluation. A medical history should be taken, and goals for therapy should be discussed. Baseline measurements of the impairments will be recorded so that change over time can be monitored. Some of these are meant to help physical problems like pain or loss of movement.