Biofeedback: The Mind/Body Bridge: Using Awareness as Medicine
Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and anxious? Do you struggle to relax and quiet your mind and body? If so, biofeedback may be the solution you've been searching for. Biofeedback is a cutting-edge technology that enhances awareness of your body's physical reactions. By providing real-time feedback through signals like lights, sounds, or numbers, you can gain valuable insights into how your body responds to stress. With the guidance of a trained therapist, you will learn self-regulation techniques that can help you reduce your symptoms and gain control over your stress response. Using biofeedback sensors will allow you to observe moment-to-moment physiological changes that enable you to learn to relax your nervous system and quiet your mind and body. Biofeedback is an experiential teaching tool that provides evidence-based feedback data, helping you to answer the question: "How am I doing?" This feedback empowers you to learn how to relax your body, as experienced by warming your hands, relaxing your muscles, breathing more comfortably, regulating your heartbeat, and reducing mental chatter. If you're ready to take control of your physical and psychological well-being, consider biofeedback. With this powerful technique, you can gain the skills to reduce your symptoms and feel more relaxed and at ease in your daily life.
EMG Biofeedback (Muscle Information)
Learn how to relax, recruit or re-educate muscles. Some examples of EMG include muscle relaxation, retraining movement patterns and reinforcing good body mechanics.
Thermal Biofeedback (Temperature)
Most of us have experienced cold hands with nervousness and anxiety. As people learn to relax, their hands warm and fingertip temperature rises. This very simple form of biofeedback is useful for reducing stress and managing migraine headaches.
EEG Biofeedback (Neurofeedback)
Sensors are placed on the scalp to pick up brain wave activity reflecting how you are paying attention. You can be taught how to shift your attention to relax, improve performance and focus better during daily activities. Neurofeedback is beneficial for conditions such as ADD, stress reduction and pain management.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Heart Rate Variability measures the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate by using a sensor to pick up the pulse. The heartbeat varies throughout the day due to various factors including exercise, breathing patterns as well as our thoughts and emotions. The autonomic nervous system, the part of the central nervous system that regulates breathing, heart rate and the stress response also known as the “Fight or Flight Response” can be regulated using techniques along with HRV biofeedback to help individuals develop the ability to become “alert and relaxed.” This state of awareness allows us to function better in daily activities by promoting optimal performance and enhances wellness by changing our physiology from a stress oriented pattern to a better integrated system with mind and body working in a more cohesive effortless manner.
HRV is beneficial for everyone. Whether you are interested in using it for stress and/or pain management, medical condition or peak performance (as a student, performer, athlete or an Olympian-or any role in your life), HRV is an interesting and easy way to make a profound change in your health.