Bastyr University hosts a natural medicine blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website providing healthy lifestyle tips from our expert faculty practitioners. A wide variety of subjects are covered.
Biofeedback counseling is an innovative technique used to teach awareness about the body's unconscious physiological processes. It is effective for teaching patients how to alleviate stress and take control of their own health.
A recent study by the American Academy of Family Physicians found two-thirds of all visits to family doctors are linked to stress-related symptoms. Biofeedback is used to teach the unconscious mind to respond to stress and lessen its effects on the mind and body. It has proven useful in combating a variety of ailments including: addictions, anxiety, asthma, insomnia, chronic pain, depression, fatigue, headaches, high blood pressure and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Biofeedback treatment involves attaching sensors or electrodes to the body that provide a variety of readings — instant feedback — on such things as skin temperature, muscle tension and brainwave function.
During a session, the patient is asked about a life event, such as a stressful situation at work. The patient's response to this event, which could involve a cooling of the hands, tensing of the muscles or sweating, is instantly recognized and "fed back" to the patient by a machine. This trains the patient to understand, and unconsciously respond to, the effects of stress through self-regulation techniques, such as taking deep breaths, relaxing tensed muscles or even slowing the heart rate.
Recently, the technique has gained popularity as a way to help top athletes relax in high-stress situations. In fact, four members of the Italian national soccer team used biofeedback as part of their training for the 2006 World Cup, while India's lone gold medalist from the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, Abhinav Bindra, cited biofeedback as a key ingredient in his 10-meter air rifle victory.
—Brad Lichtenstein, ND, core faculty member in the Department of Counseling and Health Psychology at Bastyr University
