Category: Biofeedback Equipment

Neurofeedback equipment types

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Home devices like the Muse are small and lightweight. Most are less than $400. I am still not convinced of the signal quality of these devices. They don’t tend to display a raw signal so it is difficult to tell if there is noise in the signal that would negatively impact the quality of the training. The feedback is based on changes in EEG. If the changes are due to noise and not real EEG, then the reinforcement would not be effective. When I have tried these devices in the past, my experience has been that the feedback is not clearly connected to the changes in my mental states. Other people have given me mixed reviews, some more positive, some negative. There are a few ways that these devices are used. One is for clients who are seeing a professional neurofeedback provider for in office sessions. They use the home device between office sessions. A second use if for virtual training with a professional. The client has the device at home and the professional coaches them virtually. The third use is for non-professionals to use at home on their own without supervision.

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Professional Biofeedback Equipment

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Biofeedback is a type of mind-body therapy that uses specialized equipment to help people learn to control their bodily functions and improve their overall health and well-being. Professional biofeedback equipment is designed to provide accurate and reliable feedback on several physiological processes, such as heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, and brainwave activity. This equipment can be used by healthcare professionals, therapists, and individuals themselves to monitor and improve their physical and mental health.

There are various types of professional biofeedback equipment available on the market, each designed to measure different physiological processes. For example, electroencephalography (EEG) biofeedback equipment is used to measure brainwave activity, while electromyography (EMG) biofeedback equipment measures muscle tension. Other types of biofeedback equipment include heart rate variability (HRV) monitors, skin temperature sensors, and respiration rate monitors.

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Biofeedback Equipment, 5 Things You Need to Know

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Are you thinking of getting biofeedback equipment?  Here are 5 things you need to know.

  1. What is it measuring? Biofeedback instruments may measure different things.  All biofeedback instruments are not the same.  There are different modalities that can be measured including surface EMG for muscle tension, Skin Temperature, Skin Conductance, Respiration, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, EEG, and CO2 (Capnometry).  Some biofeedback equipment measures only one of these modalities.  Others may measure up to 10 separate channels at the same time.
  1. Do I have a reliable signal? The feedback that the instrument provides is only as good as the quality of the signal.  If the signal is not accurate it is not a good representation of the changes happening in the body.  Some biofeedback equipment makes it easy to see the quality of the signal.  Other instruments may hide the actual signal and only show you a game or give you sound that is supposed to be reacting to the signal.

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The Role of Biofeedback Equipment in Stress Management

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Stress management is a huge subject.  There are many methods of managing stress.

One thing that is constant is that the body reacts to stress in several ways, many of which can be measured using biofeedback equipment.  People who are experiencing stress often have sensations that they can feel, if they are sensitive and present enough without biofeedback equipment.  These sensations may be related to changes in cardiovascular activity like your heart beating faster or more forcefully, blood vessels constricting, muscles contracting, increased sweat, changes in brain activity, or changes in digestive activity.  These changes are related to what is called physiology.  Whether a person feels these changes or not, they are happening.  What biofeedback equipment can do is make the invisible, visible.
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Biofeedback Applications in Education

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Biofeedback is a process that uses technology to measure and feed back information about a person’s physiology so that they can learn how to gain increased control over it.  It is used clinically in healthcare settings by licensed mental or physical medicine professionals including psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, physical therapists, chiropractors, nurses, occupational therapists, and rehab therapists.  It can also be used in educational settings.

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How to Use Biofeedback Equipment

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Biofeedback Equipment is a process that uses instruments that record physiological signals from a person’s body and then display the information so that a person can learn to change the signal that is being measured.  One therapeutic application of biofeedback is for helping people with stress-related disorders.  In this context sensors may be attached to a client and signals including muscle tension, breathing, and heart rate is measured and displayed on a computer screen.  The client with the help of coaching from a therapist learns to control these signals and bring them to a more relaxed level.

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Biofeedback, Medical or Educational?

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Is biofeedback medical or educational?

Biofeedback equipment has been around since the 1960s, yet some people still don’t know about it.

Being able to use technology to help learn control over physiology has almost endless applications.

Many people have been working hard for a long time to make biofeedback more accepted by the medical system.  There are physical medical applications like tension and migraine headaches, neck pain, back pain, other types of chronic pain, muscle spasm, hypertension, and asthma.  There are also mental health applications like ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, and depression.

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How Will We Do Biofeedback Post COVID19?

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Biofeedback is usually a face to face, one on one activity.  If you were providing biofeedback prior to the start of social distancing and stay at home orders, things have surely changed drastically for you very quickly.  Now what will we do?  Many of the people who provide biofeedback also provide psychotherapy.  It is much simpler to provide psychotherapy virtually than it is for biofeedback.  All you need is for the provider and the client to have a computer, smartphone, or tablet and access to a software program or application like GotoMeeting, Zoom, or Skype.  Even though this is considered simple, there can still be impediments.  Some clients don’t have smartphones, tablets, or even computers.  Some also do not have internet access.  If both parties do have access to the necessary technology then the sessions can take place fairly easily and inexpensively.
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BCIA Certification Biofeedback Seminars

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How can you determine if the biofeedback provider you are considering visiting is qualified?

One good way is to get a personal referral.  If you know someone who has had success with a biofeedback provider for a similar problem as your own then there is a good chance that you may also get good results and be happy with them too.  There are other things that you can do to get an idea as to their qualifications.  One of the best ways to determine qualification is to find out if the provider is BCIA certified.  What is the BCIA?  BCIA stands for Biofeedback Certification International Alliance.

The BCIA is the organization that establishes the rules for and provides certification in biofeedback and neurofeedback.  Here is their mission: “BCIA certifies individuals who meet education and training standards in biofeedback and progressively recertifies those who advance their knowledge through continuing education.”
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