Category: Biofeedback training

Biofeedback Training for Psychologists

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Psychologists spend a lot of time performing psychological tests and doing talk therapy with their clients.  Many psychologists also have been adding tools and interventions like EMDR and biofeedback to help their clients.  To learn how to use biofeedback, psychologists can get training online.  This can be convenient because it doesn’t involve travel.  On the other hand, it doesn’t allow for the hands-on practice that takes place in an in-person training session.  It can also be beneficial to meet and work with other students during the training.  The networking and teamwork that happens can be invaluable.

Some training also includes APA Continuing Education credit which many psychologists need to maintain their license to practice.  There are many topics that could count towards this credit.  Biofeedback happens to be one of them.  The number of hours required for BCIA (Biofeedback Certification International Alliance) certification is 36 for Neurofeedback (A specialty area of biofeedback or EEG Biofeedback) and 42 hours for Biofeedback, otherwise known as peripheral biofeedback.

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Using Biofeedback to Learn Better Breathing

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Breathing is an essential function that impacts our physical and mental well-being. Even though it is vitally important, many of us pay little attention to the way we breathe. However, with biofeedback technology, there is a growing interest in using this innovative approach to teach and optimize breathing techniques. Biofeedback is a cutting-edge method that provides real-time data about physiological processes, enabling individuals to gain greater control over their bodily functions. Let’s explore how biofeedback can be a powerful tool for mastering the art of breathing.
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Biofeedback Training for Mental Health Disorders

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Mental health disorders including anxiety, PTSD, and depression seem to have become more widespread over the past several years.  Is it that more information has become available and there is less of a stigma for people to seek mental health services?  Is it a combination of effects of the pandemic, mass shootings, and national and international unrest?  Whatever the reason is, the fact is that help is needed.  Biofeedback training is among the many effective tools that mental health professionals can use to help people suffering from mental health challenges.

Psychologists and other mental health providers tend to do a lot of talking and paperwork as a part of their routine.  Some of this can become monotonous.  Biofeedback can introduce technology that helps the clients of mental health providers to learn about themselves.  It helps them to learn how to make real, physiological, measurable changes.  They learn to change how their body reacts to stress using biofeedback.

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Biofeedback Supplies and Technology

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What supplies do you need to have to use biofeedback technology?  Some biofeedback modalities require little or no supplies while others require consumable supplies that you need a ready inventory of.

A Plethysmograph (PPG) sensor which is used to measure Heart Rate, Blood Volume, and Heart Rate variability may use a clip or Velcro band that is permanently attached to the sensor.  In this case, there would be no replaceable supplies needed.

The Electrocardiograph (EKG) sensor measures Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability.  The EKG sensor uses adhesive disposable sensors that stick to the skin and snap or clip to the electrode cable.  These usually come in packages of 50 – 300.  Alcohol prep pads are used to clean the skin before applying the sensors.

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Biofeedback Training in Miami

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This year I started a project of reaching out to all of the HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).  I want to find out if they are using biofeedback and neurofeedback.  I am interested to find out how many of them are using biofeedback and how they are using it.  If they are not already using biofeedback, I want to introduce it to them and help them begin to find out the ways it can be used.

I have started with the states closest to New York since that is where I am.  This is also where we do most of our training.  I am looking at the schools in Florida next since we have also been doing biofeedback and neurofeedback training in Miami, Florida for many years.

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BiofeedbackTraining New York

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Where is biofeedback training available in New York?  That depends on what part of New York you are talking about and what kind of biofeedback training you are talking about.

New York is more than one place.  New York City is very different than Buffalo or Rochester.  Some parts of the state look more like the south than the city.

The other thing is, are you looking for training as a client or patient or as a student so that you can learn how to provide services?

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What is a Biofeedback Instrument?

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A biofeedback instrument is a device that uses sensors to measure a signal from the body related to your nervous system that then shows you the information as it is being measured.  It is different than getting your blood pressure checked or taking your pulse and getting one reading for one moment in time.  The measurement and feedback of information are continuous.

This information can be used for monitoring and might not even be shown to the person that it is being measured from.  This is sometimes done in research.  Let’s say a researcher wants to find out how a person’s body reacts to watching a scary movie or counting backward by 7’s. They could attach sensors to a subject and monitor signals like heart rate or sweat activity to acquire a measurement related to the physiological reaction of the stimulus.  When used in this way it would be more accurate to refer to the process as physiological monitoring instead of biofeedback.

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Biofeedback and Continuing Education for Psychologists

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If you are a psychologist in the United States of America, depending on which state you are licensed in, you may need a few or a large number of continuing education credits each year to maintain your license.

There are many topics to choose from to study.  Some are an absolute must like ethics.  Others are optional.  Since subjects like brain plasticity and the poly vagal theory have really taken off over the last several years, subjects that incorporate mind body technology and therapy have become of more interest to psychologists.

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Skin Conductance Biofeedback

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Skin Conductance can be both one of the simplest yet one of the most complex modalities of biofeedback at the same time.  More stress, the reading goes up.  More relaxed, the reading goes down.  Simple, right?  Not so fast.  Make sure we are not actually talking about resistance measures which are exactly opposite from conductance.  Besides two opposite measures of conductance and resistance, we should also add skin potential.  When I was introduced to biofeedback way back in 1984, GSR or Galvanic Skin Response was the common feedback modality for monitoring changes based on sweat activity.  The readings in Ohms would go down when there was more sweat on the skin because resistance was decreasing and it would go up if the amount of sweat decreased because resistance was increasing.  The audio tone was reversed so that it went up when the subject was responding to something and got lower when they recovered or calmed down.

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