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Welcome to MINDFITNESS®, BioFeedBack Resources International
and Health Training Seminars' newsletter, a free e-mail service
that keeps you posted on new information and products which
increase the effectiveness of the services you offer, the
economic health of your practice and your creative thinking.
Read on to get great tips for improving client services and
expanding your practice, as well as finding out about exciting
new content on our web site.
***** INSIDE THIS ISSUE *****
I. Biofeedback & Stress Management for Students
A Student returns as a teacher
Somewhere back in about 1983 I was first introduced to
biofeedback. Adam Crane visited my Ossining High School class
for career day. He talked about and demonstrated something he
called biofeedback. He showed my class how signals coming from
our body could be measured and that we could learn to control
the changes with our minds. This was immediately very
interesting to me. I had already been very interested in
science, technology, and computers.
Adam had mentioned that he was considering hiring one of the
students from my class. I was very excited about the
possibility of getting paid to work with this fascinating new
technology. He took contact information from the students who
were interested in the position. I waited for a phone call but
didn't receive one. I started calling about once every two
weeks. He had hired one of the other students but I don't
think he lasted very long. After many, many calls Adam finally
broke down and decided to have me come in for an interview and
he decided to hire me for a part time position. My duties
started with shipping and receiving and grew to testing
instruments, computer support, data entry, and other office
duties. I graduated in 1984. While I was attending a local
college I continued to work with Adam at his biofeedback
company part time. After graduating with an associate's degree
in computer systems management to his surprise I agreed to go
to work with him full time. He always thought that I would go
to work for IBM or some other big technology company. I did
too but it was too late for me. I had fallen in love with
biofeedback and couldn't pull myself away to do anything else.
It was too interesting, fun, and important to the world. There
were enough computer geeks in the world already.
I have seen the biofeedback technology grow from the wooden box
instruments like Inner-Tel and Autogen to the Unicomp and J&J
Commodore computer systems, to the Apple IIe Unicomp, Biocomp,
and Biolab computer systems, to all of the IBM PC systems that
grew into what we work with now.
I have worked with Adam Crane for over 22 years. We recently
came to an agreement for me to buy the company from him. This
will allow me to continue doing what I have come to love. It
also allows Adam to do what he is most passionate about now
which is continuing to develop the International MindFitness
Foundation. This foundation focuses on performance and life
enhancement which biofeedback and neurofeedback are only a
small part.
I recently had the opportunity to return to Ossining High
School along with Elizabeth Stroebel, Ph.D., creator of the
Kiddie-QR Program (a stress management program created
specifically for children), to teach a course on Biofeedback
and Stress Management for Students for a group of educators
from the school district.
The goal of the course was to help educators become more aware
of how much of a problem stress can be in the school
environment both for students and staff. We also planned to
show them how biofeedback and simple relaxation techniques
could be used to help to mange stress. The group was made up
of regular classroom teachers, special education teachers,
speech therapists, guidance counselors, and a music teacher.
The participants were very enthusiastic about the information
we shared with them. Here are some of the questions that I
asked the group along with answers we came up with:
Question: What are some of the sources of stress for students?
Answer: Exams (including state and regent exams), problems at
home, work, bullies, added responsibility of having to help
support the family financially, keeping up with fashions, peer
pressure, relationship problems with teachers, learning
disabilities, and pressure to get into a good college.
Question: What are some signs that school staff can notice in
students that indicate possible reaction to stress?
Answer: Hunched or raised shoulders, tapping of foot or pencil,
sad appearance or affect, head down, withdrawn, demonstrations
of anger, aggression, clenched jaw or fist, lack of focus,
fatigue, and rapid, shallow breathing.
Question: What are some of the negative effects stress can have
in the school setting?
Answer: Visits to the nurse's office due to headaches and
stomachaches, arguments, physical fights, disruption in class,
inattention in class, lack of focus, test anxiety, decreased
cognitive abilities, poor performance, decreased participation,
student/teacher relationship problems,
Question: What is currently being done to deal with stress in
the school setting?
Answer: Mentoring Programs, counselors are available for
students to talk to, yoga is now offered as an alternative to
standard "gym", a crisis team is in place to deal with major
problems that come up like the death of a student or other
major school or community tragedy.
Question: What else can be done to help reduce stress in the
school environment?
Answer: Offer a course on stress management and biofeedback as
part of staff development. One participant suggested that this
would help teachers become more aware of what causes stress,
signs of stress, and how to better help students reduce stress
as well as how not to add to the stress of students. Other
suggestions included introducing students to biofeedback so
they could actually see their stress levels and learn how to
reduce it, creating a more relaxing atmosphere, creating better
relationships between teachers and students, offering stress
management training to parents and making them aware of
biofeedback, setting up biofeedback in the "time out" room,
creating a relaxing space that students could retreat to if
needed.
Question: What are some of the challenges/roadblocks in
implementing biofeedback/stress management programs in schools?
Answer: Money, bureaucracy, attitudes/perceptions, willingness
to participate, space, language barriers.
Question: How could these challenges/roadblocks be resolved?
Answer: Apply for grants, provide students, parents,
administrators, and community with information and
demonstration of how stress management and biofeedback works,
accumulate data from research showing a strong positive
correlation between stress reduction and management and student
achievement, offer workshops for district policy makers to
demonstrate the effectiveness of reducing stress on student
performance and behavior.
This was a very enjoyable and enlightening experience for me.
The participants said that they learned a lot more about
stress, stress management, and biofeedback. I learned a lot
about stress in the school setting. It was very fulfilling to
return to my old school and be able to share some of what I
have learned since my graduation back in 1984. My hope is that
I will be able to help incorporate stress management and
biofeedback into this school district to help the students and
staff improve their performance and lives.
II. Upcoming Training Opportunities
Biofeedback
Neurofeedback
The emergence of Heart Rate Variability as a biofeedback
modality should be driving home the fact that whether our
thought are negative or positive is constantly affecting us in
powerful ways. Those of us who have been using HRV biofeedback
know that it is not just the breathing that affects HRV. A
person can be breathing correctly and doing very well with
their HRV score but a negative thought can quickly send the HRV
score in the wrong direction. Replacing the negative thought
with a positive one can return one to the right HRV direction
improving coherence. Try it; you will see what I'm talking
about.
The November/December 2006 issue of "Positive Thinking"
magazine quoted Emerson in an article entitled "Power
Thoughts". He said, "A man is what he thinks about all day
long."
No matter what religion you are, we would all do well to follow
this scripture from the King James Version Bible.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there
be any praise, think on these things.
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Biofeedback & Stress Management for Students
05 January 2007
a BioFeedBack Resources International e-mail newsletter
edited by Harry L. Campbell, BCIA, NRBS Past President
technical editing and production by Edwin Johnson
For information about subscriptions or to unsubscribe,
please go to the end of this e-mail.
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Jan 27-31, 2007 - Battle Creek, MI
Apr 20-24, 2007 - Hawthorne, NY
Jul 13-17, 2007 - Hawthorne, NY
May 11-14, 2007 - Hawthorne, NY
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