phone: 1-877-669-6463 ..... 914-762-4646
|
phone: 1-877-669-6463 ..... 914-762-4646 |
|
| |
A free email 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.
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.biofeedbackinternational.com
Please add our new website to your favorites or bookmarks.
Inside this issue:
I. Muscle Tension and Pain - Harry Campbell
A business man came to me last week to get a portable EMG trainer for
himself. He had worked with professional biofeedback practitioners before.
It was helpful for him. He had most recently been using skin conductance
but believed that it wasn't meeting his current need. He was feeling
symptoms of physical tension and pain. Through discussions with his doctor
and later with me, he came to believe that he needed something that would
help him more directly relax his muscles.
This reminded me of the many years that I provided biofeedback for people
who had been involved in car accidents. Many of them suffered from tension
headaches, neck, back, arm, and leg pain. The medical doctor in the
practice often prescribed muscle relaxant medications. This helped but made
the patients feel very lethargic. Some commented that even though they felt
physically able to do household chores, they didn't feel like doing anything
but lying on the couch and watching T.V. or sleeping. I used this
information to help explain how EMG biofeedback might help reduce their pain
symptoms.
I explained that the muscle relaxant that the doctor prescribed was reducing
their pain symptom partly because it was indeed relaxing their muscles. The
problem was that the medication was not able to target one specific muscle.
It was relaxing all of the muscles. That was the reason they felt
lethargic. I explained that if they were able to use EMG biofeedback to
learn to relax the specific muscles that were unusually tense, they would
still get the pain reduction without feeling like spaghetti all over. This
made sense to most people. It helped me to get them on-board to do the EMG
Biofeedback work. Many patients experienced a reduction in pain symptoms
even after only a few sessions. With most of them I could also show them
that their EMG readings were much lower than they were when they started.
The man that came in for the EMG planned to only use the instrument for
standard biofeedback/relaxation sessions. I explained that in addition to
that, it would be helpful to have the EMG connected to him while he was
doing other activities. I instructed him to set the threshold (goal) to a
higher level than he normally would during a relaxation session. During a
relaxation session he might set the threshold at 3 micro volts. I suggested
a threshold of about 10 micro volts when using it during other activities.
This is to allow normal muscle contraction that occurs during activities. I
suggested trying it while he was doing paperwork or other activities that
are not too physically demanding.
I explained that this type of training would help to generalize relaxation
and help him to become more aware of and sensitive to changes in the level
of tension in his muscles. Sometimes the problem is not that a person does
not know how to relax at all. It may be that they don't recognize when
their tension level is starting to increase. The first sign of increased
tension is often a stress related symptom like pain. By that time it is too
late. By recognizing the early signs of increasing muscle tension you have
the opportunity to release the excess tension BEFORE it leads to pain
symptoms.
When I first connected the EMG sensors to the man's forehead muscles the
levels were high and I could visually notice the tension on his face. After
several minutes of working with the EMG and talking, I noticed that the
levels were lower and his face looked much more relaxed. THIS STUFF REALLY
WORKS!
II. Announcements
NOTICE!
Please see:
http://www.biofeedbackinternational.com/seminars.htm
NOTICE!
http://www.biofeedbackinternational.com/fiveday2.htm
Please visit our website for other upcoming seminar dates:
http://www.biofeedbackinternational.com
Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend.
****************************************************************
Muscle Tension and Pain
15 August 2008
- a BioFeedBack Resources International email newsletter -
written & edited by Harry L. Campbell, President
technical editing and production by Edwin Johnson
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please go to the end of this email.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Advanced Neurofeedback Seminar that was scheduled for July 11-12th has
been rescheduled. The new dates are: August 23-24th. There is still time to
register if you weren't able to make the original dates.
Our October 25-29th BCIA Certification Biofeedback seminar that was
originally scheduled to take place in San Francisco, CA has been moved to
Hawthorne, NY due to demand in the northeast. Please contact us to register
as soon as possible as space is limited. You can call 877-669-6463 or
914-762-4646 or download our registration page at:
If not subscribed, to continue receiving this newsletter, reply
to this email with the word, "subscribe" in the Subject.
----------------------------------------------------------------
To be removed from our newsletter email list, please reply to
this email with the word "remove" in the Subject.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Back issues are archived on our website.
Letters to the editor or comments: 
www.biofeedbackinternational.com
914.762.4646 877-669-6463
fax:914.762.2281
****************************************************************