in partnership with the

Behavioral Medicine Research & Training 

Foundation

Non-profit Scientific & Educational Organization 91-1948669

operating under Section 501c3 of the US Internal Revenue Code 

6576 Blue Mountain Road, Port Angeles, WA 98362

Description of the distance based course:

Ethics for Biofeedback Providers

5 CEUs, Course Fee: $150

Presented by Richard A.  Sherman, PhD

Course Concept and Description: This 5 CE, distance based course is intended for clinicians, 
educators, and coaches who have incorporated or are interested in incorporating biofeedback 
(including neurofeedback) intervention and psychophysiological assessment techniques into their 
practices. It emphasizes issues in ethics and professional conduct which are of special interest to 
clinicians incorporating biofeedback - many of which are not clearly spelled out in typical codes 
of ethics and conduct promulgated by clinical organizations. Participants attend three audiovisual 
lectures (hear the instructor’s voice while watching slides), read text files, and interact with the 
instructor via e-mail. At the end of the course, participants answer a set of short essay questions 
covering key concepts in the course. No text is required for this course.

Most participants require about five hours to complete the course including answering the 

end of course questions and interacting with the instructor. Participants start the course whenever 
they wish to and proceed through the course at their convenience for up to one year. This course 
does not replace the standard 45 hour (3 credit) ethics courses usually required for licensure and 
does not cover all areas of ethics usually covered by such courses.

Five optional lectures are included in the course (introduction to biofeedback and for 

lectures on what you need to know to do biofeedback). Attending these lectures adds about an 
extra hour to the course.

Learning objectives: The course objective is to familiarize participants with the key ethical 

considerations and issues in professional conduct involved in providing biofeedback based 
interventions and clinical psychophysiological assessments which are frequently not covered 
adequately in traditional ethics courses.  

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This course is designed to help you (the student):

1. Apply an understanding what biofeedback and psychophysiological recording are 

to your interventions.

2. Recognize the training you will need to ethically and knowledgeably incorporate 

biofeedback based interventions and psychophysiological assessments into your 
practice.

3. Develop knowledge based decisions on incorporating validated and unvalidated 

interventions into your practice and charging for them.

4. Recognize the importance of understanding how medications (a) cause symptoms 

of the type commonly treated with biofeedback and (b) affect the signals.

5. Develop appropriate informed consent and treatment explanation documents.
6. Determine the extent to which you can apply sensors and when you need a 

chaperone.

Format: Home study supported by e-mail chats after each unit is completed. The lecture 
portion of the course is presented through a series of audiovisual lectures profusely 
illustrated by power-point slides and movies. The course is accessed from the course web 
site. The audiovisual lectures are on power point slides. You will hear the instructor’s 
voice while viewing the power point sides. The lectures are between 1 ½ and 2 ½ hours 
in length. Reading assignments parallel the lectures. After watching the lecture and 
reading the assigned supporting files, you will answer a brief series of short essay review 
questions (which are in the review questions file on the course web site). The answered 
questions are then e-mailed to the instructor. You and the instructor will discuss each unit 
via e-mail chat after your answers are assessed. There is no need to complete the 
discussion with the instructor before proceeding to the succeeding lecture & chapters. It 
is expected that all review questions will be answered correctly and completely by the 
student. Any questions answered incorrectly or incompletely must be discussed and/or 
corrected. You will have at least one real-time meeting with the instructor via a web 
based program such as “go to meeting” during which you will interact around your new 
skills.

Accessibility: Hearing impaired people can view the slides only as virtually all of 

the material presented in the lectures is typed onto the slides. Visually impaired people 
can concentrate on the verbal lectures as the slide material is repeated in the lecture 
accompanying each slide. 

Accessing course materials: All course materials are available on the course web site. When 
you purchase the course, you will be given instructions for accessing the course web site 
immediately. 

Computer and Computer Knowledge Requirements:  Anybody with a modern computer and 
a bit of basic understanding of computer operation (at the level of being able to send e-mails) can 
play this course with minimal problems. You must have a computer (a) capable of connecting to 
the internet and running a typical internet program, (b) containing/running a modern word 
processor such as Microsoft word or Word Perfect, (c) the capability to play sounds such as 
music (has speakers and appropriate software which normally come with any modern computer), 

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and (d) a slide viewing program such as Power Point (you can probably get a slide viewing 
program free off the internet if you don’t have one). Any modern (e.g., built within the last ten 
years), IBM style computer running Windows 98 and more recent platforms (e.g., XP or 
Windows 8) should be able to do this. Speed, hard disk size, and RAM are not factors for 
computers in the above category.

 Dozens of students have used recent Apple products (MACs etc.) for the course however 

they frequently have more difficulty playing the course materials than PC users do.
If you are using a MAC type of computer, you must have a current version of “quicktime”. If 
you do not have it, you can download it for free from the web.

Faculty:

 

The course is given by Dr. Richard Sherman, Ph.D.  He is certified by BCIA, approved 

by BCIA to teach the general biofeedback certification course, and currently teaches A&P, 
Pelvic floor disorders, pain, and other courses. He is a professional psychophysiologist with 
extensive training (his Ph.D. is in biology & psychology), has nearly 30 years of experience in 
the field, and has published over 130 books, chapters, and articles (mostly in peer reviewed 
journals). Dr. Sherman is Director of the psychophysiology doctoral specialization at Saybrook 
University and has held many positions within the Association for Applied Psychophysiology 
and Biofeedback including president. Full CV available upon request and on the course web site.

The ten major topics covered in this introductory level course are:

1. Defining biofeedback and clinical psychophysiology – knowing what 

biofeedback actually is and what it is not. (Includes optional “introduction to 
BFB” lecture.)

2. Training required to ethically and knowledgeably provide biofeedback based 

services even in cases where a state license includes biofeedback as a practice 
modality. Includes a discussion of needing to understand how the equipment 
works, how the body works relative to the signals being fed back, and 
relationships between specific, diagnosable conditions, and the feedback 
signal. (Includes optional “what you need to know to do biofeedback” 
lecture.)

3. Ethical considerations in charging for non-validated biofeedback based 

interventions. This includes a discussion of standards for accepting an 
intervention as efficacious, FDA labels of biofeedback devices, etc.

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4. Client / Patient Rights. This topic includes (a) informed consent for 

biofeedback based interventions and psychophysiological assessments, (b) 
patient privacy,  (c) abandonment, (d) duty to protect, & (e) record keeping.

5. The need to understand the effects of medications on symptoms treated with 

biofeedback and on the biofeedback signal.

6. Who can use biofeedback devices as part of therapy – the issue of FDA 

limitations on prescription of biofeedback devices, technicians running 
biofeedback sessions, billing issues, etc.

7. Applying the biofeedback sensors – can you touch the patient? When do you 

need a chaperone?

8. Conflicts of interest in charging for home practice aids as part of biofeedback 

therapy.

9. Issues in advertising biofeedback based services. 

10. Ethical principles promulgated by the Biofeedback Certification Institute of 

America. The discussion includes overlap between and precedence of ethical 
principles promulgated by BCIA and profession based groups such as the 
APA.

When all requirements have been successfully completed, your course completion certificate will 
be e-mailed to you and BCIA will be informed that you completed the course. 

Administrative Information

Schedule:

 You can start the course whenever wish to within six months of the purchase date 

and work at your own pace as long as you complete the course within one year of purchase.

Duration of course validity: You must begin the course within six months of the purchase 

date and complete it within one year of the purchase date. Courses not completed by that time are 
void and must be repurchased if still available. No refunds are provided for courses not 
completed within one year of purchase. 

CE Credit

:

 Saybrook University is regionally accredited and approved by the state of California to grant 

degrees. These are continuing education, not university accredited, courses. CE credits are given through 
(1) the state of California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences (Approval # PCE1895); (2) The National Board 
of Certified Counselors (Provider # 6270), and (3) the Behavioral Medicine R&T Foundation is approved 
by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The 
Foundation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Saybrook University is regionally accredited and approved to grant degrees by the state of California.

BCIA:

 

This course is accepted by the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance for both 

certification and recertification.

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Purchasing courses: Courses can be purchased from Biofeedback International Resources

by clicking the Buy Me button for the specific course here.

Full refund will be made until the students are given access to the course website.

After getting access to the course website, there is no refund at all, as Saybrook University and the

Foundation have committed their resources to you and you have access to all of the course materials.

A course would only be cancelled due to an extreme emergency on the part of the course instructor or

the Foundation. In the highly unlikely event a course is cancelled, you would receive a full refund.

Scholarships:  Saybrook University and the Foundation give 

scholarships 

consisting of 

25% off the cost of the course(s) to (a) students and professionals (e.g. clinicians, coaches, teachers) 
from emerging nations and (b) full time graduate students in developed nations.

Course updates: Updates to all courses are placed on the course web site as they are made. 
Students are informed when updates are available. 

End of outline

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