How Do I Start Using Biofeedback?
Certified biofeedback therapists, many of whom are nurses, help interpret signals
from monitoring devices while leading their patients through physical and mental
exercises to achieve the desired change in the body function being measured.
Biofeedback creates a greater awareness of specific body parts and their functions.
With training, you can regulate these functions. Biofeedback helps people to relieve
or eliminate symptoms, provides an internal locus of control, and helps them reduce
their own health care costs.
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TRY IT YOURSELF: MIND CONTROL OF MUSCULAR STRENGTH
- Face your partner. Put your right hand on your partner’s shoulder, palm up.
- Clench your fist, and hold your arm straight.
- Have your partner grasp your elbow with both hands and pull down while you
resist. The pull needs to be gradual until you both get a sense of how much force is
needed to bend your arm.
- Now imagine you are a fire engine or pump. You are rooted to the earth and are
drawing water up and it is pushing through your arm and out of your fingers at
high speed with tremendous force—with such force that nothing can bend your
arm.
- Then place your arm again on your partner’s shoulder, this time with the fingers
outstretched, holding onto the feeling and the image of the pump pushing water
through your arm with great force.
- Ask your partner once more to apply gradual force to bend your arm. You will need
to apply a little muscle power, but will find you can relax and hold steady with
much less effort than before.
The Absolute Minimum
■ Through learned control of the autonomic nervous system, biofeedback offers
a way to control symptoms of chronic illnesses and everyday stress.
