Mind over Matter: Biofeedback in Winter Park, Florida

Biofeedback is a noninvasive treatment that we offer at Constantly Healthy Counseling & Coaching. It helps clients learn how to control some of their body`s functions like their heart rate. This type of holistic treatment is beneficial for many who wish to avoid using medications or for those that can’t use medications at a specific time in their life, like during pregnancy.

Clients choose biofeedback to feel more in control and in tune with their own health.

When performing biofeedback, your body can relax certain muscles, allowing you to feel reduced pain, less stress, reduced anxiety, etc. Studies have shown that it is effective in improving responses during stressful situations and induces feelings of calm and well-being.

Biofeedback allows you to find new ways to control your body which often helps to improve certain physical and mental health conditions, such as anxiety, asthma, ADHD, chronic pain, high blood pressure, and stroke symptoms. Many athletes also find it beneficial to help optimize their performance.

Biofeedback is centered around the idea of “mind over matter”. This is the idea that you have the power to change your health by being mindful of how your body responds to stressors and other stimuli.

An example of biofeedback being used is when a client has headaches. With biofeedback, you can pinpoint tense muscles that cause these headaches, and then you learn how to make physical changes to your body like relaxing a specific muscle to help reduce the pain. The overall goal is to be able to do make these changes to your body when you are at home on your own and be able to stop the pain.

Three Types of Biofeedback

There are three main common types of biofeedback therapy:

Thermal – measures skin temperature.

For thermal biofeedback, sensors are attached to your fingers to measure blood flow to your skin. Your temperature can drop when you are under stress so that provides a low reading which can alert you to start doing some relaxation techniques to bring your temperature back to normal.

Electromyography – measures muscles tension.

For electromyography, biofeedback sensors are placed over your skeletal muscles with an electromyograph (EMG) that will monitor the electrical activity that causes muscle contraction over time.

Neurofeedback (EEG) – measures electrical brain activity.

Neurofeedback is also called EEG Biofeedback, because it is based on electrical brain activity, the electroencephalogram, or EEG. Neurofeedback is training in self-regulation. It is simply biofeedback applied to the brain directly. Self-regulation is a necessary part of good brain function.

This type of biofeedback helps patients who have ADHD, addiction, anxiety, seizures, or any other type of brain condition. They use scalp sensors to monitor your brain waves over time.

What to Expect During A Biofeedback Session?

During a session, your counselor will attach electrical sensors to your body. The sensors will measure one or more signs of stress that affect your heart rate, your muscle tension, or your body temperature. Once these measurements are known, it will provide feedback on how your body is reacting to different stimuli. Your counselor will be able to teach you how do different relaxation techniques or breathing exercises that will help you to lower your heart rate. This will encourage more positive reactions to stressful situations and provide relaxation. A session usually lasts about an hour. How many sessions you receive depends on a various factors, such as how quickly you learn to control your responses to a stimulus.

Interested in biofeedback? Contact our Winter Park counseling center today to get started.