With the help of computerized equipment and an experienced biofeedback therapist, you can successfully learn how your decisions, thoughts, and behaviors can affect your physical health. Even more importantly, you can learn effective strategies to change what you’re doing that may be contributing to anxiety, panic, and medical problems (including heart problems, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, headaches/migraines, and high blood pressure). The result? Better coping skills, fewer physical symptoms, and an increased sense of awareness can lead to a better quality of life.

The equipment used for biofeedback therapy provides you with information that is beyond the normal senses. Measurement devices are connected (non-invasively) to you that allow you to actually see, firsthand, how your body is reacting to stress and other factors that may be resulting in physical or emotional problems. Once you understand how your body is affected by such factors, you’ll learn several strategies that can help improve your physical symptoms.

Biofeedback training allows you to better understand how your thoughts and actions are affecting your physical body. The body’s response to stress, often leading to unhealthy coping methods, can result in (or accentuate) serious medical and emotional problems. By learning ways to control your physical reactions to stressful situations, not only will you reduce your symptoms, but you can prevent them from coming back!

Biofeedback training utilizes measurement devices to provide “feedback” to you during your training sessions. It provides information to you that is beyond the normal senses of physical functioning. The biofeedback therapist will help you understand this feedback and teach you strategies to train your mind and your body to be more efficient in the areas of thinking and behaving, leading to reduced physical symptoms and increased emotional comfort. Through biofeedback, you can decrease headaches and/or migraines, lower blood pressure, improve your ability to deal with anxiety and panic, and reduce physical symptoms and pain, among many other positive outcomes.

The most commonly used measurement devices used at the Center for Coping include:

• EMG (electromyograph): Measures muscle contractions in different areas of the body
• Thermal: Measures skin temperature (blood flow) in the fingers
• Skin conductance: Measures conductance (sweat gland activity) of the skin
• Heart rate: Measures heart rate
• Respiratory rate: Measures abdominal breathing
• Blood pressure: Measures blood pressure in the body

All measurement devices are non-invasive and completely safe. All equipment is state-of-the-art and of the most advanced in biofeedback technology.

The purpose of biofeedback training is to help you learn skills that empower you to take responsibility for your emotional and physical health. Some of the most common problems that our biofeedback therapists treat include:

• Headaches/Migraines
• Stress Management
• Anxiety/Panic Disorders
• Chronic Pain
• High Blood Pressure
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s, Colitis
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) & other menstrual disorders
• Insomnia, other sleep disorders
• Bruxism (teeth grinding)
• TMJ
• Raynaud’s Phenomenon
• Muscle Pain
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• and many more