©2000 by Stephen E. Wall
The path to wellness can be cleared and illuminated through the learning process of biofeedback training. Biofeedback helps clients learn the self-regulation skills to cope with discomfort and pain, and in so doing, create new mind-body patterns that cultivate self-knowledge and self-confidence. In turn, clients find themselves freer to make choices that promote health, and transform their lives in ways they didn't think possible.
Basically, biofeedback involves reflecting psychophysiological processes so that the client can see and eventually understand what is going on within his or her mind and body. Taking your temperature is a simple example of biofeedback; a more complex one is measuring brain waves and seeing them displayed in graphs on a video screen. At the Bio Research Institute (BRI), we measure temperature, muscle activity, sweat gland activity, heart rate, respiration, and brain waves. The activity in these systems is reflected to the client through graphs displayed on a color monitor and audio tones that go up and down as the activity increases or decreases. The client gradually learns how to control these systems, and to self-regulate their activity when there is too much going on. Biofeedback is useful for addressing complaints such as migraine and tension headaches, chronic pain, TMJ, ADHD, anxiety responses, Reynaud's syndrome, gastrointestinal problems, and many other conditions without the use of drugs, surgery, or other invasive strategies.
When biofeedback came on the scene in the early 1970s, many were excited by its potential for facilitating developmental changes in people, but the simple instrumentation and clinical techniques then available stood in the way of this potential being realized. The work I have been pursuing over the past 18 years at BRI has been focused on exploring and developing biofeedback's therapeutic, developmental, and spiritual potential. We have developed advanced instrumentation that enhances the biofeedback experience for clients and accelerates their learning.
Biofeedback training can reveal deeply ingrained psychophysiological patterns heretofore considered permanent and enduring. These patterns can be changed, leading to corresponding changes in the client's physiological and psychological well-being. For most problems, clients receive 12 to 20 sessions of training. However, in some cases, more training is appropriate. The case below is an example of a problem that is considered permanent and enduring, yet responded to extended biofeedback training.
In this case study, the client not only learned how to self-regulate multiple body systems by recognizing and working with these patterns, he realized that alternative ways of being existed, and that he was not permanently chained to the diagnosis that clouded his life.
Matthew was a 45-year-old self-employed attorney with two adult children who had been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and who came to BRI complaining of a "mind that was never quiet," insomnia associated with sleep onset, and late-night sleep disturbance. In addition, he complained of chronic fatigue and a great deal of "stress" in his life. He was frustrated by his inability to refrain from analyzing everything that he experienced. He was unable to relax sufficiently to enjoy even recreational activities such as going to the movies or leaving town on vacation. He found it impossible stop thinking about work-related issues. When training began, he was taking Lithium (900 mg./day), Librium (from 75 to 150 mg/day) and Xanax (from 2 to 4 mg/day) as prescribed by his doctor, and he frequently self-medicated with marijuana.
Matthew's psychological background provides some insight into the physiological manifestation of his stress. He grew up in New York, and when training began had not spoken with his parents for many years. He had been a police officer from 1966 to 1975, and had suffered a stress-related disability in 1975 precipitated by a psychotic break that required a brief hospitalization. At this time he began taking Lithium. From 1964 to 1969 he had been attending school as a business major at San Jose State, and he started attending night school studying law in 1969 while working full-time for the police department. He graduated with honors in 1973, passing the bar immediately thereafter. He went through a divorce in 1973, and continued working for the police department through 1975. From 1976 to 1977 he worked as a legal aide on a part-time basis, and from 1977-1978 he practiced law part-time on his own. From 1979 to 1980 he traveled extensively in Central America and the South Pacific, and from 1980-1982 experimented with several start-up businesses. From 1983 to 1991 he practiced personal injury law in San Jose and Santa Rosa, moving to Santa Rosa in 1987 and continuing his law practice through 1991, He remarried in the late 1980s, and was divorced within a couple of years.
Matthew came to BRI at the recommendation of a chiropractor he knew professionally through his law practice.
I explained to Matthew that biofeedback is a learning process rather than a treatment, in which he would discover how he carried tension in his mind and body and gradually learn how to self-regulate body/mind activity, thereby freeing up energy to be used more productively. He would learn about his patterns of activation through measurement of temperature, skeletal muscle activity, sweat gland activity, heart rate, respiration, and right and left hemisphere brain activity. I described the training strategy we use at BRI, called BioIntegration, in which individuals are empowered through multimodality training with clear goals. Through this process, they achieve an understanding of how they function in life and how life impacts them, and come to understand the links between body, mind and spirit. I showed him the special instrumentation designed at the Institute that would accelerate the release of psychophysiological patterns of distress and help him transfer the relaxation skills he would learn in clinical sessions to his everyday life.
However, Matthew was highly skeptical of the efficacy of biofeedback; in fact, for the first 20 of our 75 sessions he continued to profess skepticism about the value of the training process. This was congruent with his general attitude that nothing, including biofeedback, could help his condition. During our sessions together he never appeared depressed or "down"; he was consistently "on." He was highly verbal, known to fatigue people with his verbosity and intensity. After conducting the initial comprehensive evaluation at BRI, I elected to schedule his training at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays so as to give myself time during lunch to recover from his intense communication style.
Matthew's initial measures revealed grossly excessive brain wave activity in the beta bandwidth (EEG), gross overactivation of the skeletal muscles (EMG), and irregular respiration. Brain wave training was strongly indicated as a priority measure for this client, due to chronic excessive beta activity. However, muscle activity was to play a dramatic role that underlined the importance of multimodality training when working with long-established and complex patterns.
For the first 20 sessions, Matthew was so psychophysiologically active that we were unable to train in anything but muscle activity. Brain wave training was out of the question because he was unable to settle down long enough to discern or appreciate the nature of his brain wave activity and potential ability to use this kind of training as a means of "quieting his mind." Instead, we focused on muscle activity, using this more "tangible" modality as a means of educating the client about his own patterns of muscle tensing and relating them to mental stress. In later sessions, we were able to utilize brain wave training, which was very productive and provided Matthew with a deep understanding of his own psychophysiology as well as an expanded view of possible states of being.
Physiological results
The physiological results of Matthew's training were dramatic, particularly
in the modalities of muscle activity, brain activity, and respiration. His
initial physiological condition was as inflexible as his psychological way of
being in the world. He lowered his muscle activity from an initial session
mean reading of 16 microvolts to a final session mean of 3 microvolts. His
brain wave activity went from being grossly dominant in the beta bandwidth to
a much more flexible condition in which he could create alpha activity at will.
In addition, his breathing pattern went from fast and erratic to slow and rhythmic.
Psychological changes
The client's psychological condition showed changes as dramatic as those exhibited
in his psychophysiological systems over the training period.
Matthew went from being an individual with a "manic mind" who reported being "stressed out" to the point of being "at the end of his rope," to someone who exhibited gentleness, calmness and very substantial awareness of himself and his journey to wellness and clarity. He no longer wore out associates with his intensity and nonstop monologue, and he described this change as a "spiritual release" that revealed quiet, reflective parts of himself he had never known before. His insomnia disappeared, along with his chronic fatigue. He reconciled with and remarried his second wife part way through his biofeedback training, and he reestablished communication with his parents.
Eventually, Matthew moved to a small cattle ranch in Arizona and is currently living in New Mexico. He is retired from the law and is involved in other, more peaceful business ventures.
Several years after training, Matthew continues to do very well. His doctor has said that since Matthew appears to suffer no ill effects from Lithium, he should continue taking it; he now takes Librium rarely and has been off Xanax for several years. Matthew no longer experiences the chronic sleep disturbance or uncontrollable thought patterns of years past. He credits his current state of well being to the mixture of brain wave, muscle activity, and respiration training he received at BRI. He continues to practice his skills and is confident that he will be able to do so for the rest of his life.
Conclusion
Using biofeedback to promote health and wellness requires a philosophic shift
from seeing the human being as a collection of discrete physiologies to an understanding
that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This process has implications
that extend far beyond symptom relief to the reorganization of personality and
enhanced well-being.
dvanced biofeedback training makes it possible to work with conditions that have heretofore been thought of as permanent and enduring, and empower clients to discover realms within themselves that they never believed existed. By learning to release energies that have been tied up in maladaptive coping strategies, they can discover paths leading them away from their "permanent" problems. Whether the client has a complex and chronic problem or a more common complaint such as headaches, biofeedback is a practical and elegant strategy that directly empowers the individual to achieve comfort and wellness.