"Biofeedback" provides a person with information about their physical and emotional functioning using sensitive instruments that pick up tiny changes in the body that are detectable at the surface of the skin. These signals communicate how the body is functioning or responding at any given moment. Much of biofeedback training involves learning how to influence the body's autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the major part of the body's nervous system that is involved in regulation of the body's stress response and the nerves of the ANS influence every major organ system in the body. Therefore, the ANS is strongly involved in regulating the way a person responds to any activity or situation that activates the body's stress response.

By receiving feedback about how the body is functioning (i.e. the psychophysiology of the body) a person is able to learn (or re-learn) to make significant changes in blood flow patterns and skin temperature in the body, breathing rates and breathing patterns, muscle tension levels, heart rate activity, and even brainwave patterns (neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback). By learning to influence these physiological functions, clients develop the ability to make significant and noticeable changes in the conditions described below.

• Chronic pain
• Headache
• Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• ADD/ADHD
• Hypertension
• Appetite Management
• Breathing Disorders
• Anxiety Disorders
• General difficulties involving physiological/arousal difficulties

For further information on clinical biofeedback, see www.aapb.org.