Paraprofessional Relaxation Training Technicians in a Biofeedback Clinic

Abstract

The word patient has connotations of someone passively waiting for the doctor, listening while being told what is wrong, taking medicine, and “patiently” waiting until the drug takes effect. Something is being done to the patient rather than his doing something. The role of the patient seldom includes being an active participant in understanding and doing something himself about what is wrong. Our biofeedback program seeks to change the treatment role of the patient so that he becomes an aware, understanding observer of what is happening to his physiology. With this awreness. control or change often becomes possible. With his continued efforts at voluntarily doing something to change the information he is receiving about his physiology, potential change can become a reality. Biofeedback is any process that detects a specific aspect of the body’s physiological functioning, converts these data into signals that can be heard, seen, or felt by the person himself, and feeds those signals back to him.