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Biofeedback

What Is Biofeedback?

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Learn More About Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a treatment used for a variety of mental and physical health conditions and consists of sensors placed on the client’s body while physiological data is viewed on a computer screen or other monitor in real-time. It is considered a self-regulatory therapy because it is a tool for increasing awareness of and changing individual physiological responses to reduce symptoms or improve performance.


The Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB), the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA), and International Society for Neurofeedback and Research (ISNR) provide this standard definition:

Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Precise instruments measure physiological activity such as brainwaves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature. These instruments rapidly and accurately “feed back” information to the user. The presentation of this information — often in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior — supports desired physiological changes. Over time, these changes can endure without continued use of an instrument.

– Galvanic skin response meter measuring eccrine sweat gland activity (skin conductance).
– Thermistor measuring peripheral skin temperature.
– Electrocardiogram (ECG) or photoplethysmograph measuring peripheral blood flow, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV).
– Electromyogram (SEMG) measuring surface neuromuscular responses.
– Respiratory gauge and capnometry measuring breathing patterns, rate, and expired carbon dioxide.
– Electroencephalography (EEG) measuring electrical activity of the cortex.

In this training, biofeedback devices are used to teach people to increase control of their physiological responses through awareness, practice, and learning over time. It is valuable on a face value level, or “seeing is believing,” but the various biofeedback modalities also represent more complex activities of the central nervous system. A treatment goal is often to reduce sympathetic activation (stress response) and increase parasympathetic activation (relaxation response) of the nervous system, with more conscious control over each pattern.

In 2002, a task force formed to rank how effective biofeedback is for different disorders. Biofeedback has evidence-based support for chronic pain conditions including:

– Anxiety
– Panic Disorders
– Migraines
– Tension headaches
– Temporomandibular joint pain
– Non-cardiac chest pain
– Arthritic conditions
– Irritable bowel syndrome
– Raynaud’s disease
– Other chronic pain conditions


There is evidence biofeedback may help related problems such as dysautonomia, insomnia, and anxiety and often demonstrates comparable gains to cognitive behavioral therapy for these conditions. Thus, biofeedback is often used in conjunction with other therapies such as physical therapy, psychotherapy, mindfulness practices, and various types of breathwork.

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