Biofeedback instruments measure and give you continuous information about subtle changes in aspects of your body's functioning, such as muscle tension, hand temperature, heart rate or EEG (brain-wave) patterns. Its purpose is to help you learn self-regulation of the system being measured to improve your health and wellbeing.

Biofeedback is well researched, with controlled studies showing efficacy for the following:

• Anxiety
• Asthma
• Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder
• Chronic pain (especially arthritis)
• Raynaud’s disease
• Hyperhidrosis
• Hypertension
• Incontinence
• Insomnia
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Migraine headaches
• Muscle contraction headaches
• Muscle spasms and cramps
• Myofascial pain
• Repetitive strain injury
• TMJ syndrome
• Torticollis
• Tremors, tics

Guided by the feedback, you learn how to attain a state of lowered tension that has been called "the relaxation response"--a pleasant and natural relaxed state that is the physiologic opposite of stress.

Biofeedback is a safe, non-invasive procedure with few contraindications.

Biofeedback-assisted relaxation training addresses both physical and mental aspects of stress control. By observing on the computer monitor how subtle changes in your posture, breathing, even your thoughts, affect your body, you gain new insight into the relationship between your mind and body, and learn to substitute "comfort cycles" for former stress-related vicious cycles. A technology assessment panel of the National Institutes of Health recommended biofeedback, when provided by an experienced, well-trained clinician, as a treatment for both insomnia and chronic pain.

Biofeedback training can help you become more alert, focused and energetic, as well as more relaxed and calm. Computerized EEG biofeedback (also called neurofeedback) measures particular brain-wave patterns associated with improved attention, concentration, memory, emotional stability and creativity.

At the Biofeedback Center of Riverdale, neurofeedback is provided with a gentle, safe, peak performance and stress management program, Zengar NeuroCARE.

NeuroCARE’s design is based on the principle of respect for the wisdom of the body and psyche to self-regulate and self-heal, given the right information. It does not tell the brain what to do or attempt to reward it for making particular changes in particular EEG frequencies. The program is designed simply to alert your brain when any of its self-regulatory mechanisms have momentarily become less efficient than previously. It does this by generating very short pauses in music whenever EEG signal variability momentarily changes compared to its range during windows of time moments before. Sitting in a chair with sensors on your scalp listening to music, you may occasionally hear a very brief pause in the music, although usually the pauses are so short you are barely even aware of them.

The brain is continually attempting to re-organize itself for greater comfort and flexibility. NeuroCARE provides information to make this task easier. It does not require elaborate diagnostic procedures: each person’s brain is being compared only to itself moments before. This lets the brain choose its own solutions to its own problems of self-regulation. The result is a falling away of physical and emotional pain, and increasing ease in setting and achieving positive goals in your life.

A short-term time investment in biofeedback (8 to 20 sessions) to learn basic relaxation and stress management skills can yield long-term health benefits. Neurofeedback to improve school grades, IQ scores, attention and concentration, or energy levels and attain optimal functioning in sports, business or creative endeavors usually takes longer than that. Your personal goals are the only criteria for success.

If you want biofeedback for a medical condition, a diagnosis and appropriate medical treatment of your health problem, or a referral from your physician, is required. If you want general stress management or optimal performance training, there are no prerequisites. A carefully selected diet, free of additives that adversely affect brain function, will speed success.

Biofeedback is reimbursed by some insurers for specific medical conditions. When offered for self-education, for help learning meditation, or for peak performance at school or in business, sports or the arts, it is rarely covered. Each individual client, not their insurer, is ultimately responsible for payment.

Single sessions are $120. Twelve sessions paid in advance are $90 each.

Julie Weiner, M.S., LMHC, BCIAC, Senior Fellow, is a NYS-licensed Mental Health Counselor and BCIA-certified biofeedback therapist with two decades’ experience using biofeedback to teach pain-alleviation and stress management skills. Her master's degree is in nutrition.

She offers peak performance training for athletes, artists, executives and students, and teaches pain-reduction, muscle-relaxation, and stress-coping strategies to people with insomnia, anxiety, asthma, hypertension, headaches and chronic pain. She is also employed at the offices of Judy Siegel, M.D., a urologist in Hastings-on-Hudson, where she provides biofeedback to help treat urinary incontinence, vulvodynia and interstitial cystitis.

She offers workshops on stress management, pain management, “Food and Mood” and “Nutrition in Aggression Prevention.” A former book editor, she collaborated on The Complete Guide to Health and Nutrition by Gary Null, Ph.D. and The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, M.D. She volunteered with the biofeedback program at Enrico Fermi School in Yonkers that received national publicity for its success with students with attention and behavior problems.