What is Biofeedback?
Learn How Biofeedback Can Help Improve Your Health
Improving the awareness of body sensations is key to making a change in our health. Biofeedback aids the user to become more aware of how life stressors influences our health and well-being. Chronic nervous system activation through classic stressors, triggers, trauma, and day-to-day living, can consume our attention and focus, and we soon lose a sense of control of our senses. Maybe our heart pumps faster or harder, our mind races on thoughts of the day, or tension in our body that becomes more than we can handle.
We educate our clients during every biofeedback session how to improve their awareness of their nervous system, how to habituate it to improved self regulation and control, and eventually how to habituate or generalize these learned skills to every day living. Learn how you can regulate your own nervous system with our providers coaching our clients with our Biofeedback Clinic in Seattle.
Utilizing biofeedback sensors including heart rate (HRV), respiration, muscle tension, sweat response, and temperature, we can increase our awareness of when we are stressed or relaxed. In turn, helping us understand how our body is responding to stress and how it fits with other symptoms or diseases, we are addressing.
Examples of How Biofeedback Sensors Improve Various Health Conditions
- Heart Rate Sensor or Heart Rate Variability (HRV) – Hypertension, palpitations, general stress response
- Respiration Sensor – anxiety, asthma, IBS, Hypertension
- Temperature Sensor – cold hands or feet, raynauds, IBS
- Sweat Response – Nervousness, anxiety, mind racing
- Muscle Tension Sensor – Chronic Pain, Headaches, migraines
Biofeedback Practitioners
Rebel Med NW biofeedback practitioners provide an integrative approach to build awareness about your stress response and use Biofeedback to improve your emotional intelligence and your stress resiliency, so we can all have better relationships with ourselves, our co-workers, and our partners.
Biofeedback Training is a technique that involves measuring and providing information about physiological processes in the body to help individuals learn how to control those processes voluntarily.
It is a form of self-regulation training that aims to improve physical and mental health by increasing awareness and control over bodily functions such as your response to stress, your digestive function, your ability to sleep, or practice more mindful moments in your day.
During a biofeedback session, various sensors are attached to the individual’s body to monitor physiological responses such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, skin temperature, and respiration. The sensors detect and convert these signals into visual, auditory, or tactile feedback that the individual can perceive via computer screen while we active practice Cognitive behavioral therapy and other mindfulness based forms of counseling.
By observing this feedback, individuals gain insight into their body’s responses and learn to recognize subtle changes that may be associated with stress, anxiety, pain, or other conditions. With practice, they can develop techniques to consciously influence these physiological processes, promoting relaxation, stress reduction, and overall well-being. We take it a step further as a strategy to help optimize many primary care health concerns including High Blood Pressure or Hypertension, IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, SIBO or Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or as one of primary skill based treatments for treating anxiety, depression, or PTSD.
Biofeedback is commonly used in many of the primary care conditions listed above, but we also find It can also be helpful for performance enhancement in sports & sports psychology, and optimizing mental focus for individuals with ADD or ADHD.
It’s important to note that FDA approved biofeedback equipment is recommended as performed at Rebel Med NW with the Nexus 10 Biofeedback system. Dr. Andrew Simon is Board Certified for example from the BCIA, and maintains regular credentialing. When performed one on one with a naturopathic physician, we educate both the psychology principles present as well as the physiology principles at play when we interpret the data and guide the individual in developing appropriate strategies for self-regulation.
Biofeedback Structure
Biofeedback Training Initial Recommendations:
- For most introductory conditions we recommend about 5-6 trainings with Biofeedback over the course of 2-3 months.
- Biofeedback is similar to Physical Therapy in that we want to help you train your nervous system to regulate in a new way, just like learning a new exercise.
- Biofeedback visits work best when you are ready to practice at least 20 minutes a day, either in 2 x 10 minute sessions or as part of the practice when you are mindful of your environment.
Biofeedback Training Advanced Recommendations:
- Many you are already familiar with the process of meditation and self regulation practice, previously learned in counseling, class, or workshop.
- When performed in combination with counseling, somatic bodywork, or other mental health therapeutics, Biofeedback can be an optimizer for your ability to introspect and unluck deeper traumas, as you learn to regulate your nervous system more between the fight & flight or rest & digest parts of your nervous system.
- Pairs well in sessions when seeking out Acupuncture, Craniosacral, or trauma informed somatic body practitioner.
- Consider our primary care counseling/behavioral health approach or working with one of our trusted counseling referrals who utilize therapies such as EMDR as adjunctive and compatible therapies when practicing biofeedback training.
Biofeedback Pricing Options
Stress & Relaxation Test
$125 Introductory Offer
- Initial stress assessment and recommendations for training
- Learn how your heart rate is influenced by stress and relaxation including heart rate variability training
- Learn how breath training can balance your nervous system and heart rate
- Learn how to train your body & mind for focus, energy, and improved mental health
Non-Covered add on to Insurance based office visit
Insurance:
In some instances visits can be billed to insurance as an office visit and additional biofeedback procedure codes for certain diagnosis codes. However, we have seen this become increasingly denied by insurance plans. If you receive a referral for biofeedback, we will need chart notes, and you will need to pre-emptively need to speak to your insurance company about coverage using Office Visit Plus CPT code 90901. There is still no guarantee that insurance with provide benefits for biofeedback, even with a referral in place, and a Fee of $125 is applied for any non-covered biofeedback sessions.
Please talk to our front desk staff if you would like to use your insurance if you have coverage for Naturopathic benefits or biofeedback. Price may vary depending on the patient’s insurance deductible, copay, and plan benefits. The patient is responsible for understanding their insurance benefits for all covered and non-covered services. Sliding Scale available if income is below 200% of poverty guidelines, Washington Apple Health Medicaid client waiver required, Please contact 206–297–6013 if you have any questions.
Cash, Debit, or Credit accepted. Payment plans are available if half of the package is purchased at the time of the first visit.
Non-Insurance Direct pricing & packages
When not using Insurance, or our Concierge Integrative Membership, these Biofeedback package rates can be a focused strategy to help you with improved training and mental health support.
- Great for stress awareness, mindfulness training,
- or Breath Training
- 3 training visits
- Customized treatment plan
- 10% Savings
- See real results!
- Great for improved awareness, breath training
- Long term anxiety / stress management
- 5 training visits
- Customized treatment plan
- 15% Savings
- Achieve lasting results!
- Long term control of Hypertension, Migraines,
- Optimal stress resiliency
- 8 training visits
- Customized treatment plan
- 20% Savings
- Optimal results!
Visits are based on 50-minute training sessions depending on condition, training, and practice. A package discount is applied if the package is purchased at the initial visit. Per visit, pricing applies of $125 for Biofeedback service pricing based on 30-45 minute visit length when added to insurance based appointment. If the visit length is 46-60 minutes price adjusts to $250.00 per session. Time of service as a non-covered service is $125 add-on to a regular naturopathic 30-minute office visit.
Cash, Debit, or Credit accepted. Payment plans are available if half of the package is purchased at the time of the first visit.