Simple Awareness and Self-Regulation Training

Often incorporated into either psychotherapy/counseling, or into mental performance training, various modalities of biofeedback can be used to become more aware of your individual stress response. You may already notice some of your physiological patterns in response to stress? Maybe you notice certain muscle groups tense? Commonly it happens in people’s trapezius muscles, in their jaw, or in their forehead, but it can happen anywhere, and can even contribute to pain. Maybe you notice cold hands (as your blood goes from your extremities to your core). Or sweaty hands? Or you notice breath short and shallow from your chest? Perhaps you notice your heart racing or feelings of “butterflies?” While each of these sensations can potentially feel unpleasant, they are not “bad” per se, and these elevated states can even be conducive to performance, if they are neither “catastrophized” nor completely unbridled. With biofeedback, we can build awareness of what your tendencies are in the first place, awareness of what states work best for, and learn to influence your physiology on command. It is not uncommon for Tim to do drills such as “Red Light / Green Light” with clients, essentially allowing dysregulation (stress) and self-regulation to happen on command. Drills like this allows us to form a new relationship with stress, approaching stress with a sense of curiosity and empowerment.