Biofeedback Relaxation Training in Tokyo for Stress Reduction, Stress Management and Anxiety

Dr. Eames uses biofeedback to assist with teaching relaxation training methods for managing stress and anxiety.

Biofeedback is a technique that measures specific physiological signals (heart rate, skin temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension, breathing rate) and displays the information to the user, in order to raise the user's awareness about the particular physical functions. The idea behind this is that if you are aware of your physical state, you can make a conscious effort to control these bodily functions that are generally automatically controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

With biofeedback, the user has a stretchable belt placed around the abdomen and chest to measure the breathing. Additional sensors are placed on the fingers to measure the pulse, skin temperature and sweat gland activity. A sensor may also be placed on the skin over a particular muscle to measure the muscle tension. The sensors take about 2-3 minutes to attach and are easily removed.

In general, when the body relaxes we would expect the following physiological responses:

With biofeedback assisted relaxation training, the user can find optimum breathing patterns and postures to induce a physiological state of relaxation. These are very practical skills that once learned can be used anywhere.

In this example image we can see how the skin temperature (red) and sweat gland activity (blue) increase and decrease respectively, after the client started the deep breathing.