Overview

Mindfulness is a meditative or therapeutic technique that engages the individual in his or her awareness of the present moment. It is particularly relevant in terms of their ability to recognize their own present feelings and reactions to events around them. When considering biofeedback and its goal of building awareness of an individual’s own psychophysiological reactions, via breathing, heart rate, muscle tension, temperature and sweating, it is not surprising that mindfulness and biofeedback are two fields that “marry” well together. Mindfulness and biofeedback both offer individuals helpful ways to respond to difficult emotions and physical pain. When asked about the benefits of combining the two methods, Dr. Inna Khazan explained, “Mindfulness enables us to pause long enough to make a choice of response. Skills learned through biofeedback are a large part of that chosen response.”

The BFE’s current offerings are the results of an on-going collaboration with Dr. Khazan, which we believe represent a clear and straight-forward method for clinicians to combine biofeedback and a mindfulness-based approach.

Team Leader

Inna Khazan, Ph.D., is a Clinical Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, where she teaches biofeedback. A clinical psychologist specializing in health psychology and biofeedback, Dr. Khazan also maintains a private practice in Boston, working with clients presenting with various psychophysiological disorders, using both biofeedback and mindfulness-based approaches to psychotherapy. Dr. Khazan is the author of the book “The Clinical Handbook of Biofeedback: A Step-by-Step Guide to Training and Practice with Mindfulness” (April 2013, Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-119-99371-1).

Education

The BFE is working on expanding its available content on the topic of mindfulness and biofeedback. We invite you to explore the different types of live online or recorded presentations. For a more complete listing, click here.

Mindfulness and Biofeedback Webinar Recording: get introduced from Dr. Inna Khazan to the concept of mindfulness, and outline the applications of mindfulness-based skills, together with biofeedback, to various psychophysiological disorders.

Software

Mindfulness Suite, by Inna Khazan, Ph.D.

Dr. Khazan has worked with the BFE to create a software suite based on her book “The Clinical Handbook of Biofeedback: A Step-by-Step Guide to Training and Practice with Mindfulness”. This software package does the work for the clinician that desires to establish a biofeedback practice with a mindfulness acceptance-based approach. The suite includes a Psychophysiological Profile Assessment, Relaxation Profile Evaluation, respective Excel Reports for data interpretation of the assessments, training protocols divided by biofeedback modality and accompanying technical documentation, which includes relaxation scripts for different mindfulness-based relaxation exercises to perform with a subject.