This is the BCIA general biofeedback training certification course. It provides the basic knowledge needed to perform psychophysiological assessments and biofeedback interventions.

At home learning format based on audiovisual CD lectures and readings. You can start anytime and work with the instructor via e-mail. Extensive personal attention to your individual needs and tailoring the course to your proposed uses of biofeedback is a key part of the course package.

Expand your practice to include more types of patients and different disorders. Learn how to do biofeedback, psychophysiological assessments, and the basics of many other behavioral medicine techniques. This is the BCIA required biofeedback certification course. It provides the basic knowledge needed to perform psychophysiological assessments and interventions including biofeedback.

Features:
• Courses are accepted by BCIA for both certification and recertification.
• All distance courses are conducted at your own pace.
• All of the distance / home learning courses are based on audiovisual lectures sent to you on CDs, readings, and extensive interaction with your instructor.
• You and your instructor will discuss how the course relates to your own interests.
• CE credits are given through California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences.



Course Concept and Description: This continuing education course in general biofeedback provides the basic didactic knowledge required to perform biofeedback competently. You will learn about biofeedback instruments and how they are used, the physiology underlying psychophysiological assessments and interventions, and how biofeedback is integrated into the clinical environment. Emphasis is placed upon frequent and extensive individual contact with the instructor so your personal interests and questions can be addressed at your convenience. This is the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA) required 50 hour general biofeedback certification course.

This course is the equivalent of a three credit course and provides 50 hours of CE credit. The course provides sufficient material so clinicians will (a) know the psychophysiological bases for performing the recordings (b) what the common assessments and interventions are as well as how they work, (c) what the common associated interventions are, (d) how the recording devices work in a clinical setting, (d) how to perform an effective recording, and (e) how to perform effective psychophysiological assessments and interventions. The course meets all of the requirements for the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America’s biofeedback certification course and is approved by them for this purpose.

Course Format: Home study supported by e-mail chats after each unit is completed. The lecture portion of the course is presented through a series of audiovisual lectures profusely illustrated by power-point slides. You will receive CDs containing both the audiovisual lectures and a copy of the slide set upon which the lectures are based so you can make notes on your copy of the slides as you attend the lecture. The lectures are divided into five-hour blocks. Reading assignments parallel the lectures. After watching the lecture and reading the assigned supporting texts, you will answer a brief series of questions. The answered questions are then e-mailed to the instructor. You and the instructor will discuss each unit via e-mail chat after your answers are assessed. After the discussion, you will proceed to the succeeding lecture & chapters.

Associated Training and skills related to biofeedback:

The Foundation provides hands-on training in the use of biofeedback equipment in Western Washington and during meetings of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. The Foundation will attempt to arrange local training for those students who can not get to these locations. For more information, click on the individual training experience button in the bar to the left.

If you are interested in being certified in biofeedback by the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA), you will need 100 hours of supervision in treating patients with biofeedback. Supervision can be arranged via phone or internet. You will also need a course in anatomy and physiology if you haven’t had one.

None of the instructional material offered by this course will provide you with the clinical skills needed to apply psychophysiological assessment and interventional techniques in the clinical environment.

Strongly Recommended Text: Pain Assessment and Intervention From a Psychophysiological Perspective by Richard A. Sherman, AAPB, Colorado, 2004. The book can be ordered from this web site. Just press the books to buy button at the top of the page for information.

Recommended Texts (Especially for people intending to take the BCIA exam):

a. Biofeedback: A Practitioner’s guide. Edited by Mark Schwartz and Frank Andrasik. Guilford Press of New York, 2003.

b. Introduction to Surface Electromyography by Jeffrey R. Cram and Glenn S. Kasman with Jonathan Holtz. Aspen, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 1998.

c. Clinical Applications in Surface Electromyography - Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain by Glenn S. Kasman, Jeffrey R. Cram, and Steven L. Wolf. Aspen, Gaithersburg, Maryland 1998.

Prerequisites: None actually required but you should have had undergraduate courses in biology and psychology prior to taking this course. You will do much better in the course if you have already taken our Introduction to Psychophysiology and Anatomy and Physiology for Behavioral Clinicians courses. This course is intended for licensed / certified clinicians.

Topics we will cover:

(1) Introduction to / history of biofeedback (concepts, learning theory, research methods, etc.)

(2) Preparation for clinical intervention (intake, psychophysiological profiling, what is normal, individuality of responses, psychophysiology of emotion, etc.)

(3) Neuromuscular interventions: General (muscle anatomy and physiology, CNS impacts through the muscular system, treatment techniques for neuromuscular disorders)

(4) Neuromuscular interventions: Specific (neck, low back, immobilization, tension headaches, TMD, torticollis, urinary and fecal incontinence)

(5) CNS (emotion, memory, behavioral correlates of various EEG patterns, clinical uses of EEG feedback, effects of drugs on the EEG)

(6) Autonomic Nervous System: General (structure & function, homeostasis, stress hormones, anatomy and physiology of the circulatory system, effects of changes in circulation on health and disease, skin temperature training techniques, physiology and measurement of electrodermal activity, electrodermal activity as an index of emotional arousal)

(7) Autonomic NS: Specific (migraines, Raynaud’s disease, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, respiratory disorders)

(8) Biofeedback and distress (Cannon’s fight or flight response, Selye’s adaptation syndrome, physiological responses to stress, types of stressors related to psychophysiological disorders, symptoms and signs of distress, relationships between recorded physiological parameters and stress responses)

(9) Instrumentation (concepts of recording, sources of artifact, hazards, methods of performing accurate recordings)

(10) Adjunctive therapeutic interventions (relaxation techniques, desensitization, cognitive, biofeedback guided psychotherapy, nutrition/stress, exercise/mood)

(11) Professional conduct (ethics, professional responsibility for competence, record keeping, laws, etc.)

Schedule & Registration: You can begin the course any time you want to and proceed at your own pace.

CE Credit: This is a continuing education, not an accredited course. CE credits are given through the state of California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences (Approval # PCE1895).

BCIA credit: This course is approved by the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America and can be used toward certification in both general biofeedback and neurofeedback.

Cost: $550 ($50 of which goes to BCIA) in US dollars payable by check or by credit card (Master Card, Visa, or Discover). This price does not include the cost of recommended texts.

Refund and cancellation policies:¤ Full refund until the CDs are mailed to you. After the CDs are mailed, there is no refund at all as the Foundation has committed its resources to you. A course would only be cancelled due to an extreme emergency on the part of the course instructor or the Foundation. In the highly unlikely event a course is cancelled, you would receive a full refund.

Faculty: Richard A. Sherman, PhD is certified by BCIA, approved by BCIA to teach the general biofeedback certification course, and currently teaches A&P for the Behavioral Medicine R& T Foundation. He is a professional psychophysiologist with extensive training (his PhD is in biology / physiology) and has nearly 30 years of experience in the field.