Biofeedback · Clinical experience
Biofeedback in Psychotherapy Practice: What I Saw with More Than Forty Kids
First published in Russian in November 2016. Translated in 2026, with updated contact details.
My experience using biofeedback devices in psychotherapy, and other ways this equipment can be used.
Video of the talk (in Russian): youtu.be/0XJ53EE0LZ4
In this article I describe how I used biofeedback devices made by Healing Rhythms (USA) in psychotherapy. I have no results from a standardized study, so I want to be clear: these are my own observations, based on my own hypotheses. Take this article as a set of directions for future research.
The Healing Rhythms equipment is designed for home and office use, and adapted so you can work with it without professional training in biofeedback.
The device reads the player's physiological signals through sensors and shows them on a computer screen. The sensors register skin conductance and changes in pulse and blood pressure. The player is invited to change their state with self-regulation exercises: relax, raise their tone, or reach an optimal, balanced state. By managing their state at the level of the autonomic nervous system, the player moves the game. In one part of the game, for example, you have to lift a ball into the air. To do that, the sensors have to register a drop in tension. In other words, you have to relax.
The game's fairy-tale, magical story is a clear advantage. It makes the game appealing to children and teenagers, and they learn the art of self-regulation in a form that doesn't push and fits their age.
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I used this equipment in three psychotherapy programs and built it into my work with more than forty clients. In every case it was an addition to the main therapeutic approach supported by the provider company.
Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services
The first program was Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services (BHRS) at Northwestern Human Services, Lancaster, PA. As a Behavioral Specialist and Mobile Therapist, I built biofeedback into the core approaches approved by the provider: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Behavioral Analysis / Behavioral Modification. With the permission of the clinical supervisor and the parents, I used the program with ten children and teenagers with behavioral problems, ages 10 to 15. Six had an ADHD diagnosis, five had diagnoses related to mood disorders, and two were on the autism spectrum. Some clients had more than one diagnosis.
The biofeedback game showed its advantage right away. It helped build contact with the kids and brought in therapeutic information without pushing. It got around a barrier that is often already there: the therapist seen as an outsider who artificially steps into the family. The game kept the kids genuinely interested in therapy and helped psychological skills grow naturally. With the program, children learned to even out their emotional swings, name their emotions and take in psychological information much faster than children who didn't use biofeedback. Again, these are only my subjective observations. I saw a relatively fast drop in the main symptoms, including changes in physiological functions like sleep and appetite.
Family Based Therapy
Next, I used the program in Family Based Therapy services at Northwestern Human Services, Lancaster, PA. This was crisis intervention for families where therapy was the last alternative to placing the child in a correctional or inpatient facility, or to the parents losing custody. It was prescribed for a psychiatric, emotional or behavioral disorder combined with serious problems in the family and different kinds of risk or crisis. With the permission of the clinical supervisor and the parents, I used the program with thirty-six children and teenagers, ages 4 to 18. It was short-term, intensive, in-home therapy with a step down to less intensive programs. Five had ADHD, thirty-three had mood disorder diagnoses, two had psychotic disorders, and two were on the autism spectrum. Again, some had more than one diagnosis.
The biofeedback equipment showed the same effect I described above. On top of that, here it helped extend the effect of the therapy and soften the step down to a less intensive program.
Outpatient therapy after sexual abuse
At the next stage I used the program in outpatient therapy for victims of sexual abuse and treatment for children and teenagers with sexually deviant behavior, at the Joseph J. Peters Institute, Philadelphia, PA. Clients were 4 to 19. Nine children had been victims of sexually inappropriate behavior. Twelve children and teenagers had sexually deviant behavior, and eight of them acknowledged that they themselves had been victims. Most showed emotional disorders connected to trauma and behavioral problems, and some had psychotic symptoms.
Here biofeedback helped build contact gently. Children and teenagers could start therapy with self-regulation, which gave the relationship time to form before any work with the trauma. I also used this method with parents of victims of sexual crimes: to help heal their own trauma, to teach them to keep their emotional balance, and to restore the broken emotional connection with their children.
Beyond therapy
Don't underestimate biofeedback for children without significant problems, either. Beyond building emotional balance, stress resilience and emotional intelligence, I'd point to the metaphorical, fairy-tale language of these programs. The game's story is built on basic metaphors of human development and lays the groundwork for knowing yourself.
Biofeedback has also been used successfully to prevent and treat psychosomatic conditions, high blood pressure and migraines.
Outside therapy, it works for stress management and burnout prevention in the corporate world, and for building mental skills in people whose work demands high psychological performance and balance: special services, top managers, scientists, athletes, surgeons.
I've mentioned far from all the possible uses of biofeedback equipment. They deserve detailed study and research.
André Fleshel, MA in Applied Psychology, hypnotherapist, trauma-informed coach, trainer and supervisor in body-oriented therapy (USA, Ukraine). At the time of writing: 17 years of practice, 6 of them in clinics and crisis centers in the USA. Today: 25 years of practice.
Biofeedback for kids today
Today I use biofeedback with children and teens at our center in Huntingdon Valley, PA. The first step is a demo session: 60 minutes with a parent, $49. You’ll see how your child’s nervous system responds to the game.
This is self-regulation training, not mental health treatment, and it doesn’t replace medical care. If your child has a mental health diagnosis or is seeing a doctor or therapist, please tell us when you book. The training can go alongside their treatment.
