Abstract

Biofeedback is a mind–body technique and a self-management tool in which participants learn to cultivate awareness about their unhealthy mental patterns and habits, and to improve their health by controlling bodily functions (e.g., breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure), and to treat a variety of mental health issues, including anxiety or stress as well as asthma , heart problems , pain ,irritable bowel syndrome, and high blood pressure. Autogenic training, that is a relaxation technique developed in 1932 by Johannes Heinrich Schultz, involves simple relaxation and body awareness exercises reducing the body’s stress response in order to relax the body and begin self-healing, especially to treat stress disorders, pain, and anxiety. Standard autogenic training sessions focus on teaching participants’ bodies to respond to verbal commands and to “tell” their body to relax and control certain physiological responses (e.g., body temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure) on their own.