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Asking the hard questions

20 March 2020
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Alumna Kelly Wadsworth, Ph.D., had to find her own way after coming home from war. Now she helps others find their way back too.

Coming home is supposed to be a joyous, relaxing experience—one in which you can breathe a sigh of relief as you finally walk through that door—whether you’re a lost dog, a person who had a hard day, or a soldier returning from war. But what happens when the person who returns home isn’t the same person who left? What if the growing pains caused by one’s experiences make home not feel so…homey?

These questions and conundrums were what led alumna Kelly Wadsworth, Ph.D., to Saybrook University. After serving as a clergy member in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, she found that many of her service members were in this transitional period.

“I had a problem I was seeing throughout my unit and others, and I was looking for a way to solve it. Beyond the black and white trauma-based problems, I was seeing a new narrative,” Dr. Wadsworth says. “In this new coming of age they were experiencing, they were asking deep existential questions about war and peace. Why do we go in the first place? What constitutes a good life?”

Many of the symptoms we associate with veterans returning from war include stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and moral injury. Dr. Wadsworth’s experiences taught her that these are really symptoms of something deeper.

“I was talking to soldiers about a profound change they felt because of their experience. When they came back, they could not very easily go back into the jobs, families, and communities that they had just 12 months prior,” Dr. Wadsworth says. “They said they didn’t fit, because they were now asking the real questions of life. If your whole life becomes different, you might need to recalibrate just about everything. What are the tools you need to do that?

During her time at Saybrook, she took a phenomenological approach to studying these very questions and trying to bridge the gap between problem and solution. Through deep interviews and research, she started to come up with further questions about whose responsibility it is to help our soldiers answer these questions—who supports these types of identity inquiries?

Is it simply Veterans Affairs? Are civilian therapists the answer? Pharmaceuticals?

“My dissertation was not just me pursuing my own interests, but rather expanding the horizon of what I understood to even be the horizon,” Dr. Wadsworth says. “Who can help answer the existential questions of truth and fidelity? Is it government programs—run by the same government that sent them to war? Are they the ones that can restore some kind of goodness? Or is it the task of the civilian sector? Does that need to be our collective responsibility, embraced by average people in regular communities, in community centers and town halls, and places of worship?”

Currently serving as a pastor at a Presbyterian church in Seattle, Dr. Wadsworth has always been interested in the intersection of identities and serving people who are asking the hard questions. Treating our veterans and helping them find their home is just one example of this.

“The question of homecoming—figuring out where home is, where is one’s place, and how to find one’s place, if either the terrain within your own self has radically changed or the terrain around you has changed—doesn’t have an easy answer. But I wonder if the organization that caused the moral injury can be the one who helps treat the injury,” she says.

If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs, fill out the form below to request more information.

Course Spotlight: Eco-psychology

28 February 2020
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This relatively new area of focus within psychology explores human nature and the human capacity to influence the environmental crisis.

Coursework at Saybrook University relies on the basic values of understanding and improving systems throughout the world. Founded on the principles of humanistic psychology, the solutions that students and faculty find are ever evolving just as the world is. With our planet changing so drastically over the last hundred years and the future all but in question due to climate change, eco-psychology is more important than ever for clinicians and thinkers alike.

Ecological psychology is the study of the human being as a part of the web of life. This new field is critical of traditional psychology, which emphasizes the individual self and its capacities for mastery and control and which views the environment as distinct from the self. By contrast, ecological psychology views humans as interconnected with the larger systems of nature and subject to its laws, and by virtue of our conscious awareness to be stewards of our shared planet. As a relatively new field, its foundation is based on ancient perspectives and practices.

In the TSC 6500 Ecological Psychology course, Laura Turner-Essel, Ph.D., challenges students with the origins of the discipline, along with new research and current conversation. “The course was developed by one of the leaders in the field, Linda Riebel, Ph.D., in response to the ecological crisis,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “With climate change and a lot of the degradation that we see in our ecosystem, I think it’s important to get back to the roots of what eco-psychology is by looking at how human health and well-being are tied up and interwoven with our planet.”

From texts such as “Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth, healing the mind” to “Therapy in the Face of Climate Change” and “States of Emergency: Trauma and Climate Change,” the course helps students learn about various fields that can help them understand human response and resistance to more sustainable lifestyles and how psychological tools can help to heal the disconnect between people and planet.

“One of the things we discuss is how different clinical treatments and counseling therapies have emerged as people try and reconnect with nature,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “We work to combine what we know about clinical work, with the awareness that we are actually creatures who are designed to be in close proximity with Earth. We need that connection for our well-being and survival.”

Read related: Bringing The Outdoors In

Psychologists and clinicians were not always aware of the connection between ecological problems and the rise of mental health crises; however, many eco-psychologists now believe these are two symptoms of the same problem. In an article written by Saybrook faculty member and leader in the field Dr. Riebel, even the relationship between eating disorders and Earth becomes apparent.

“At the time, people weren’t used to thinking about these things being related, but there’s growing awareness that they are symptoms of the same disease,” Dr. Turner-Essel says. “When we have this mentality of consumption as a way of life, it shows up on all types of levels—Individual, community, institutional, and sociological. Many of our clinical disorders have these societal roots.”

The class is organized around the four tasks of eco-psychology as laid out in one of the field’s founding texts, Radical Ecopsychology: Pyschology in the Service of Life—the psychological, philosophical, practical, and critical/political. In order to explore the many different perspectives within the field, the course relies heavily on reading, with assignments and online discussion boards designed to encourage students to synthesize and connect the different sources.

Humans endanger species, ecosystems, themselves, and even the climate by altering, depleting, and poisoning our planet. Students of sustainability, social transformation, organizational leadership, psychotherapy, consciousness, and spirituality can benefit from looking through an eco-psychological lens. The course serves anyone concerned with how humans created the current environmental crisis and how to resolve it—from clinicians whose clients are physically and emotionally harmed by their absence of connection to their life-supporting habitats, to business managers intending to become more effective green leaders, to advocates for animals, wildlife, environmental preservation, to low-impact lifestyles and local community productivity. In a world that is increasingly unstable, the study of Earth and psychology allows students another way to understand and inspire the world around them.

If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs, fill out the form below to request more information.

Meet Natalie Krivas, M.Ed., CPP

2 January 2020
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In the second year of her doctoral program, Natalie Krivas, M.Ed., CPP, is on a mission to create change in her community, in the nation, and in the world.

Krivas speaks as if she’s painting, with a waterfall of words and feelings tumbling out of her mouth, just days out of intensive wrist surgery that has required a month off work. For Krivas, this is one of the few times she’s had quiet and rest, coming at the tail end of an eventful year.

It took years of grit, of change, of international moves and hard work to get to where she is today. In the second year of her doctoral program, Krivas works full-time and volunteers often. She has presented at the Courage Summit, sharing deep, vulnerable experiences of loss in front of a live audience. The Northwest Indiana Influential Women Association awarded her the Up-and-Coming Business Leader award.

Krivas sees her time at Saybrook University as a kind of celebration of the life she has created for herself. With her education, there’s no stopping her from creating the greater change she imagines in her community, in the nation, and in the world. She’s ready.

A different kind of childhood

Originally from rural Nova Scotia, Canada, Krivas moved to suburban Pittsburgh at the age of 16. Raised in the Jehovah’s Witness faith, she began to question the hypocrisy of the religion she observed and eventually decided to leave the church. In leaving her home and her religion, she lost the community that she had always known.

“The questioning that I started to have when I was becoming a teenager got really intense,” Krivas explains. “Two weeks before I turned 18, I told my parents that I wanted to leave the religion and they kicked me out and disowned me. Within the span of a week, I had completely lost my community.”

She was homeless for a couple of months, staying with friends to fill in the gaps. Krivas started dating a guy with a 3-year-old and moved in with them. She learned he had a drug addiction and with the snap of a finger,she became a makeshift mom to the little girl. Twenty years later, she calls that five-year period the lowest point in her life. She remembers her boyfriend’s sister telling her, “Natalie, I love you, but what are you doing- you are ruining your life.”

She knew she had to make the most difficult decision of her life by leaving the unhealthy relationship – and the little girl – behind (spoiler: that little girl is now 24-years-old and still close to Natalie). After a serious medical scare though, she realized she didn’t want to be in the U.S. any longer. Three days after George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, she said her goodbyes and went back to Canada.

A return to Canada — and back stateside again

“I left relationships behind. My family wasn’t supportive of me moving, telling me I was running away from my problems. But it led me to education,” Krivas explains. “I was told my entire life that I was not intelligent, that my sister was the smart one, and I was the one with a big heart. I had zero confidence in my ability to go to university, but I decided to try.”

She enrolled at McGill University in Montreal where she studied teaching English as a second language.

“With teaching English as a second language, you need to develop your students and help them learn, but the subject content is very flexible,” Krivas says. “For me, I could keep to the book and do what was traditional, or I could teach them subject content that was meaningful and based on real-world issues or challenges. I chose the latter and that was a life-changing decision.”

After she graduated, she started to lay down deeper roots in Montreal. She started working as a teacher and met her future husband, who lived in the U.S. She got pregnant, and he moved to Canada to be with her. Tragedy struck before their wedding though, when their baby, Alice, passed away at only two days old in 2011. They continued with the wedding, but her husband wanted to move back to be closer to family. When they settled in Indiana, she enrolled at Valparaiso University for her master’s in humane education, graduating summa cum laude—for her future, for herself, and for her family.

“When we moved to Valparaiso, I felt driven to do everything in her honor. We wanted to do right by Alice and live our lives to the fullest,” Krivas says. A couple of years after Alice’s passing, she and her husband had another daughter, Ellie. It only drove them more: They had two people to do right by.

Embracing education

While still in school, Krivas started work at a nonprofit called Opportunity Enterprises, Inc.—working 60 to 70 hour weeks while completing her degree. She finished her master’s in 15 months.

“My job at Opportunity Enterprises was like a crash course immersion into this community that I had just become a part of,” Krivas says. “I eventually had to leave Opportunity Enterprises but when I left, I knew I would stay involved.”

Krivas is underselling the amount of commitments she’s beholden to. She currently sits on three different boards: Opportunity Enterprises, Inc., Valparaiso Creative Council, and Valpo Schools Foundation. For her, it’s the community connection that led her to enroll in her Ph.D. in Managing Organizational Systems at Saybrook—reminding her of the community she was surrounded by earlier in her life.

“McGill was a gathering place of so many different cultures and backgrounds … thought changers and rebels. That’s what I was looking for at the Ph.D. level, and that’s why I chose Saybrook,” Krivas says. “When you have professors teaching you social justice-based content, and when you’re able to teach something meaningful to students who then transform before your eyes … there’s an incredible value in that, and that is hard to overstate.”

And for her, she’s just getting started.

“I want to have a systemic effect on education in America. If my dream were to come true today, I would be teaching undergraduate education students,” Krivas says. “For me, it’s not just about gaining the self-esteem. It’s not just about gaining the doctor title. It’s about gaining the credentials that I believe can bring value to my life, to my work, and to the world. Every single course I’ve taken, every residency I’ve attended, every experience I’ve had at Saybrook, I have taken away real-life practical examples that I can further implement and share with students one day.”

If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s graduate programs, fill out the form below to request more information.

Tweaking the educational system to benefit the greater world

27 November 2019
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Student Natalie Krivas, M.Ed., CPP, sees a way forward for education in America and beyond.

I love the classroom—the way I can see the immediate impact lessons have on students and know that I’m making a difference. Especially teaching English as a second language (ESL), I can control what I teach my students and incorporate a social justice-oriented approach into my lessons.
What made me want to get my Ph.D. in Managing Organizational Systems at Saybrook University was my desire to have a systemic effect on education. I believe that if education were to be tweaked in just the slightest way, it could have a sustainable impact on all aspects of our planet. And even though it takes me outside of the classroom, I feel a duty to use my skills and passion to affect change at the systemic level.
By learning at the system level, you have a much higher level of understanding of what’s going on. It doesn’t mean that you can’t affect things on the ground, but it puts you in a

position of empowerment of making tangible change.

One way to this empowerment is by bringing education into the 21st century. I see five potential paths forward, based on my own experiences and knowledge.

  1. Encouraging equity in literacy.

    I’ve studied critical pedagogy a lot. Paulo Freire was an innovator when it came to looking at how education and schooling can be used as a form of oppression and marginalize minorities. I did a lot of research and became interested in this when I was an undergrad, but then focused on it more in my master’s studying Humane Education. What I’ve learned and experienced in my education is that if we provide equitable access for literacy, and I don’t just mean examining media, it helps with all facets of students’ life—specifically aiding their critical thinking abilities.
  2. Teaching critical thinking.

    If we can teach students how to distinguish purpose versus audience, they will be able to look at anything and determine for themselves whether something is evidence-based or not. Too often we rely on other subjects to passively teach critical thinking—but that shouldn’t be the case! For me, I think that is the number one barrier that students are faced with in their learning. When students don’t automatically believe what they read or hear—even from a teacher—they can make judgments for themselves. They have the skills to listen to a person critically and to question, “Well, if they make a claim, where does that come from?” We need to give students the skills and resources to look at the world critically.
  3. Cultivating compassion and connection.

    Having a sense of compassion and connection is incredibly important. Education allows us to connect with the world. By learning someone’s story, we connect by relating to and developing our compassion for them. By spending time outdoors, we connect to nature and its inhabitants, which strengthens our desire to protect it. By connecting to each other, we strengthen our relations, our compassion, and our desire to collaborate and support each other. We develop compassion for all people. It could be something as extreme as a protestor who was assassinated for standing up for human rights or your neighbor who’s living in a domestic abuse situation. Or it could be less drastic, everyday situations that we all live through: commuting, working, and going to the store. Developing that compassion is how we can look at the world critically and motivate ourselves to find solutions.
  4. Changing subject content.

    To develop compassion, we must make the subjects we teach meaningful—to fully bring it to the 21st century. We have to look at real-world situations and issues and critically think about how interconnected they are, by looking at and understanding the wider system that exists that perpetuates these issues. In that, we develop our own compassion for all stakeholders affected by these issues that larger systems perpetuate.
  5. Developing positive solution thinking.

    It’s easy to feel paralyzed when faced with complex, present-day issues. Take the assassinated protestor example. You may think, “What can I do here where I live? How does that affect me? What am I supposed to do?” There’s a lot of talk about what’s going on in the world, but without action, it simply breeds apathy. The distance between us and the rest of the world is growing. Education allows a meaningful, tangible way to bridge the gap.

Discover the ways that Saybrook University can help you create systematic change. If you are interested in learning more about Saybrook’s programs, fill out the form below to request more information.

Saybrook University challenges what institutional education looks like

26 November 2019
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Saybrook University has thrived for nearly 50 years because of its commitment to explore the unknown. To do things a bit differently from the status quo in higher education. To advocate and pursue avenues for clinically effective, but maybe not as well-known, solutions.

Saybrook transcends what being a university means. It challenges convention.

Saybrook is not simply a university; it’s much more than that—it’s a community. You aren’t just a student; you are a problem-solver. Our faculty are visionaries in their fields, and our alumni are trailblazers, setting a new path for the future. Our community is diverse and unique, devoted to making substantive, holistic changes.

Saybrook has provided a launchpad for many to address the challenges our world faces. Those in our community know how special and unique it is. We spoke with some community members to see how Saybrook challenges and impacts its world—personally and professionally.

Alumna Arielle Dance, Ph.D. studied Mind-Body Medicine.

Saybrook taught me to adjust my learning style and practice self-care daily. My program implemented meditation, mindfulness practices, movement, and self-care as routine assignments. These were perfect as I adjusted to a new lifestyle and learned life-work balance.

I’m often asked how I have built relationships with my peers in classes, since our work is done primarily online. The residential conferences and the webinar/video platforms made Saybrook and my cohort tangible—more than just an online platform. It was amazing to see the same familiar faces each semester—year after year. We each learned that you have to work for you and believe in your worth to succeed, which applies to all aspects of life. Saybrook’s community will stretch you, challenge you, and excite you.

Luann Fortune, LMT, Ph.D., is coordinator of the Ph.D. in Mind-Body Medicine: Mindful Leadership at Saybrook’s College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences.

I am now in my eighth year on faculty at Saybrook. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to contribute to the education and scholarship in my field. I came to Saybrook as an integrative health care practitioner with a Ph.D. and a belief that health care needed to be redressed. During my tenure, I have developed numerous courses, taught across the university, and worked with scores of graduate students in the community. I am blessed with brilliant and committed colleagues, and we have collaborated to grow and improve our programs and learning experience as the field evolves. My Saybrook years have not only challenged me to develop a stronger voice of knowledge and advocacy but have also made me a better educator.

When asked what I do, I tell people that I help adults self-actualize. These adults are our students, committed to improving health care to optimize their contributions through higher education and scholarship. In the College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences (CIMHS), we respect that our students are already accomplished professionals with demanding lives. Adult learners have unique needs and expectations but also deserve instructional rigor with content supported by the latest evidence. To that end, we have created programs that build on perspectives from professional and life experience that connect applications to cutting-edge research related to integrative health care. My students have repeatedly integrated their professional skills into their scholarship, producing research and accomplishments that impact the field. In some cases, today’s students will be the scholars we will read tomorrow. You might discover that, when you have finished your Saybrook work, the real work begins and in the process you have changed yourself.

Molly Stillwell has an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Psychology from Saybrook and is currently a Ph.D. student in Saybrook’s Transformative Social Change program.

Saybrook has challenged me to question the world around me in intentional and meaningful ways that have helped me grow throughout all areas of my life. Stepping outside of the traditional brick and mortar university was the first step of this process and, in turn, the hybrid design has led me to become more self-motivated and responsible for my learning.

Saybrook’s model has allowed me to travel the world and experience not only the benefits of an academic education, but also real world, immersive cultural experiences that have enriched my life in countless ways. As a result, I feel that the Saybrook community is supporting me in becoming not only a well-educated individual but also someone who has the confidence and professionalism to generate success out of that education.

The community available at Saybook is robust. I have found great support from both students and faculty. The potential lack of face-to-face community was one of my biggest concerns, but I have made several connections with amazing people who have become lifelong friends. The Transformative Social Change community has been, in my experience, the ideal place for finding those connections. I have never heard more people profess a sense of belonging by “finding their tribe” as I have in this space, and I could not agree more.

Drake Spaeth, Psy.D., is an existential-humanistic psychology expert and the chair of the Humanistic and Clinical Psychology department.

For many years, I worked well within my comfort zone as a professor, drawing upon a love of teaching and a natural talent for it, enjoying a well-earned reputation for my eccentricity and creativity. When an opportunity for me to grow into a department chair at Saybrook in the middle of my life knocked loudly, I experienced it as an invitation to play an important role in the continued evolution of existential-humanistic psychology, as well as building upon of the legacy of the Old Saybrook Conference.

We live in an age that calls for social justice and a willingness to address global challenges, and we get to play a key part in constructing an educational paradigm that is intended to prepare students for this critical work in the world. I feel that the world has never been more in need of what the Saybrook community has to offer. All of Saybrook’s programs prepare students to be midwives of transformation at the individual and relational level, locally and globally—as healers, therapists, artists, philosophers, teachers, scholars, activists, and business leaders. We prepare students to address the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual impact of dehumanization and environmental devastation. Our community members fully live Rumi’s words: “Let the Beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

The loneliest generation

11 November 2019
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How often do you feel that you lack companionship? Always? How often do you feel close to people? Sometimes? How often do you feel that no one really knows you? Rarely? Do you always feel isolated from others? Do the people in your life really understand you? Do you ever feel like people are around you but not with you?

Are you … lonely?

It’s OK. I won’t tell anyone. It feels like a trap, I know, but it’s just between us. Maybe it’ll help to know that you’re not alone in this loneliness.

Loneliness has been lauded as a national health crisis. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says that the harmful effects of loneliness are as detrimental as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Study after study links it to poor mental health, including depression, hopelessness, substance use, and cognitive impairment, as well as worse physical health and higher mortality. You can die from loneliness.

Anonymous surveys asking questions such as those above report that three in 10 millennials always or often feel lonely, compared to baby boomers who report rarely feeling lonely. Is it simply a generational divide? Maybe, but other factors certainly are at play. For one, talking about feelings honestly has evolved through the years. Millennials value emotion and talk about how they feel openly. They see therapists, dive into deep-seeded issues, and are much more likely to tell you about it than any previous generation.

Just because millennials are more open doesn’t mean they lack shame in admitting loneliness. Transformative social change student at Saybrook University, Max Van Gelder, a self-proclaimed millennial, says, “People think: If I admit I’m lonely, it seems like I’m a loser. If I’m lonely, it’s seen as a personal failing. It obviously means nobody wants to talk to me. Even if it’s not true, that’s how a lot of people feel.”

Psychotherapist and post-doctoral teaching fellow at Saybrook, Naoko Brown, Ph.D., echoes the same sentiment. She researched the topic for her dissertation, “Lived experience of loneliness: A narrative inquiry.”

“People are not all that open about their loneliness—a lot of my patients didn’t even realize they were lonely—or they hadn’t known how to give a name to what they’re feeling. And often they’re worried about how other people could view them, worried that someone may think something’s wrong with them,” Dr. Brown says. “Even if they’re open to talking about it, they’re not talking about it with their friends. And people are rarely talking about feeling lonely when they have friends or a significant other.”

People think: If I admit I’m lonely, it seems like I’m a loser. If I’m lonely, it’s seen as a personal failing. It obviously means nobody wants to talk to me. Even if it’s not true, that’s how a lot of people feel.

Isolation or loneliness?

It’s important to make the distinction between isolation and loneliness. Although they are sometimes related, they are not reliant on one another. Age is an important factor in discussing both.

With an aging population, Berlin, known as “The Capital of Loneliness,” offers an interesting case study. Half of all households are made up of only one person. The city enacted chitchat hotlines for the elderly, organized cuddle parties to encourage human touch, and are currently championing the appointment of a Minister for Loneliness.

The United Kingdom already has such a role. In 2017, after a study reported that more than nine million people in Britain often or always feel lonely, former Prime Minister Theresa May appointed the country’s first Minister for Loneliness. Community programs bring together elderly and youth alike. For example, Shared Lives matches pensioners who are struggling with loneliness with young people who need somewhere to live. This program brings together those who are physically isolated due to their age with those who may not have someone to connect with in their own generation.

But what happens when more than just physical isolation creates loneliness? In The Journal of International Psychogeriatrics, Dilip V. Jeste, M.D., Director of UC San Diego’s Center for Healthy Aging, delineates the subjective nature of loneliness. “It is the discrepancy between the social relationships you want and the social relationships you have,” he says.

Are you lonely?

people who say they always feel lonely by generation

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The humanistic approach

Humanistic psychology has long been interested in the distinction between social and intimacy loneliness. This discrepancy can often be attributed to our hunger for connection and our incapacity to do so in a fulfilling way.

“It’s not always a lack of desire to connect with someone, but sometimes an inability or inexperience with doing so. I found that a lot of people recognize that they’re not experiencing the ideal intimacy in their relationship, but it’s the closest they feel to anyone, so they feel like it’s the best they can get or have ever had,” Dr. Brown says.

When you don’t know how to be vulnerable, all you know is that what you’re experiencing doesn’t feel like you want it to, causing a sense of loneliness to rise. Dr. Brown goes on to explain, “People will try to connect in the ‘right’ way and talk to others, but still feel like they’re not being understood.”

Humanistic and Clinical Psychology Department Chair Drake Spaeth, Psy.D., explains that by nature we can’t ever truly be understood. “Being aware of our own death and the fact that we are embodied in these human bodies, isolation is a given that we have little control over,” he says. “We experience these moments of awareness of our separateness in blips, aware that one day we are going to die and no one can go through this for us. No one will ever truly understand what it’s like to be us in the way we uniquely experience it.”

Loneliness: a social media contagion

The difficulty of communicating our wants and needs and finding true connection within relationships is not a new problem. The ways we communicate and opportunities to connect have changed over centuries, decades, years, and sometimes even within days—with new apps or social media platforms all offering another way to communicate. As social media has gained popularity, it has offered solutions for connection, along with its own set of problems—often shouldering the blame for why millennials are so depressed, anxious, and lonely.

Dr. Spaeth believes that social media harkens back to letter writing, which is a benefit to society, but simultaneously lends itself to inauthentic communication.

“Social media has been a wonderful outlet for creative self-expression in many ways, but it also keeps us in our own encapsulated space. We try to find ways to mimic personal contact and intimate relationships through technology, for instance with video conferencing,” Dr. Spaeth says. “But no true eye contact can ever be made through a website, and to me, there’s no substitute for genuine eye contact and the soul-to-soul encounter that happens.

“It’s a combination of very superficial communication sometimes disguised as deeper communication. It’s this disconnect that leads us to really crave authentic human connection. Even if we don’t know quite what it is, we know we’re not quite getting it. It’s like an itch that almost gets scratched but not quite.”

But for some, technology and social media offer a necessary way in. An easier way to forge relationships and connections that they normally would not be able to form.

“For people who don’t prefer going out or don’t feel comfortable around others, it can be a tool rather than a crutch. Just because they don’t feel comfortable saying hi to a stranger or making a coffee date with someone new doesn’t mean they don’t want friends. It’s just their pre-existing, or learned, toolkit for entering social situations,” Van Gelder says. “A lot of people who are shy are hungry for social interaction but don’t know how to go get it. For them, technology can facilitate a much needed community.”

It’s a combination of very superficial communication sometimes disguised as deeper communication. It’s this disconnect that leads us to really crave authentic human connection. Even if we don’t know quite what it is, we know we’re not quite getting it. It’s like an itch that almost gets scratched but not quite.

Shaking up the narrative

Headline after headline ties social media and technology to loneliness and depression; stock photo after stock photo shows millennials with downtrodden gazes, glued to their phones. But are the rampant reports of loneliness that easy to explain or are other factors at play?

The Journal of International Psychogeriatrics reported people feel loneliness most during their late 20s, mid-50s, and late 80s. Perhaps it makes sense that in periods of life with drastic changes—from birth, rebirth, to death—a feeling of hopelessness and despair emerges as loneliness.

“There’s this fulcrum where things in life are in crisis or unstable. I can’t speak to a certain generation’s experience, but the liminal nature of these time periods emerge clearly. In our 20s, we’re really emerging from adolescence into young adulthood as an initiation. Middle age is an initiation into later adulthood, and ultimately into late old age contemplating the possibility of death. Liminal speaks to the ways these time periods are thresholds between these places and things,” Dr. Spaeth says.

The natural progression of life combined with our interconnectivity through social media has complicated the narrative about loneliness and given it a generational slant. But, as Van Gelder points out, it’s not as clear cut.

“It’s a sign of the times, not a generational indicator,” he says. “If the iPhone came out in the 1960s, would they have ignored it? Used technology better? It is solely coincidental that we got the innovation when we did. If it had happened in any other decade, it would have progressed similarly. We didn’t have a handbook for how to use technology or how to use social media best. We’re learning.”

Learning may be the answer to solving the crisis. One study found that the quality with the highest inverse correlation to loneliness is wisdom. They defined wisdom to include the ability to regulate emotions, self-reflect, be compassionate, tolerate opposing viewpoints, and be decisive. Very literally: The wiser you are, the less lonely you are. By developing our wisdom, perhaps we’ll find our way out of loneliness.

Learn more about Saybrook University

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The unconscious subconscious

11 November 2019
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whenever I think of hypnosis, I’m reminded of the iconic line heard on television shows and movie screens for decades: “You are getting sleepy, very sleepy.” I imagine awkward high school kids doing things they’d never do if not under the guise of some kind of “mind control.” I’ve never considered the possible benefits, let alone the reality behind hypnosis.

What exactly is hypnosis? Does it actually work? And how is it helpful?


“People try to use logic to think about their troubles, and oftentimes the more we think about them, the more worried we become, and the more we become tied up in knots,” says Donald Moss, Ph.D., dean of the College of Integrative Health Sciences at Saybrook University and president of the Society for Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis. “One of the principles of hypnosis is to invite people to surrender that ego control. Hypnosis is more about the experience. If a person allows themselves to be open, things begin to emerge and surface in their mind.”


And in a clinical sense, it can do a lot of good.

“Hypnosis has a lot of different uses, with a lot of different clinical applications,” says Eric Willmarth, Ph.D., co-chair of the Psychophysiology Department at Saybrook University and president-elect of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Psychological Hypnosis. “It’s important to remember, though, that hypnosis by itself is not a treatment. Instead, it can enhance treatment you’re already using.”

For anyone who has meditated, the beginning process of hypnosis isn’t too unfamiliar. Both require concentration and relaxation, but there’s a key difference between the two.

“Unlike meditation—which is more about opening up your consciousness to the whole universe—hypnosis is more of a focused attention on a small area,” Dr. Willmarth explains. “With meditation, everything fades away because you just want to relax the mind and let anything come in. However, hypnosis is used for a certain reason—a person needs to get to a state where he or she is more open to suggestion.”

A bad reputation

Another area where meditation and hypnosis differ? Their reputation. While the media has given meditation a warm welcome, hypnosis hasn’t received the same. Whether used by villains to brainwash their victims, or by creepy doctors who later turn out to be the villains (who can forget that hypnosis scene in Get Out?), hypnosis hasn’t received the best representation in the media—a reason for its waning popularity over the years.

And stage hypnosis—where Dr. Willmarth actually had his first exposure to the practice—doesn’t do the field any favors. The baggage associated with hypnosis is heavy. But these preconceived notions can actually positively influence how hypnosis affects patients.

There’s been movements of sorts to change the name—whether it be mindfulness or even guided imagery. Yet the word hypnosis still has power with patients.

“In stage hypnosis, it’s the hypnotist’s job to entertain the audience. The person being hypnotized isn’t really the subject; they’re more of a prop. On the other hand, in clinical practice when hypnosis is used, the patient is the subject and all the things the hypnotist says to them, called suggestions, are designed to be helpful in some way,” Dr. Willmarth says. “There’s been movements of sorts to change the name—whether it be mindfulness or even guided imagery. Yet the word hypnosis still has power with patients. People are a little scared of it, but they also attribute it to some magical power that kind of elicits a placebo response. I’ve seen that the effects are better when calling it hypnosis than when calling it mindfulness, even though the exact same script was used.”

The suggestions hypnotists say to a patient when they’re in their trance can range from the benign to the more serious, such as breaking a bad habit, helping someone quit smoking cigarettes, recover repressed traumatic memories, or deal with anxiety. Dr. Willmarth himself focuses extensively on pain management. He uses hypnosis to avoid adding more medication to someone’s regimen due to either already heavy pill use from another condition or past drug abuse.

“The brain has the capacity to shut down pain,” Dr. Willmarth says. “It’s fascinating. When someone’s been hypnotized, we can look on functional magnetic resonance images (fMRIs) to measure brain activity and actually see changes in different brain structures when using different suggestions.”

Dr. Willmarth practices what he preaches, undergoing medical procedures without anesthesia, choosing to instead hypnotize himself. Dr. Moss tells me that his wife gave birth to her three children using only hypnosis in the 1960s. It may sound unconventional, but as women turned away from heavy anesthesia during the 1950s and 60s for childbirth, some practiced hypnosis for pain management.

A 2000 study by Harvard Medical School found that patients who were hypnotized rather than given anesthesia had shorter procedures, reduced pain, and fewer complications. Some reports have even shown cost benefits to hospitals.

A wealth of research with proven benefits

While the research on hypnosis is nowhere near scant, it hasn’t received the same support that other methods of studying consciousness have, such as dream work, meditation, and psychedelic drugs. In September 2019, John Hopkins Medicine announced the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research—the first of its kind in the U.S., established with $17 million in donations.

“We’ve always been fascinated with expanding our abilities and tapping into other forms of knowledge or wisdom,” Dr. Willmarth says. “In the 60s, people used LSD to expand consciousness (though unfortunately, it had some really negative side effects). And you see some people who can lucid dream, or even enter a psychotic state. They’ll recover and talk about creativity and imagination.”

There’s two things that hypnosis has over dream work and psychedelics though: a greater accessibility and a natural effect.

“I think what’s appealing about methods such as biofeedback and hypnosis is that you’re able to do it naturally—training the brain to make its own transitions without having to artificially do it. We can get to healthier states using brainwave training,” Dr. Willmarth says.

When elaborating on the kind of effect hypnosis can have on the brain, Dr. Willmarth evokes an image of a grandmother running two miles holding her grandkids to get to safety—it’s something she never would’ve been capable of doing without adrenaline and necessity.

Not many universities have a full training program in hypnosis these days—probably less than 10 around the entire country.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine—under the leadership of David Spiegel, M.D., a professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences—have published studies about hypnosis. One explores the areas of the brain that are altered during hypnotic trances; another shows how the brains of people who are able to be hypnotized are different from the ones of those who can’t. Yet no centers in major research universities are dedicated to the study of hypnosis.

Enter Saybrook. For decades, Saybrook has valued exploring states of consciousness by examining a person’s whole psychology. As part of the Clinical and Applied Hypnosis Certificate, students from across the university—in fields including psychology, social work, counseling, physical therapy, and nutrition—find value in adding this skill to their practice.

“I would say Saybrook is special,” Dr. Moss says. “Not many universities have a full training program in hypnosis these days—probably less than 10 around the entire country. We are fortunate at Saybrook that our students—from a variety of disciplines—have access to this training.”

While the popularity is always in flux, Dr. Moss has indeed seen a change in openness to hypnosis. When he first started practicing, he had people walk out of his office after seeing hypnosis books on his shelves. Today, he’s more likely to get questions and engage in conversation.

“I think there’s a greater acceptance in talking about mental health and self-care. Human beings today are more open, and they’re looking for answers. And hypnosis is one of those answers,” Dr. Moss says. “People are looking for meaning, and if we try to logically force people to analyze, again we tie ourselves in knots. With hypnosis we can often experience a deeper meaning to the problems we face and the experiences we have and overcoming the problems.”

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Debunking diet fads

11 November 2019
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ven for the uninitiated dieters, names like Whole30, Atkins, keto, paleo, veganism, and intermittent fasting have all entered common vernacular. These diets have graced think pieces, chain restaurant menus, and watercooler conversation—dominating headlines and making their way into people’s lifestyles.

Buzz surrounds diets and the food we eat. With $6.02 trillion dollars in retail and food services sales in 2018, and $72 billion for the U.S. weight loss industry in 2018, there’s a lot of money to be had and decisions to be made in order to influence the market.

Some of these diets can lead to healthier eating habits. Yet they can also lead to extreme behavior, eventually becoming more harmful than helpful. Atkins preaches a low-carb, high-protein diet while Whole30 puts an emphasis on whole foods. Both require elimination and restriction, making it easy to overcommit or fall off the bandwagon completely. Sometimes dieting can help your physical health but hurt your mental health.

So how do consumers cut through the noise and corporate-funded biased studies? UNBOUND spoke to three Integrative Functional Nutrition faculty members to debunk different diet fads—do they work? Are they effective? What’s unhealthy about them? What’s not?—to help people make choices that best serve their bodies, their waistlines, and their overall wellbeing.

Q: Thank you all for participating. I want to start with what’s dominating the news right now, specifically the red meat controversy and the growing backlash against meatless meat. What is your take on the news surrounding red meat?

A: Maureen Molinari, Ph.D., RD: The headlines regarding red meat came from the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, with the following recommendations: “The panel suggests that adults continue current unprocessed red meat consumption … it indicates that the panel believed that for the majority of individuals, the desirable effects (a potential lowered risk for cancer and cardiometabolic outcomes) associated with reducing meat consumption probably do not outweigh the undesirable effects (impact on quality of life, burden of modifying cultural and personal meal preparation and eating habits).”

The problem is looking at any one type of food in isolation and attempting to categorize it as either ‘good’ or ‘evil.’

The conclusion and recommendations seem irresponsible to me as a registered dietitian. Why create a controversy where one doesn’t exist? Maybe for the purpose of clickbait? There are studies demonstrating the effects of red meat (you can see one here). From my perspective as a practicing RD, it is important to provide recommendations about red meat based on what we know.

A: Jeannemarie Beiseigel, Ph.D., RD: I think the problem is looking at any one type of food in isolation and attempting to categorize it as either “good” or “evil.” From a health (not environmental) standpoint, I believe that if people choose to eat meat (whether red OR white), they can find a place for it in their diet—so long as their diet is diversified across food categories.

There is no single food that you must have in order to survive. However, if you were to attempt to survive on any single food, you would fail.

A: Lori Taylor, MA, MS, RD: This doesn’t mean that red meat gets a pass either. Consider that red meat is the meat of mammals—animals like us. It is a very dense source of nutrition, and currently humans eat much more protein than we need to eat (see World Resources Institute page). We also know that factory-raised red meat (which comprises more than 90% of the meat raised in the U.S.) is a major contributor to global warming. So while red meat is closer to a whole food, its dense nutrition, our over-consumption, and its climate cost suggest that we should be eating less of it.

Q: What about the backlash on meatless meat?

A: Taylor: A whole food, as defined by the esteemed natural culinary teacher Cynthia Lair (from my alma mater, Bastyr University), is a single ingredient food, one that you can imagine growing, that is as close to its whole state as possible.

My issue with the new fake meats—like the Impossible Burger—is that they are ultra-processed foods and are made with a high degree of chemical input. Soybeans are the basic source for these new burgers, and more than 94% of the soy in the U.S. is genetically engineered to tolerate applications of glyphosate (the declared active ingredient in RoundUp). Even at levels 800 times less than what is allowed in food, glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor and deleterious to gut bacteria. We now know our microbiome is a major determinant of our level of inflammation and overall health.

Folks could be eating any of the more whole-foods oriented bean burgers rather than the new burgers that are highly processed. Recent research cited shows significant increases in cancer and adverse health outcomes as the intake of ultra-processed foods increases.

I also personally find it odd to take a plant-based burger and find a way to make it bloody by genetically engineering a soy protein that carries iron. One of the reasons many people eat plants is to avoid the visceral experience of eating animal proteins. I do see the possible benefit of getting folks to switch from eating meat to eating plants, but we are switching them from a more whole food to an ultra-processed food.

A: Dr. Beiseigel: Exactly. It’s important to remember these meatless burgers aren’t a whole food, or even just slightly processed. They are highly processed. More whole foods, and less factory-processed foods, tend to be healthiest for most people and, quite likely, for the environment.

Q: So is meat in general considered a whole food? Additionally, a lot of diets are dedicated to whole foods (Whole30 and the paleo diet come to mind). What are your thoughts on those?

A: Dr. Beiseigel: You caught me! I used one of those “trendy” words, like “whole,” “natural,” “free-from.” I tend to prefer the term “lesser-processed.” And just like every food category—what do you mean by “meat”?  Are we talking about your Thanksgiving turkey or your bologna sandwich?

Next step is to talk quantities and pairings (like picking fries or broccoli). We really make it difficult when it doesn’t need to be. Why are we making it so difficult? It’s largely for marketing purposes—words like “natural,” “whole,” “free-from” make the product sound better for you than it is, and it sells. Sadly, no one is slapping a label on an apple and driving up the consumer appeal.

It’s about balance and individualizing—meat (even bologna) can be fine (note that I did not say healthy) in moderation. And what’s moderation? Well, that too varies by the food and the person.

Diet trends get a lot of press. Maybe the latest diet buzz creates a new sense of hope for people trying to lose weight or improve health.

A: Dr. Molinari: I agree with Jeannemarie with regard to moderation, yet in my opinion, Americans are not comfortable with what the term moderation means and therefore may benefit from having specific recommendations.

Moderation is difficult to quantify. To me as an RD, it means once in a while. And because once in a while is subjective, when I’m working with individuals to improve their nutrition, I use an individualized approach. An individualized approach is person-centered, and as Jeannemarie stated takes into consideration health, lifestyle, preferences, socioeconomics, and more. An individualized approach is not prescriptive, yet sometimes is helpful to be specific about recommendations if it is appropriate.

Q: Great points, thank you. Like what Dr. Beiseigel noted, words like “whole,” “natural,” and “free-from” are largely used for marketing purposes and to help a product sell. It seems that same kind of strategy is used for diets.As nutrition professionals, how do you advise a person on what is best for them—cutting away the noise and buzz that diets create?

A: Taylor: For me, in general, the non-sexy part of nutrition is that we should be emphasizing foods as close to their whole state as is possible, eating mostly plants, looking at animal proteins in much smaller portions, and doing more of our own cooking. That answer is very unlikely to change.

A: Dr. Molinari: I’d go back to my statement above, using an individualized approach is how I would advise a person what is best for them. Diet trends get a lot of press. Maybe the latest diet buzz creates a new sense of hope for people trying to lose weight or improve health. The noise and the buzz gets people thinking about what they are eating—so maybe there’s a benefit to the buzz too.

A: Dr. Beiseigel: That’s a really interesting point, Dr. Molinari—people do need hope that something will work. So you’re probably right that offering a “new” way may offer hope and at least get people thinking about making positive changes.

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Horses and healing

11 November 2019
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In a difficult time of discombobulated circumstances a few years ago, my spirit became overwhelmed with severe depression and anxiety. I didn’t find my way out through pills or continuous sit-down therapy sessions, but from an unexpected relationship with a horse named Beau. When I reflect back on where I was then and where I am now, I can see clearly how he saved my life.

Our bond started with ground work and followed through to the saddle, with results well beyond what was expected. It was a collaborative process that started with a commitment out of respect for Beau’s well-being. Loyalty was upheld through the dedication of working together. By trusting him, he trusted me back.

Connecting and curing

One day after doing ground work with Beau, I was overcome with emotion and started sobbing. I suddenly realized that I had gained control over this 1,200-pound animal that could kill me in an instant if he wanted to. I thought, if I can take control of this horse, I can take control over all these other things in my life that had previously seemed uncontrollable. Those 1,200 pounds were a symbol of the weight in my life that was destroying me. It was metaphoric in teaching me I have the power to control the calamity and catastrophic environment I was subjected to.

Establishing a bond and ability to control my horse opened my eyes to a new view. For the first time, I was able to grasp the reins of life with greater strength, take authority in self-advocation, and disregard the deception of others that had caused inner affliction to my spirit. In training and working with Beau, a deep inner strength was found through trust, loyalty, and love that brought joy and peace back into my life..
I earned Beau’s respect, and with his free will he followed my direction and guidance, choosing me as his leader. The horse does not speak human language but uses body language to communicate instead. I witnessed a power beyond words that has changed my life. I gained confidence, sense of belonging, self-advocation, trust, loyalty, love, joy, and a new best friend.

Reciprocity

In July 2018, Beau was diagnosed with a life-threatening parasite that attacks the central nervous system and was placed on medication. When we began training again after treatment, Beau suddenly fell on all four legs during a canter. He managed to keep me safe by not rolling over as he crashed to the ground. I unmounted and went directly in front of him as his eyes glazed over. He seemed completely unaware of the neurological incident that had happened. I encouraged him to stand up over and over, but it took minutes before he was actually able to.

It was heartbreaking to see the illness affect him, and he required several more months to heal. It was a difficult process, but I was going to do everything in my power to be there for him. Not only did Beau save my life, but in return I ended up saving his.

He has made a remarkable recovery, and we are back to participating in the California Gymkhana Association competition. In March 2019, we won another buckle in High Point competition during a two-day horse show in Temecula, California. This was more than just a win, it was an emotional victory acknowledging how well he had recovered—how well we had both recovered. We closed the year winning a saddle for High Point at the San Diego County Fair.

EAT: A different take on treatment

Healing that was unexpected and unintentional through a horse changed my life, and I believe there is more reason to research equine assisted therapy (EAT) in mental health than is currently practiced. Through my relationship with Beau, I have learned to establish my own boundaries. I have regained my feelings of belonging, self-value, and no longer dwell in a pit of depression. A healing was facilitated through Beau.

Through my unexpected experience with Beau, I have a different strength and mindset today. The exposure and healing encouraged me to research further use of EAT as an alternative resolution for many other therapeutic needs; for example, the pill-popping epidemic, coping with ambiguous loss in children and adult children of divorce, and betrayal trauma in adult children of alcoholic parents.

Mental illness has skyrocketed in the U.S. over the last several decades. And with this trend, psychiatric drug prescriptions and usage in adults and children has accelerated. Psychiatric drugs help many severe symptoms of mental illnesses as well as provide maintenance for survival and functioning, but some still question how many people really need to be on psychiatric drugs. According to Peter Breggin, M.D., some psychiatric drugs may cause specific impairment in the frontal lobes—the most vulnerable parts of the brain. He also points out that psychoactive drugs work by causing a dysfunction within the natural innovation of the mind and brain.

Not a new answer

The relationship with horses has long been valued as sacred. Native American stories from the 16th century tell of horses coming to humans as relatives, a gift from the creator. Horses have been used for human therapeutic use since ancient Greece. Their unique neurologic and physical abilities have resulted in many benefits of relationships with humans.
Since the 1960s, the horse has been used in animal assisted therapy. By bringing attentiveness to the horse’s ability in assisting therapy and paring solutions, such as a program partnership with the incarcerated, research has continually shown benefits in the human and horse relationship. The many reasons for this include human and animal instincts. Understanding the horse’s natural instincts, behavior, and sensory system may be a valued requisite in helping people improve mental health and overall well-being.

About the author: Anne Marlene Shelton, M.A., RRT, RCP, is in her third year at Saybrook University in the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program with specialization in Psychophysiology. Through inspiration and research, Shelton published her master’s thesis into a book, “The Value of a Horse in Today’s Westernized World,” which is globally distributed at vendors, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She shares her personal experience and powerful bond with her horse, which nourished an unexpected healing. This phenomenal journey grounded inspiration for advocating equine assisted therapy and a discovery for further implication in research. You can find her book here.

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Peak performance

11 November 2019
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he body’s reaction to stress can range from sweaty palms to a racing heart. Often, this response can hinder the ability to perform at your best—whether writing a paper or working out.
But what if you had the power to influence your body’s “involuntary” response to stress, or harness the response to increase focus and reach a level of performance you didn’t know you were capable of.
Researchers in the field of psychophysiology are proving biofeedback therapy can make this possible.

The next frontier for competitive athletics

As a competitive figure skater in 1982, Margaret Dupee, Ph.D., didn’t know the butterflies in her stomach before competition would play such a major role in her future career. Learning to manage her anxiety, alone on the ice in front of thousands of people, through her own unique self-regulation techniques is what initially piqued her interest in the human body’s physiological response mechanisms.

Today, Dr. Dupee is a leading researcher in the field of psychophysiology and works with elite athletes seeking to gain an edge on the competition by harnessing the power of their mind-body connection through biofeedback therapy.

“My research is focused on optimal performance,” says Dr. Dupee, assistant professor of the Psychophysiology and Optimal Performance course at Saybrook University. Her expertise helped Canadian athletes during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. “I continue to work with many different athletes, helping them recognize what’s happening in their nervous system during stressful events using biofeedback. Then I work on teaching them self-regulation techniques to manage it so that they’re performing at the optimal level.”

Like Dr. Dupee during her days of competitive figure skating, many athletes she works with have already developed personal self-regulation techniques as a necessity to cope with the stress brought on by intense competition.

For example, basketball players may develop a meticulous routine before shooting free throws. Some even focus on adjusting their breathing (deep breathe in, deep breathe out) before stepping to the line—possibly unaware this could be classified as a self-regulation strategy.

To the athlete, this routine may feel like it calms their nerves. However, psychophysiological interventions, such as biofeedback, offer tangible evidence of how effective this self-regulation strategy is by using innovative technology to produce readouts of their body’s response to the technique.

“It offers concrete data about one’s internal state or environment,” Dr. Dupee says. “In the past, sport psychologists had to rely on talk therapy techniques with questions like ‘how do you feel’ or ‘what are you thinking’ and really had no way to measure these concepts.”

This intersection between technological innovation, physiology, and psychology is becoming increasingly valued, but not just with athletes. Today, with the rise of wearable technology and portable equipment, biofeedback therapy is used to optimize performance in a variety of professions—from restaurant workers and elementary school teachers, to military personnel and business executives.

A proactive approach to stress management

Therapists use biofeedback to help clients learn to control some of the body’s psychophysiological responses, often triggered by stress.

“This can be your breathing rate, heart rate, muscle tension, sweat gland activity, or the temperature of your hands and feet,” says Dr. Dupee, adding that biofeedback is about bringing greater awareness to what’s happening in the body using these five indicators. “Basically, when we’re stressed, those stress indicators are affected in measurable ways.”

For example, a person’s hand temperature will drop while stressed because the body’s blood vessels constrict, causing less blood to reach extremities.

“Different individuals may identify with a specific indicator,” says Dr. Dupee, adding that she is a temperature responder. “The first thing that happens when I’m stressed is my hands get cold, but someone else may experience an accelerated heart rate.”

To assist in the recognition of these stress indicators, a biofeedback session consists of attaching electrical sensors to different parts of a person’s body. The sensors are connected to interactive computer software, which provides visible cues for someone to recognize when a stress response has been activated—even if they’ve yet to realize it. It is a proactive approach to stress management.

It’s kind of like training wheels for self-regulation techniques.

Over multiple sessions, biofeedback can teach someone to more quickly recognize when their stress responders are activated, thus allowing them to better mitigate the response through various self-regulation strategies.

“It’s kind of like training wheels for self-regulation techniques,” says Tim Herzog, Ed.D., adjunct professor of Psychophysiology and Optimal Performance at Saybrook University. “Ultimately, you want the person to be capable of replicating what they’ve done in a real-world setting, without the equipment.”

For elite athletes, this can help them perform at their highest level during competition. But for others, biofeedback therapy can be useful in managing their body’s daily response to stress. “It could be something as simple as your boss yelling at you. For one person, it’s not a big deal, but another person’s psychological and physiological response could be similar to facing death,” Dr. Herzog says. “So this type of training or therapy can be useful for anyone, not just athletes, to better recognize how their body responds to situations and learn to better cope with them.”

Rising acceptance, growing demand

Dr. Herzog first witnessed the effectiveness of biofeedback during his work with U.S. military personnel. During a time when sport and performance psychology was looking for clearer career paths for its trainees, the U.S. Army initiated a program at bases around the country. The Army Center for Enhanced Performance program mirrored a performance program at West Point, which emphasized psychophysiology and utilized biofeedback.

“I remember having a lieutenant colonel hooked up to the machine and inducing a stress response. We discovered that having him do simple math—one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four, and so on—would positively affect his heart rate variability. It could take him from a stress response—consumed with thinking about issues to address in the Battalion he commanded—to a place where he was self-regulated, calm, and alert.

“I also worked with snipers,” Dr. Herzog says. “These guys were already pretty good self-regulators because they’re trained in breathing techniques. But they would get very caffeinated from energy drinks because of their rigorous schedules. So we were able to see some of physiological effects of energy drinks and develop alternative energy management strategies.”

Today, biofeedback is a recommended treatment for conditions such as PTSD by Veterans Families United and an approved treatment under Tricare, the health care program for current and former service members and their families Dr. Herzog says acceptance of biofeedback has grown over the years.

“Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was regarded as something people associated with transcendental meditation. It wasn’t taken as seriously,” Dr. Herzog says. “It has come a long way since then. I’m presenting at a sport psychology conference where we’re expecting at least 100 people to attend our pre-conference workshop. Years ago, we would have been lucky to have a few people show up.  Folks have begun to recognize that there is a natural ‘marriage’ between sport psychology and biofeedback; it makes mind-body techniques concrete.”

The rising acceptance of the science surrounding biofeedback is coinciding with a boom in the availability of wearable fitness technology. According to “The Wearable in U.S. Healthcare Report” by Business Insider Intelligence, “U.S. consumer use of wearables jumped from nine percent in 2014 to 33 percent in 2018.”

Previously, one of the main barriers to entry for those interested in biofeedback therapy was the high cost of equipment—which also often required the person being monitored to remain stationary. Some of the equipment could cost as much as $20,000. More affordable consumer-friendly and mobile devices such as smartwatches, and even smartshirts, are changing this.

“Wearables are definitely the next big thing, and we’re already moving in that direction,” says Dr. Herzog, noting that the Apple Watch can already provide a primitive form of heart rate variability measurement. “But I think it would be ill-advised for consumers to take a do-it-yourself approach to this type of therapy. That’s where programs like Saybrook’s become critical in teaching professional practitioners. It teaches students how to basically operate what’s under the hood and give their clients exactly what they need through a much more custom and prescriptive approach.”

Both Drs. Herzog and Dupee agree that greater awareness about new types of technology and biofeedback therapy is ultimately a good thing. Each believes every person can benefit from understanding more about their ability to control what were previously thought to be the body’s involuntary responses. “Recognizing what is happening in your nervous system and then being able to manage it is an extremely useful skill for any person,” Dr. Dupee says. “Learning to regulate your nervous system is something we should all learn to improve.”

Learn more about Saybrook University

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