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Progressive Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a non-pharmacological method of deep muscle relaxation, based on the premise that muscle tension is the body's psychological response to anxiety-provoking thoughts and that muscle relaxation blocks anxiety. The technique involves learning to monitor the tension in specific muscle groups by first tensing and then relaxing each muscle group. When this tension is released, the attention is directed towards the differences felt during tension and relaxation so that the patient learns to recognise the contrast between the states. History Initial development of PMR by American physician Edmund Jacobson and presented first in 1908 at Harvard University. In 1929, Jacobson published the book ''Progressive Relaxation'', which included a detailed procedure for removing muscular tension. His work led to the use of the word "relax", in the sense of "to become less tense, anxious or stressed, to calm down". He continued to work on this topic throu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat whereas the latter is defined as the emotional response to a real threat. It is often accompanied by nervous behavior such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination. Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing. It is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, fatigue, inability to catch one's breath, tightness in the abdominal region, nausea, and problems in concentration. Anxiety is closely related to fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat (fight or flight response); anxiety involves the expectation of future threat including dread. People facing anxiety may withdraw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Jacobson
Edmund Jacobson (April 22, 1888 – January 7, 1983) was an American physician in internal medicine and psychiatry and a physiologist. He was the creator of Progressive Muscle Relaxation and of Biofeedback. Biography He was born on April 22, 1888, Chicago to Fannie and Morris Jacobson. His father was a realtor in Chicago, who was born in Strasbourg, and his wife Fannie was born in Iowa. He received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1908 in just two years. Jacobson received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He returned to Chicago as an assistant in physiology. Here he obtained his M.D. degree from Rush Medical School in 1915. In 1921, he introduced the application of psychological principles to medical practice which was later called psychosomatic medicine. Employing low microvoltage apparatus, Jacobson also made the first accurate electrical measurement of muscular tonus, nerve impulses and mental activities in neuromuscular sites in living men. Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, irritability, and a depressed mood. It may result in an increased risk of motor vehicle collisions, as well as problems focusing and learning. Insomnia can be short term, lasting for days or weeks, or long term, lasting more than a month. The concept of the word insomnia has two possibilities: insomnia disorder and insomnia symptoms, and many abstracts of randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews often underreport on which of these two possibilities the word insomnia refers to. Insomnia can occur independently or as a result of another problem. Conditions that can result in insomnia include psychological stress, chronic pain, heart failure, hyperthyroidism, heartburn, restless leg syndrome, menopause, certain medication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Racing Thoughts
Racing thoughts refers to the rapid thought patterns that often occur in manic, hypomanic, or mixed episodes. While racing thoughts are most commonly described in people with bipolar disorder and sleep apnea, they are also common with anxiety disorders, OCD, and other psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Racing thoughts are also associated with sleep deprivation, hyperthyroidism and the use of amphetamines. Description Racing thoughts may be experienced as background or take over a person's consciousness. Thoughts, music, and voices might be zooming through one's mind as they jump tangentially from one to the next. There also might be a repetitive pattern of voice or of pressure without any associated "sound". It is a very overwhelming and irritating feeling, and can result in losing track of time. In some cases, it may also be frightening to the person experiencing it, as there is a loss of control. If one is experiencing these thoughts at ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autogenic Training
Autogenic training is a desensitization-relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz by which a psychophysiologically determined relaxation response is obtained. The technique was first published in 1932. Studying the self-reports of people immersed in a hypnotic state, J.H. Schultz noted that physiological changes are accompanied by certain feelings. Abbé Faria and Émile Coué are the forerunners of Schultz. The technique involves repetitions of a set of visualisations that induce a state of relaxation and is based on passive concentration of bodily perceptions (e.g., heaviness and warmth of arms, legs), which are facilitated by self-suggestions. The technique is used to alleviate many stress-induced psychosomatic disorders. Biofeedback practitioners integrate basic elements of autogenic imagery and have simplified versions of parallel techniques that are used in combination with biofeedback. This was done at the Menninger Foundation by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is a psychological technique related to the placebo effect, developed by apothecary Émile Coué at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a form of self-induced suggestion in which individuals guide their own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. The technique is often used in self-hypnosis. Typological distinctions Émile Coué identified two very different types of self-suggestion: * intentional, "''reflective autosuggestion''": made by deliberate and conscious effort, and * unintentional, "''spontaneous auto-suggestion''": which is a "natural phenomenon of our mental life … which takes place without conscious effort nd has its effectwith an intensity proportional to the keenness of urattention". In relation to Coué's group of "spontaneous auto-suggestions", his student Charles Baudouin (1920, p. 41) made three further useful distinctions, based upon the sources from which they came: * "Instances belonging to the representative domain (s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions of one's own body by using electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to manipulate the body's systems at will. Humans conduct biofeedback naturally all the time, at varied levels of consciousness and intentionality. Biofeedback and the biofeedback loop can also be thought of as self-regulation. Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception. Biofeedback may be used to improve health, performance, and the physiological changes that often occur in conjunction with changes to thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Recently, technologies have provided assistance with intentional biofeedback. Eventually, these changes may be maintained without the use of extra equipment, for no equipment is necessarily required to practice biofeedback. Meta-analysis of different biofeedback treatments have show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoga Nidra
Yoga nidra ( sa, योग निद्रा, ) or yogic sleep in modern usage is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation. A state called yoga nidra is mentioned in the Upanishads and the ''Mahabharata'', while a goddess named Yoganidrā appears in the '' Devīmāhātmya''. Yoga nidra is linked to meditation in Shaiva and Buddhist tantras, while some medieval hatha yoga texts use "yoganidra" as a synonym for the deep meditative state of samadhi. These texts however offer no precedent for the modern technique of guided meditation. That derives from 19th and 20th century Western "proprioceptive relaxation" as described by practitioners such as Annie Payson Call and Edmund Jacobson. The modern form of the technique, pioneered by Dennis Boyes in 1973, made widely known by Satyananda Saraswati in 1976, and then by Swami Rama, Richard Miller, and others has spread worldwide. It is applied by the US Army to assist soldiers to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Body Psychotherapy
Body psychotherapy, also called body-oriented psychotherapy, is an approach to psychotherapy which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich who developed it as vegetotherapy. Branches also were developed by Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos, both patients and students of Reich, like Reichian body-oriented psychotherapy. History Wilhelm Reich and the post-Reichians are considered the central element of body psychotherapy. From the 1930s, Reich became known for the idea that muscular tension reflected repressed emotions, what he called 'body armour', and developed a way to use pressure to produce emotional release in his clients.Totton, (2005) p.3 Reich was expelled from the psychoanalytic mainstream and his work found a home in the 'growth movement' of the 1960s and 1970s and in the countercultural project of 'liberating the body'. Perhaps as a result, body psychotherapy was marginalised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
