Relational Biofeedback: Exploring the Role of Social Support in the Practice of Biofeedback

Abstract

Biofeedback is a health intervention that trains people to exert control over physiological processes through real-time monitoring and feedback mechanisms (Schwartz et al., 2016). The practice promotes self-regulation and can be used to improve physical and mental health (Tan et al., 2016). However, biofeedback interventions are often conducted individually and practitioners rarely utilize the patient’s social network to assist in the development of self-regulation skills (Frank et al., 2010; Schwartz et al., 2016). This is a notable omission since research has established that social systems impact patients’ psychophysiology (Kleinbub, 2017). Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore how social support persons can be utilized in biofeedback. This concept, which the authors refer to as relational biofeedback, is an underdeveloped, but promising future direction in biofeedback. The dissertation is comprised of six chapters: (a) an introduction to the dissertation, (b) a literature review on the practice and psychophysiological underpinnings of relational biofeedback, with a special emphasis on heart rate variability biofeedback, (c) a systematic review of the literature to identify attempts to use relational biofeedback interventions to date, (d) proposed methodology for an original research study, (e) the results of the mixed-methods research study comparing individual to relational approaches to heart rate variability biofeedback with romantic partners (N = 12), and (f) a series of recommendations for clinicians and researchers, with an focus on the role medical family therapists can play in the advocacy and advancement of relational biofeedback.