Teaching Self-Regulation Skills for Maintaining a Healthy Stress-Recovery Balance

Description

About this Workshop

This experiential workshop presents practical methods for cultivating self-regulation, improving stress awareness, and restoring autonomic balance. Participants will explore how monitoring stress levels and understanding the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can support a healthier lifestyle. The session introduces digital thermal feedback (including digital thermometers provided to participants), respiration tracking ("draw your respiration" exercises), Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as key indicators of ANS function. Participants will learn how to interpret smartwatch data and multi-day/night HRV tracking using devices such as Firstbeat Life and tools like FlowMD, while evaluating various apps and wearables for relaxation training, posture feedback, and HRV training to achieve durable autonomic balance.

These physiological insights are integrated with Autogenic Training and somatic visualizationAutogenic Training is framed as a method for cultivating nonjudgmental, present-moment awareness of bodily sensations. Combined with somatic visualization—expressed through mental imagery, movement, sculpting, and physical expression—these practices foster deep self-regulation and self-healing.

Through live demonstrations integrating surface electromyography (sEMG), thermal biofeedback, respiration, and HRV feedback, participants will observe in real time how shifts in attention, breathing, and posture influence physiological markers. By bridging subjective internal experiences with objective physiological data, this workshop transforms abstract mind–body concepts into observable, actionable biological signals.

Key Topics

Foundations of Stress Awareness: Utilizing wearable technologies, monitoring tools, Autogenic Training, and somatic visualization in applied psychophysiology.
Biofeedback Integration: Real-time monitoring and application of muscle tension (sEMG), respiration, peripheral temperature, and HRV feedback.
Clinical and Educational Applications: Implementing mind–body self-regulation protocols for stress reduction, performance enhancement, and the management of conditions such as anxiety, pain, headaches, hypertension, abdominal discomfort, dysmenorrhea, and gastrointestinal distress.
Protocol Design and Clinical Guidelines: Understanding indications, contraindications, and clinical limitations when integrating biofeedback into practice.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Apply self-regulation techniques—including Autogenic Training, somatic visualization, and respiration practices—for stress reduction, relaxation, and clinical symptom management.

2. Evaluate and utilize biofeedback and wearable technologies (e.g., HRV monitoring, sEMG, digital thermal sensors, and app-based feedback) to track physiological responses and guide mind–body interventions.

3. Identify clinical indications, contraindications, and limitations for applying self-regulation strategies to conditions such as headaches, chronic pain, anxiety, hypertension, and GI distress, as well as for performance enhancement.

Instructors

Meet the Workshop Presenters

Erik Peper

Erik Peper is an internationally known expert on holistic health, stress management, and biofeedback. He is a professor at San Francisco State University, where he was instrumental in establishing the Institute for Holistic Health Studies, the first holistic health program at a public university in...

Daniëlle M. Matto

“The power of showing your client the effect on the body of changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviour is enormous. It is the best way to create awareness of your autonomic state and to learn internal self-regulation skills: the ability to adjust your psychophysiological state to the demands of the...

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