Stress and Anxiety control: collaborative work of psychotherapist and Biofeedback specialist

This review is for the wonderful results I’ve received from the collaborative work of Nick Skasa and Felix Laevsky. For several years, I have been having severe mind/body connection and anxiety issues that had begun to affect every aspect of my life. I have been a runner my entire life, completing 25 marathons, including many Boston marathons. In order to perfect my running, I used to obsess about my form, breathing, and every body movement. Over many years this obsession, combined with a very stressful job, began to affect my ability to run. I even began having issues with walking, sitting, breathing, and even smelling. I had been to several different kinds of doctors, none of whom could find anything wrong with me, but one diagnosed me with generalized anxiety disorder. A practitioner of the Trager Approach (a mind/body connection methodology) whom I’d gone to see, recommended I see therapist Nick Skasa.

I began seeing Nick Skasa in October 2021 and he, along with Felix Laevsky, a biofeedback therapy expert, are literally saving my life. Nick Skasa is an excellent therapist who deals with anxiety and trauma. Nick believed my symptoms were similar to PTSD and said that I was experiencing dissociation potentially caused by my nervous system being stuck in sympathetic (fight or flight) mode. Nick really understands the relationship between mind and body and has provided me with many tools to calm myself down. He said that we needed to get my body to experience a relaxation response so that my nervous system could spend more time in a parasympathetic (rest and relaxed) state. Nick is a great listener, very patient, kind, not judgmental, and so easy to talk to. He has made himself available to me on short notice when I was in crisis mode. In June, Nick recommended I see Felix Laevsky, who specializes in biofeedback therapy. I scheduled appointments with Felix who took my recovery to another level. Felix used biofeedback techniques which supported Nick’s diagnosis with objective metrics. Felix also introduced me to his 5 GOs strategy for muscle tension awareness, reduction, control and relaxation of muscles. He has coached me on the benefits of focused and diaphragmatic breathing to help trigger a relaxation response. Felix is very data driven and frequently uses the Nijmegen Questionnaire to measure my progress. This questionnaire is used for patients with dysfunctional breathing patterns. When I first saw Felix in June, my symptom score was 47 (64 being the worst). After 12 sessions with Felix, my symptoms improved significantly and my score on the questionnaire had dropped to 13.

I am so grateful for the help Nick and Felix have given me. I had almost given up hope of ever getting better and was spiraling into a dark place. I did not realize how much work this would be on my part. But by trusting in the process and putting in the hard work with the coaching and support from Nick and Felix, I now have hope and am looking forward to the future. I have even begun running again, albeit at a much lower level. While it’s still a struggle, I am seeing progress. If you are experiencing similar anxiety or mind/body connection issues, I would highly recommend the collaborative work of Nick and Felix.

Kevin Hacker

Why biofeedback?

Being seriously interested in knowing my own mind-body connections, I decided to explore the benefits of biofeedback. Knowing how to read my body helps to reduce exercise injuries. For example, when my neck or shoulders feel tight, I know that I ought to warm-up and do some stretching before lifting weights. My mind interprets my body’s condition, and I prepare for the exercise accordingly. During an activity, I’ll modify the routine if it’s called for based on my body’s reactions. Through research I knew that biofeedback could enhance my awareness of my body. I was especially interested in heightening my awareness because of having had open-heart surgery some six months before beginning biofeedback sessions.

I learned in my first session with my biofeedback therapist, Felix Laevsky, that biofeedback is real time electronic measurements of the body’s processes: breathing, skin temperature, muscle relaxation, heart rhythms and more. These real time results are displayed on a computer screen, so that you see, for example, how a fully relaxed muscle (your own) charts electronically. During the biofeedback sessions, I learned many specific techniques such as muscle awareness and control in order to meet my relaxation and other goals. For example, while driving a car, I want to have greater flexibility of my neck and shoulders, which were tightening more and more as I aged.

Biofeedback therapy is a virtual polygon of multi-purpose exercises that include focused breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visual imagery and more. It has helped me with breath control, blood pressure, muscle control and deep relaxation. Therefore, I whole-heartedly recommend it for those who desire to know more about how their body and how their minds connect.

From my experience, biofeedback is one of the best, unique and valuable mind-body connection tools. But there is more to biofeedback than the electronics—the experience and the effectiveness of the biofeedback therapist is profoundly important. And so, I highly recommend Felix Laevsky. Felix’s professional and caring approach has guided me through the next step in my journey of the mind-body connection; I’m confident that you would agree if you were to “walk” with Felix for awhile.

Edward L. Miskovic

Anxiety, joints pain, migraine headaches, sleep problems

For three years I was having several unexplained neurological symptoms such as numbness and tingling in my extremities, weakness in my limbs and difficulty swallowing. MRI scans of my brain and spine showed no abnormalities and I had no answers. Anxiety, joint pain and migraine headaches all began increasing. In the past year I began having difficulty staying asleep. I would grind my teeth and bite my tongue in my sleep. I would snore even with my mouth closed. I had a sleep study done but while there were times of apnea, the doctor did not consider it severe enough to require specific treatment. I was taking medications to help stay asleep but the teeth grinding and biting continued. I am convinced that, if the lack of good sleep wasn’t the cause of my other problems, it most certainly was making them worse. I decided to take action on my own behalf after not having any satisfactory solutions from my doctors.

Working with Felix, I learned how to reduce the amount of stress in my body and activate my own ability to relieve my pain and other symptoms. I now can recognize triggers for these and address them myself before the anxiety, headaches and joint pain can escalate. I now have a toolkit that includes breathing techniques, imagery techniques and relaxation skills. I no longer have sleep problems and regularly wake feeling well rested, which has not happened for at least a year. The neurological symptoms are nearly gone. The episodes of tingling and joint pain that remain are growing less frequent and I know I am capable of eliminating them when they arise. With continued practice I know that they will disappear.

The training was simple to follow. Felix worked with me to make a plan for what I wanted to accomplish through our sessions. Even though I did not always see immediately how the technique would address my issues, I trusted Felix’s expertise and did the exercises regularly. The biofeedback measurements Felix collected during our sessions were valuable to give me an objective way to see the physiological affects I was able to create by using the skills I was being taught. Felix is extremely knowledgeable and he truly took an interest in seeing me improve. He explains things well and it was easy to ask questions in those cases where I needed more clarification. Learning to apply the techniques Felix taught me has been one of the best things I have done for myself. I look forward to the quiet time I now have regularly incorporated into my day to focus on my health and wellbeing.

Lauren

Back, shoulder and chest pain

I started working with Felix Laevsky after 4 months of intense/severe pain in my back, shoulder and chest, taking a chance as a last resort – any other approaches did not seems to help (sport medicine, chiropractic manipulations, physical therapy or massage).

The cause of the pain was never determined, even though many tests were done.

We had 8 sessions by now, and I see a big progress not only in my condition/pain level but also in my ability to be involved in controlling pain consciously.

The techniques I learned during sessions with Felix, and the fact that visually I was able to see actual results on the monitor with Biofeedback program on it – such as level of muscle tension, the stress level of the whole body before and after using various techniques – gave me confidence. I realized that my case is not hopeless, that emotional input playing role and that visual feedback is effective also on subconscious level.

Now even outside of the medical office, thanks to techniques and skills that Felix Laevsky equipped me with, I am able to manage pain, tension and overall stress. So, for example, if pain is intensified, using these tools enables me quicker and more effectively control it.

Talking about numbers: the improvement went from 8.5 pain level to 3.5, and sometimes even to 0!

Thank you so much Felix for introducing Biofeedback and Relaxation techniques to me.

I will make sure that people I know who are in pain and don’t have expected result from other sources are informed about this great feature.

Irina

Stress, palpitation, blood pressure

Every time I had to face difficulty in my life i.e. confront aggressive people, talk to authority, demonstrate assertiveness or even be late or out of time, I experienced palpitations, my blood pressure got elevated, which negatively affected my health condition.

Later on it caused my blood sugar elevation and weight gain, so at my 50s I had to take a few medications to control all of that. I have to say it took me a while to realize, that the main culprit for my entire problem was my low ability to cope with stress. While looking for solution I found Felix Laevsky seminar on Biofeedback, which I attended. I also underwent 10 session of Biofeedback training, and I have to say it worked very well for me. Since I like to see practical measurable results, it was important, that I not only learned new relaxation techniques, which Felix knows a lot about, but also was able objectively see a measurement of my physiological response on a computer screen. I continue working on my stress coping skills, but my blood pressure now is normal, I do not have palpitation anymore. To my surprise I even have lost 7 lb of weight.

You can go to yoga classes, do meditation etc, but if you want to see what exactly and how well you are doing health wise, you better start with Biofeedback training. I highly recommend Felix, who works in this field for many years and has profound knowledge on Biofeedback and relaxation techniques. He is also very good motivator and teacher.

SV

Frequent urination

Since I started Biofeedback therapy with Felix Laevsky a few months ago, I’ve made tremendous results in controlling my urges to urinate frequently. Before Biofeedback therapy, I would feel very anxious and worried because I didn’t know how to control my nervous state, which would lead me to urinate more frequently, especially at night. I had frequent urges to urinate, and no medication could cure me of my symptoms. That’s when I started Bio therapy.

The first thing that I learned how to do in my training sessions was to properly relax, in order to lower my internal stress level. This helped me reach a level of relaxation that increased my well-being. In times of greatest stress, it’s a great idea to calm down and relax.

Another important form of therapy I learned was the Emotional Freedom Technique. Using this technique, I learned how to recognize the problem by focusing on specific words that resonate when thinking about it. After relaxing, using EFT helps me diminish the severity of my problem, allowing greater control over it.

Biofeedback therapy is not a quick-fix pop-a-pill treatment for your problems. Your success depends on your commitment and belief in yourself. As someone who was initially skeptical about its effectiveness, I can attest that with proper dedication, the results one achieves are unbounded. In the end, although there is no guarantee of success, the potential rewards are immense.

Frank