For the past seven years, Widener’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology has provided coursework leading to Board Certification from the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA). The program, taught by Celeste De Bease, PhD, BCB-Fellow, BCN-Fellow and by Pam Calvert-Hirt, PsyD, MBA, BCB, has led many of its graduate students to their dissertations on biofeedback, particularly Haya Al-Joudi.
Haya Al-Joudi’s dissertation will do more than just help her meet her graduate obligation; she will collect her data in her home country of Saudi Arabia. Ms. Al-Joudi reports that Saudi Arabia is considered a leading country in the region in the areas of medical advances and mental health services. However, the use of neurofeedback, a method of training brainwaves in individuals to strengthen attention and focus, is not used.
Her work is sponsored by her government through the Saudi Cultural Mission program and she will collect her data at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. “The hospital staff is very excited about my work and they will be adding me in the recruitment of appropriate subjects for my studym” reports Ms. Al-Joudi.
Ms. Al-Joudi states that it is her intention to gather evidence of the effectiveness of neurofeedback for children diagnosed with ADHD. Following her training and study at Widener University, Ms. Al-Joudi hopes to return to the region to conduct neuropsychological testing and neurofeedback with individuals diagnosed with ADHD and other neuropsychological conditions. She also plans to incorporate biofeedback techniques in therapy with these populations.
BCIA was formed as a non-profit organization in 1981 to establish and maintain professional standards for the provision of biofeedback services and to certify those who meet these standards. BCIA certification is the international gold standard for the selection of qualified biofeedback and neurofeedback professionals. Visit www.bcia.org for more information.
Material adapted from Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).
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