Page 25 - NAMAH Oct 2015
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Namah Notes on counselling
inence, stress-linked hair-loss and benzo- and release tension, abilities that usually are
diazepine abuse). Surprisingly, our subjects not under one’s voluntary control. Once this
who had a combination of acupuncture and ability became an ingrained habit after a
psychotropic drugs had shown a high degree dozen biofeedback sessions, one could invoke
of compliance and we could render our that behaviour whenever needed, to subside
acupuncture services for nearly twenty years one’s pain.
till our acupuncturist retired.
We used three types of relaxation-training
Biofeedback as an adjunct depending upon the receptivity and
preference of the subject; progressive
In chronic pain syndromes, acupuncture as muscular relaxation, guided imagery or
an adjunct did not have as spectacular a silencing the mind, a variant of mind-
success as in acute first-time presentations ; fulness. All our subjects received drugs too.
pain would be significantly reduced but We found biofeedback to be a useful adjunct
needed periodic sessions at least twice a year. except in cases where the subjects were
This led me to start biofeedback sessions too compelled to lead rustic lifestyles. We
as an additional adjunct in selected cases. continued with this homemade machine for
Biofeedback is a device that allows subjects five years till Dr A.S. Dalal gifted me his
to alleviate their own pain by means of sophisticated biofeedback kit that he had
instruments sensitive to small fluctuations been using at the Oregon Mental Health Center,
in bodily conditions. The subject has to USA before he finally shifted to the Ashram
monitor and fine-tune the connections at Pondicherry.
between emotions and health.
The retirement of my acupuncturist, the late
Three decades back, we had no biofeedback Benuda (Benu Dasgupta) also ended the
machines that could be purchased in experiment we ran. Retrospectively, I feel that
Calcutta, so we constructed one with Benuda had a personality that also went a
teenage enthusiasm after procuring a long way in giving a healing touch to his
sketch of the biofeedback circuit. We subjects. He had a remarkable life; he grew
decided to monitor sweat gland activity up at the Ashram in Pondicherry where
through a GSR biofeedback. We had sensors he returned after retirement for his final
to monitor tiny changes in concentration of departure, learnt physiotherapy at CMC,
salt and water in the sweat gland ducts and Vellore, learnt acupuncture from the
translated back the tension into both sound legendary Dr Bijoy Basu, associate of Dr.
and a flashy computer generated graph. If Kotnis, sharpened his acupuncture skills in
one were taught to relax, the readings from China where he had fled as a Naxalite, but
the electrodes dropped from somewhere like above all he was a dramatist and when as a
7 to 3 micro volts. In ordinary life, one is not youngster, he had come away from the
aware of these small changes but with a Ashram, the Mother had recommended him
biofeedback device, one could do fine-tuning to the late Mr. Ajit Basu, a devotee and a
so that one became aware of the ability to famous producer of films renowned for his
voluntarily enhance one’s own blood flow flair in acting. We utilised Benuda’s talent in
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