◄     MECHANICAL CHALLENGES ►

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Asking you client to slow down their breathing will often result in overbreathing. More time between breaths may lead to concern about getting enough air, and then to overcompensation with breaths that are too large.

EXAMPLE OF ASKING CLIENT TO SHOW DOWN BREATHING

                                                                                                          Slower breathing, as a discriminative (S^D) stimulus,

 may implicitly and unconsciously trigger internal

 dialogue (operant behaviour) about the need for taking

 in more air, leading quickly to hypocapnia. The

 effects of hypocapnia may then reinforce the false

 belief (cognitive behaviour) about not being able to get

 enough air. It may also trigger classically

 conditioned emotion, such as anxiety, which serves

 to motivate deeper breathing (operant behaviour) and

 then provide for its reinforcement with fear reduction.

Vicious circle behaviour may be set in motion.

EXAMPLE OF DEREGULATION BASED ON RATE CHALLENGES

                                                                                                          A standard mechanical challenge is the breathing

 rate challenge, where clients are asked to breathe

 at different rates by tracking a moving ball on a

 breathing template displayed by CapnoTrainer

 software that regulates rate as preset by the

 practitioner. This kind of evaluation constitutes a

 discovery process, where consciousness of

 mechanics may reveal the basis for deregulation.

Successfully maintaining healthy levels of PCO₂

means regulating based on experience of physical

 and mental changes associated with chemistry

 changes, rather than on interpretations, cognitive

 and emotional, of mechanical changes.

Copyrighted by Behavioral Physiology Institute, Boulder, Colorado USA