Products - CDs

Passive Muscle Relaxation and Self-Generated Relaxation

By Mark S. Schwartz, Ph.D. and Stephen N. Haynes, Ph.D.

The relaxation audiotape and CD that Guilford Publications started publishing for me more than 30 years ago and used extensively for 3 decades at Mayo Clinic remains available.

Description from www.guilford.com: “Available as a CD or an audiocassette, this invaluable program is ideal for use with biofeedback patients or others seeking to improve general stress management. Listeners learn to use straightforward thought techniques to promote tension release without any physical effort. Part 1, Passive Muscle Relaxation, offers well-structured guidance for relaxing major muscles. Part 2, Self-Generated Relaxation, allows more flexible practice in body scanning for residual stress and discovering one’s formula for relief.”

Source: www.guilford.com

[http://www.guilford.com/books/Passive-Muscle-Relaxation/Schwartz-Haynes/9781606230367 Catalog #2817C for CD and #2817 for audio cassette]

Uses: For persons who need or want to learn relaxation to help prevent or reduce a wide variety of symptoms or whose health care professionals have recommended relaxation for various symptoms.

History: I originally developed this tape in the early 1970s at the Mayo Clinic. Stephen N. Haynes, Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University, wrote the original script for track 1. He had published research on the positive effects of relaxation with his script for sleep onset insomnia. He graciously accepted my request for the script. I modified it to fit my style and preferences. I developed an additional script called Self-Generated Relaxation based on Autogenic Therapy phrases but significantly altered and designed to meet my preferences, style, and the needs of some of my patients. I used reproduced copies of this audio cassette tape for my patients after a couple of years. Most of the patients lived hundreds or thousands of miles away. Other people (family members, friends, or others) who knew my patients started asking for copies. I could not provide tapes to them as they were not my patients, and neither I nor the Mayo Clinic were in the business of selling tapes. Some patients also wanted to buy extra copies to give to others or to have as backups to use in their second homes and when traveling. I had no way to provide such tapes.

I contacted a new company [Biomonitoring Applications (BMA)] that produced cassette tapes for professionals and patients. That company eventually became Guilford Publications when they expanded the scope of their publications and added new ownership and executives. Before BMA published a revised version of the scripts, Dr. Haynes and I edited our script based on his years of experience with it in research and my clinical experience. We improved it, and BMA published it in 1978 (revised again in 1982) along with a revised track 2. The publication allowed other people to obtain the tape. I used it in my clinical practice until the present. I provided it to many thousands of patients over many years. Eventually, the CD version was published when it became increasingly apparent that more patients had CD players and fewer had cassette tape players.

Additional Reasons for this CD/Tape: In addition to making these scripts and the tape/CD available to more people, there were other reasons for developing them.

Progressive muscle relaxation involves tense-release procedures, but the ultimate goal is for people to release tension without tensing first. Many people can already release muscle tension sufficiently without first tensing them. Many people should not tense muscles as part of relaxation because tensing can aggravate some symptoms, such as pain and other muscle tension-related symptoms.

Furthermore, it was my experience that many of my patients did not like or feel comfortable with the wording of Autogenic Therapy/Training. The wording was too absolute, declarative, and directive. It did not capture the process of gradually increasing the relaxation sensations such as heaviness and warmth. Thus, I modified the wording to be less directive and capture more of the gradual process.

Many experts in relaxation agree that patients/clients benefit more from learning multiple types of relaxation and combining some with which they are most comfortable to get the best results.

There are many relaxation tapes available. There is no good evidence of superiority between tapes or CDs, and very little research compares different tapes and CDs.

Practitioners and users should often try multiple procedures on various tapes or CDs. This tape/CD is a prudent addition to a desired set.

Instructions [See Patient/Client Health Education]:

I typically recommend that persons learn at least passive muscle relaxation, self-generated relaxation, and relaxed breathing. The instructions that I provide to persons are in:

[See Using Relaxation CD/tape and Relaxed Breathing in Patient Education section]

FAQs regarding CD:

Q: Can I buy a copy of this CD from Dr. Schwartz instead of Guilford?

A: Yes, I can sell copies of the CD but the price is a little higher from me ($20). If you are one of my patients, I can provide you with a CD at this price.

Q: Should I get this CD if I already have other relaxation CDs?

A: Probably. If you are reading this, you may be less than ideally satisfied with your current relaxation procedures. Adding this will not necessarily provide the solution but might give additional ideas and benefits.

Q: is using relaxation CDs more or less beneficial than, or the same as, “live” or “face-to-face” instructions from a professional?

A: This is a debatable question; good professionals support various views. I wrote a chapter about this topic in Biofeedback: A Practitioner’s Guide (2nd Ed.). I am not saying that you need to read that chapter, although it describes the issues well. A detailed discussion is beyond the present space. In summary, a considerable percentage of people can use CDs with additional instructions about their use to learn relaxation sufficiently to accomplish their goals of improved management of their symptoms. They need to be well motivated, have sufficient and necessary information, and persist in using the CD over many weeks or months. That often makes more sense when considering a stepped-care approach, thus starting with less complicated and less expensive yet credible and useful procedures before more involved and costly methods. Having said this and having practiced from this perspective for 40 years, I also know that some persons need individual, face-to-face, hence “live” instructions in a professional’s office.

Q: Are these relaxation procedures available electronically, via a linked downloadable file, or on a flash drive?

A: Guilford Press kindly permitted me to provide flash drives to my patients. The charge is the same as for a CD, and I pay Guilford as if I had bought a CD from them. They allowed this at least temporarily for those patients who do not have CD players, as they are fast becoming obsolete. I hoped electronic downloads would become available for a fee from Guilford Press or on this website, but that never happened.

(Written by Mark S. Schwartz, Ph.D.)