There are two sets of learning outcomes:
Overall learning objectives and Program-Specific objectives.
Overall Learning Objectives
Students acquire interdisciplinary knowledge and counseling skills that provide for client-centered solutions to health and performance issues that require physiological reprogramming solutions, that is, applications of behavioral analysis and behavior modification to physiology. Health and performance issues, seemingly exclusively a question of “treatment,” are frequently misidentified and inadequately addressed as a result of failure to realize and identify the psychological or behavioral nature of physiology itself. School interdisciplinary educational offerings provide for a more comprehensive understanding of these issues where focus is on possible behavioral learning solutions along with “treatment” if so indicated.
The overall objectives include:
(1) understanding that much of physiology is behavior and that physiology is a learning system that self-configures based on the outcomes of its own actions;
(2) applying interdisciplinary thinking and results-oriented problem solving to develop and implement behavioral solutions to health and performance problems that require input from diverse sources;
(3) helping clients understand and play their own role in managing and overcoming their own dysfunctional physiological habits, and
(4) integrating new learning services into existing or new professional practices or businesses.
Certification as a Breathing Behavior Analyst
This certification program qualifies healthcare practitioners, human service professionals, performance consultants, and health educators to: (1) assess breathing habits and their effects on health and performance based on the principles of behavior analysis, 2) assist clients in managing and/or overcoming dysfunctional breathing habits that compromise physiology, psychology, and performance based on the principles of behavior modification, (3) assist clients in improving physical, behavioral, and psychological performance, and (4) use capnography and related instrumentation for assisting their clients in identifying and overcoming dysfunctional breathing habits.
The specific objectives include teaching colleague practitioners how to: (1) determine whether there are dysfunctional breathing habits, (2) identify the learned behavioral components of dysfunctional habits, (3) identify the symptoms and deficits brought on by habits, (4) determine how existing health conditions may interact with physiological effects of habits, (5) identify the triggers of breathing habits (e.g., pain), (6) identify the outcomes (reinforcements) and emotions that keep breathing habits in place, (7) uncover the origin of habits, and (8) assist patients in overcoming dysfunctional habits and learning new ones that are consistent with good physiology, especially respiration.
Professional Diploma Program in Breathing Behavior Sciences
The fundamental program outcome of this Professional Diploma program is to prepare colleagues in diverse healthcare and performance disciplines to help people improve health and performance through the application of behavioral learning principles to breathing physiology. This means learning interdisciplinary subject matter relevant to both behavioral science (e.g., breathing habit analysis) and physiology (e.g., acid-base regulation and the effects of its compromise).
Students learn (1) to apply the principles of applied behavior analysis to identify dysfunctional breathing habits and their effects (symptoms, deficits, and interactions), behavioral components such as triggers, motivations, outcomes that sustain them, and histories; (2) to apply the principles of behavior modification for disengaging dysfunctional breathing habits and learning new habits that improve health and performance; (3) to focus their clients on learning solutions, that is, their clients’ own role in identifying, managing, and overcoming dysfunctional breathing habits; (4) to communicate effectively about the relevance and importance of breathing services to colleagues, clients, and the community at large; (5) to prepare their own business plan for marketing their new services within their own businesses and/or within the framework of their employers or others; and (6) to draw upon evidenced-based literature for helping themselves (and their colleagues) to evolve their practices based on continuing advancements in relevant sciences.