BCIA Affiliates (Australia & Hispanoamerica)

BCIA’s Affiliate Program was developed in recognition of the fact that cultural and regulatory differences in other countries impact the adoption of international standards for biofeedback training, continuing education, and board certification.  The BCIA Board Certification program was built and anchored in the United States and drafted in accordance with US health care standards.  These standards, while fundamentally sound, may not always seamlessly fit with health care models in other countries.  The affiliate program provides an opportunity for partnership between BCIA and a professional biofeedback or neurofeedback organization outside of the United States and Canada, allowing the two organizations to collaborate on the development of standards and requirements that make sense for a particular country, while upholding educational and training rigor.  The affiliate organization must endorse and comply with the foundational principles of BCIA, and its training and certification program may not be specific to a particular brand of equipment or theory.

The affiliate certification follows the basic BCIA format that requires (1) a prerequisite educational degree, (2) human anatomy/physiology and didactic course work, (3) mentoring to learn the application of clinical skills, and (4) a psychometrically validated written certification exam. All affiliate certifications are based on the BCIA Blueprints of Knowledge and exams but may allow for variations in other standards to be culturally relevant.  For example, these variations might involve allowing the board of the affiliate biofeedback organization to establish its own prerequisites for education or license/credential for independent practice.  Also, the affiliate may elect to use BCIA Professional Standards and Ethical Principles of Biofeedback, some version of this document, or it may decide to draft its own as fits with their country’s regulatory and health care model.  BCIA’s vision for the Affiliate Certification is that it will encourage biofeedback and neurofeedback certification worldwide, maintain the integrity of the credential, and increase its international relevance and recognition.

Special announcement regarding BCIA's previous affiliation with BCIA-S (Spain):

We have been involved for a long time in attempting to allow the relationship between SEBINE, BCIA-S and BCIA to mature and provide our colleagues in Spain a more pertinent and personal path to the benefits of BCIA certification. We had been challenged to fully ascertain if our mission and values were being clearly and fully integrated, and we arrived at the conclusion that such an arraignment is not feasible at this time.

Therefore, the Board has made the difficult decision to dismantle the BCIA-Spain affiliation. All materials currently linking the two organizations are to be removed from all advertising and promotions by SEBINE or any other organizations. We will be removing any information from our website that refers to our relationship with BCIA-S as an affiliate.

You may be concerned with what this may mean for your current BCIA certification.  We are happy to tell you that nothing important will change!  You will maintain your certification with the only difference being that you will need to work with BCIA solely for questions about recertification, etc.  Our staff is always happy to help you and to answer any questions or concerns.  If some of you may feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish, we are happy to arrange for you to send your questions through the staff at BCIA-H.

Please watch your emails as we often send out notices about virtual training opportunities where you can continue to learn without traveling to a different location.  Questions?  Please contact us at [email protected].