Biofeedback can improve the outcome of therapy.

“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”―Thomas Jefferson

This is an article on Heart Rate Variability that I’ve written for the upcoming Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy.

Just as a healthy mind responds smoothly and appropriately, the heart should too. We can see the mind’s health in the heart’s rhythms, and we can improve the mind’s health by improving the heart’s rhythms. This can be done with biofeedback.

“High variability means greater opportunity for the organism to adapt to internal and external challenges. Consequently, reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is a predictor of disease risk, e.g., higher inflammatory state, morbidity, myocardial infarction, and mortality. HRV was found to be reduced in depression and anxiety disorders.”

Learning to regulate one’s autonomic nervous system through biofeedback is playing an increasingly important role in psychotherapy.

Rhythms

HVR

Cardio-Pulmonary Rhythm

Biofeedback and Psychotherapy

Training HRV

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