Psychotherapy & Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback

Psychotherapy is a gift that you give yourself when you feel stuck, overwhelmed, disconnected or have a sense of dis-ease. If I have the privilege of working with you, you can expect to be deeply listened to, validated, challenged and cared for without judgement. The work we do together will be tailored to your unique needs and goals. I provide psychotherapy and biofeedback that incorporates the brain, mind, heart, emotions, behaviours, somatic (physical) sensations, spirituality and other visceral dimensions. Psychotherapy and bio-feedback can help you to shift and change your psychological and physiological centre of gravity. Psychotherapy sessions with me will help you to feel safer and emotionally regulated, experience an increase in self-awareness, feel embodied, connect deeper to your parts and Self.

I work with individuals and couples with a wide array of issues including:

  • Anxiety, panic and hyperarousal

  • Depression, dissociation and hypoarousal

  • Suicidality and self-harm

  • Chronic stress, nervous system dysregulation and burnout

  • Pregnancy and postpartum mood challenges

  • Parenting and caregiving stress

  • Adoption preparation & adjustment

  • Trauma – developmental, intergenerational, vicarious, systemic, collective

  • Attachment, relationship, communication and intimacy issues

  • Addictions

  • Illness and chronic pain

  • Loss and grief

  • Psychedelic preparation, integration and harm reduction

What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Feedback?

Biofeedback is a type of intervention that helps the person using it to learn how to control psychophysiological processes occurring in their body. During biofeedback, you are connected to electrical devices like sensors; the biofeedback helps you make subtle changes and have immediate information (feedback) about how what you are practicing is impacting your brain-body functioning. Increasing intentional control over our physiology by repeatedly practicing certain skills teaches our brain-body to create those effects by itself. With intentional, consistent, and sustained practice, our brain-body begins functioning in the ways we desire. Biofeedback can help you to unlearn unhelpful patterns and establish news ones that improve your psychophysiology and wellbeing.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures the naturally occurring variability in the length of time between each heartbeat. The variability is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the ANS’ main function is homeostasis (balance and stability). HRV also provides information about the degree to which your heart rate corresponds and changes based on your breathing. Why does this matter?  Because HRV is a good measure of the balance between our sympathetic (fight/flight), parasympathetic dorsal vagal (freeze/submit/feign death) and parasympathetic ventral vagal (rest/digest/safe/social) branches of the ANS. Training to improve our HRV will positively impact the balance between our sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS. There is no “good” or “bad” branch of the nervous and when those branches are in balance, we experience a sense of coherence and wellbeing. When we chronically activate the sympathetic branch or the dorsal vagal parasympathetic branch, we can experience burnout, feel emotionally dysregulated, numb, trapped, panicked (and a many other difficult emotional and physical states). I use HeartMath’s emWave Pro HRV monitor and like to incorporate HRV biofeedback training and breathwork into psychotherapy sessions as it is a useful bottom-up approach shown to have favourable outcomes in healing from chronic stress and the impacts of trauma. If you’re interested in learning more about HRV biofeedback, book a free consult.

Interested in reading some of the research into HRV?

“Years as a healer and trauma therapist have taught me that trauma isn’t destiny. The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience and a sense of flow.”
— Resmaa Menakem