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    Did you know the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart?

    Biofeedback is beneficial in treating symptoms of anxiety, depression, trauma and more

    What the heart signals, its pattern, rhythm, and activity, can have a significant impact on your brain’s function, influencing your perception, how you think and feel, your performance, and more. 

    Your brain continuously processes the information in the hypothalamus, where your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) sends signals to. The ANS is the system that automatically regulates certain bodily processes, such as heart rate, and is split into two components: sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Your sympathetic nervous system is also known as the fight or flight response, and the parasympathetic nervous system is the relaxation response. Feelings and emotions directly impact your heart rate, which impacts the messages your brain receives, which impacts your ANS. Your body’s fight or flight and relaxation systems may begin to respond inappropriately, impacting your Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which impacts overall wellbeing.

    HRV is the variation in the time interval between consecutive heartbeats and is a marker of physiological resilience and behavioral flexibility. One’s feelings and emotions are found to be a significant factor in one’s heart rate. Depleting emotions, such as stress and anger, show a more irregular and erratic rhythm, what scientists call an incoherent pattern. Positive emotions, such as love, compassion, and appreciation, show a coherent pattern. Coherent means the two systems in your ANS are synchronized and working together harmoniously, whereas incoherent means your ANS systems are unbalanced and out-of-sync with each other. Research shows different patterns of heart activity have different effects on cognitive and emotional functioning, and one can work on controlling these patterns through Biofeedback.

    So, what is Biofeedback? With the use of electronic monitoring, you learn ways to train and control certain bodily processes that typically happen involuntarily, such as heart rate. Biofeedback has proven to be beneficial in the relief of many issues, including anxiety, depression, trauma, insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure, stress, addiction, and more. There are different variations of Biofeedback therapy; Minds In Action Counseling provides an opportunity for you to gain increased heart rhythm coherence with the use of HeartMath™. 

    The HeartMath® Institute has over 25 years of research showing the connection between the heart and brain and how one’s thoughts and behaviors are impacted by different patterns of heart activity. Their non-invasive techniques help you manage stress, revitalize energy, restore mental and emotional balance, help build resiliency, and reach what is called coherent heart rhythm. During your Biofeedback sessions, we display your HRV as you learn effective techniques to adapt to regulating emotions, moving from incoherence to coherence. 

     

     

    What We Offer

    Learn how to incorporate your heart’s intelligence within your day-to-day experiences, with the support of Minds In Action Counseling’s therapist Abby. Abby holds a HeartMath™ Clinical Certification for Stress, Anxiety, and Emotional Regulation, and she will guide you as you improve your HRV. Learn self-regulation techniques and emotional management to neutralize and replace stressful emotions, improve your emotional resilience, and work on resetting old patterns, as you view and track your heart activity and move towards coherence, through one of our paths: 

    1. Biofeedback as a standalone option, where you will: learn techniques for self-regulation and emotional management, neutralize and replace stressful emotions that deplete health and emotional resilience, work on resetting old patterns, and improve your overall coherence.

    2. Individual Therapy incorporating Biofeedback within their psychotherapy sessions; clients have the ability to view and track their heart activity, while working on individualized therapy goals.

    Biofeeback treatment

    8-12 sessions recommended based on clients' needs and goals

    Individual Therapy

    Incorporating Biofeedback into individualized goals and sessions.

    Heart Rate Variability (HRV) reflects the ability to adapt effectively to stress and environmental demands.

    By using the tools and techniques, clients may gain a greater self-regulation, a new perspective, and start to look for and find more coherent solutions to past ineffective thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

    Improving your well-being is one call away