Do you know that your psychologist may suggest measuring your heart rate variability? The HRV (heart rate variability) It is a reliable biomarker of physical and psychological health. It is an indicator of the quality of communication between the brain and the heart, of the balance that exists between both systems.
The brain and the heart cannot live without each other, they have a bidirectional relationship. In recent times, research linked between science and cardiology has demonstrated the influence of emotional life on the development of different diseases.
On the other hand, cardiovascular disease is presented as a factor directly related to stress, anxiety, and other pathologies.
Cardiac variability and emotional balance
Cardiac variability is defined as the variation in the time intervals between one heartbeat and another.
As we have mentioned, HRV is a biological marker that provides information about the functioning of the autonomic nervous system.
A low heart rate variability (which materializes in a lack of coherence between breathing and heart rate) negatively influences our thoughts and emotions, as well as a lower body’s tolerance to stress. This imbalance makes us more vulnerable to physical illnesses related to heart health and cancer, and also to mental health problems such as depression, diabetes, and chronic pain.
For its part, a optimal cardiac variability It is a psychophysiological indicator of self-regulation, flexibility and adaptability to face stress and other emotional disorders. Adequate variability is a measure of physical and psychological well-being.
Physical and emotional well-being is reflected in flexibility in our interaction with the environment and with ourselves.
How useful can the measurement of cardiac variability be in psychological therapy?
As we have seen, a low HRV is associated with psychological suffering. If the psychologist enhances this cardiac variability to bring it closer to its optimal point, it can act favorably on the balance of the autonomic nervous system and improve the therapeutic effect.
Thus, measuring HRV at the beginning of therapy and during its development provides a reliable and objective indicator of progress in treatment.
For the patient, it is an important reinforcement to objectively verify that it can interfere with their physiological state.
Cardiac variability biofeedback
In recent years, the application of biofeedback to modulate heart rate variability has been widely studied. This technique has proven effective both in preventing different physical health problems and in treating different psychopathologies linked to the management of emotional tension. Thus, it helps people in the treatment of anxiety, stressful situations and reduces the consequences of chronic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, etc.
Cardiac variability biofeedback sessions use breathing in the resonance frequency of the organism (the specific frequency of each organism in which variability is enhanced, in which different systems “resonate”), as a means to enhance therapeutic effects and help emotional regulation.
Starting from this resonance frequency, the psychologist can resort to relaxation techniques or techniques that help with this regulation. Later, he can compare the effect of the intervention.
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