Heart Rate Variability training in work with trauma
2009-06-01 00:00:0026m
This paper uses a case study of a 48 years old South American client to illustrate the successful integration of HRV biofeedback with trauma counselling. This client’s clinical presentation was one of the chronic posttraumatic stress disorder complicated with chronic body pain. A combination of the HRV training, breathing exercises, mindfulness and cognitive intervention was used to address his posttraumatic stress symptoms, depressed mood and body pain.
HRV training is a form of biofeedback that helps clients to moderate the heightened sympathetic activity associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and to better balance the ongoing sympathetic and parasympathetic influence on the heart. Working directly with the body, this technique is an effective adjunct to trauma counselling. The outcome of this integrative approach was a reduction in this client’s symptoms, an increased capacity to cope with pain and a significant improvement in the quality of his life.