A Truly Holistic Approach: HRV Biofeedback & Lifestyle Intervention
Danielle Matto, MA
1-day workshop
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Language: English
Workshop Title
A Truly Holistic Approach: HRV Biofeedback & Lifestyle Intervention
Workshop Description
Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the variation in time intervals between successive heartbeats. It is an important indicator of psychological and physiological health and a predictor of health span.
Healthy living is often associated with good sleep, healthy food and sufficient exercise. However, studies on longevity have identified social engagement and meaningful living as equally important. Add to these insights the importance of body awareness and self-regulation skills and we have the basis of a powerful holistic approach to prevent disease and facilitate recover: the My Lifestyle Power model.
The relationship between HRV and lifestyle is two-way:
1) a healthy lifestyle helps to increase HRV
2) a high HRV leads to better autonomic functioning resulting in better sleep, a higher fitness level and an improved ability to relax and recover.
In this practical workshop you will learn how HRV biofeedback can be used to show the effect of daily activities on the autonomic nervous system, providing actionable insights that inspire positive lifestyle changes. In addition, you will learn how to use HRV biofeedback to teach self-regulation skills and to improve autonomic functioning. As a last ingredient to this holistic approach the psychology of behavioural change is discussed with insights from the polyvagal theory, providing lots of practical tips and insights that you can use to guide your clients in the process of sustainable healthy behavioral change.
Learning Objectives
Participants in this workshop will learn:
- 1) the two-way relationship between HRV and lifestyle
2) to improve HRV as a self-regulation skill and to create a durable improvement of autonomic functioning
3) how to combine HRV measurements with lifestyle interventions
4) holistic approach to behavioural change
About Danielle Matto
Danielle Matto works as a holistic oriented psychologist and BCIA certified biofeedback therapist (BCB-HRV) in mental healthcare. In her private practice she offers short-term treatment, combining general biofeedback, HRV biofeedback and audiovisual entrainment with psychological techniques (ACT, solution focused therapy, stress management). For the last couple of years, she added lifestyle and motivational interviewing to the mix. She treats patients with depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, stress, burnout, IBS and hypertension. From the beginning of her career, she is fascinated by biofeedback: “the power of showing your client the effect on the body of changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviour is enormous. It is the best way to create awareness of your autonomic state and to learn internal self-regulation skills: the ability to adjust your psychophysiological state to the demands of the situation and to be able to recover from autonomic imbalance”. In addition to her clinical work she is a teacher and BCIA accredited mentor. She has been actively involved in the Biofeedback Federation of Europe from its founding in 1995 till 2012. She remains a member of the BFE advisory board.
