In this final episode of the transition back to normal series, Jeff and Matt examine the importance of health and wellness during a transition into the new normal and a post-covid reality.

One of our goals at Optimal HRV was to bring heart rate variability to everyday folks and not just elite athletes. In this episode, Jeff and Matt discuss their HRV through the good times and tough ones. Plus, we look at Matt’s data during burnout and after his vaccination.

In this episode, Jeff Somers and Matt discuss the nature of stress and trauma and the need to focus on recovery as we transition into a "new normal."

Back from our adventures in the Wayback machine, Jeff and Matt update listeners on the journey since the Trauma-Informed Lens podcast series on heart rate variability. Hear how Matt's interest turned to frustration with existing apps. Then how his frustration led him to ask Jeff to help create a solution to realize the potential of the exciting science on HRV.

In our final episode in the way back machine heart rate variability (HRV) series, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine the connection between HRV, self-regulation, and psychosocial well-being. We also reflect on the entire series and crucial lessons learned about trauma’s impact on critical biomarkers. Is HRV the next major step forward in education, psychology, and medicine?

This week's article: Cardiac Coherence, self regulation, autonomic stability

Another trip back in the way back machine! In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry discuss how trauma-related symptoms have been demonstrated to impede the establishment of an effective working alliance between therapist and client. In the article we discuss today, researchers provide some conceptual framework and empirical data that suggest a strong relationship between autonomic regulation and working alliance between therapists and clients seeking trauma-focused treatment. This also leads to a discussion of the impact autonomic regulation on the formation of effective interpersonal communication, connection, trust, and shared goals that are required for cooperative interactions in other contexts.

This week's article: Physiological predictors of Working Alliance

Matt's favorite episode! Matt, Jerry, and Curt hit the pause button and dig deeper into what we’ve covered so far in our heart rate variability series. What does this all mean for our own health, our programming, and how we view trauma. We explore what it all means in this episode.

Another trip in the way back machine! In this episode, Matt, Jerry, and Curt continue our exploration of trauma and heart rate variability. This week we explore the relationship between stressful life events, heart rate variability, and social engagement. Our conversation explores how this research applies to programming and treatment to help people recover and heal from trauma.

Article for this week: High cardiac control protects against future depressive symptoms under conditions of high social support

This episode continues to explore Matt's journey into HRV! Conditioned fear responses and learning safety cues are critical components of both the etiology of trauma-related dysfunction and recovery from traumatic experiences.  Can inter-individual differences in physiological measures predict our ability to extinguish conditioned fear responses and to learn new safety cues?   In this episode, Matt, Jerry & Curt discuss an article describing a study that asked these very questions.

You can download the article here.

We continue our deep dive into HRV with Curt and Jerry. Building on the discussion from last week related to research demonstrating the impact of chronic pain (stress) on heartbeat dynamics, in this week’s episode we discuss the physiology of the anxiety response from a research project investigating differences in HPA Axis and Heart Rate responsiveness among neurotypical children and children with autism with and without co-occurring anxiety.

Article for this Podcast: Differences in HPA-axis and heart rate 2014