Learning to calm body and mind through cardiac coherence, breathing and neurofeedback, for children from age 5, teenagers and adults.
Stress is a normal reaction to a difficulty. It becomes a problem when it sets in: anxiety then shows up as persistent worries, rumination, expecting the worst and sometimes panic attacks. The body follows: a racing heart, shortness of breath, a knot in the stomach, muscle tension, sweaty palms. Chronic stress often comes with fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating and sleep problems.
In children and teenagers, anxiety can take the form of tummy aches before school, a constant need for reassurance, avoidance or angry outbursts. In adults, it weighs on both working and personal life.
Anxiety also lives in the body: the autonomic nervous system stays on alert. Biofeedback makes this alert state visible and measurable in real time: heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), breathing, muscle tension, electrodermal activity (skin conductance) and skin temperature. Guided by these measurements, you learn to slow your breathing, achieve cardiac coherence (heart coherence breathing) and release tension. Alongside this, neurofeedback works on brain activity: immediate visual or audio feedback helps the brain return to rhythms associated with calm and more balanced alertness. Together, these non-invasive, drug-free forms of training develop self-regulation, a skill that then carries over into stressful everyday situations.
Step 1
An in-depth initial interview (background, triggers, impact on daily life), questionnaires (anxiety with the BAI, sleep, attention with the SNAP-IV) and a quantitative EEG (qEEG) compared with a normative database, which guides the choice of training targets. Find out more about the programme or how the qEEG assessment works.
Step 2
A personalised protocol combining biofeedback (cardiac coherence, breathing with a respiration belt, muscle tension, electrodermal activity, temperature) with swLORETA Z-score neurofeedback (19-channel) or two-channel neurofeedback. One or two one-hour sessions a week, complemented by simple exercises to practise at home.
Step 3
Progress becomes tangible when you retake the BAI, when a mid-point qEEG assessment is compared with the initial one, and when we track how your physiological measures, such as cardiac coherence, change over the sessions. This also guides the next steps.
Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback, on which cardiac coherence is based, is the most widely studied. A meta-analysis published in Psychological Medicine (Goessl et al., 2017), pooling 24 studies and 484 participants, links it to a clear reduction in self-reported stress and anxiety, while calling for better-controlled studies. A broader meta-analysis of 58 randomised trials (Lehrer et al., 2020, Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback) finds a small-to-moderate effect, with anxiety among the outcomes showing the largest effects, and describes it as a useful complement.
The systematic review by Tolin et al. (2020), devoted to biofeedback and neurofeedback for anxiety disorders, calls for caution: these approaches do better than no intervention, but no better than active interventions or training in the opposite direction, and most studies are rated as low quality.
In France, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) guide on severe anxiety disorders (2007) mentions neither biofeedback nor neurofeedback. It favours cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and, depending on the situation, medication. It lists relaxation, breathing control and physical activity among helpful measures.
Self-regulation needs everyday practice: a few minutes of breathing exercises every day, regular physical activity, protecting your sleep, putting screens away in the evening and cutting down on caffeine. For children and teenagers, parent coaching helps parents reassure their child without reinforcing avoidance. With your consent, we work alongside your doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist. Employers can also offer this support as part of psychosocial risk prevention: see our page on businesses and occupational health. Soon, the Élan Minds app will help you keep practising between sessions.
Anxiety often goes hand in hand with other difficulties: see also our pages on sleep problems, neurofeedback and ADHD and tics and Tourette syndrome.
Children from age 5, teenagers and adults dealing with persistent anxiety, school or work-related stress, panic attacks or physical tension, with or without a diagnosis. If symptoms are intense or come with a very low mood, see your doctor first: they will refer you to the appropriate professionals. If you are in distress or having suicidal thoughts, call 3114, the national suicide prevention line (France), available 24/7.
It is a state in which the heart rate varies regularly with the breath, most often achieved by breathing slowly, at around six breaths per minute. In biofeedback, a pulse sensor lets you see live whether the exercise is working.
The typical programme involves around thirty sessions of one hour each, once or twice a week: qEEG assessment, about fifteen sessions, mid-point assessment, then about fifteen more sessions. Practising the exercises at home between sessions makes a big difference.
No. It is used in addition to medical and psychological follow-up, not instead of it. Medication, particularly anti-anxiety medication or antidepressants, should only be stopped or changed with your doctor’s agreement.
No. You can come for stress that is building up, tension or disrupted sleep, without any diagnosed disorder. The initial assessment is a chance to take stock and, if necessary, to refer you to your doctor.