Dr. Janell Mensinger discusses HRV Biofeedback, Interoceptive Sensibility & Disordered Eating

Access to the pilot study can be found at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10484-024-09621-w Link to Optimal HRV Training Series Janell Mensinger, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical and School Psychology at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Mensinger is a passionate and dedicated mentor to graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in clinical psychology and teaches courses in statistics, theories of measurement, and eating disorders. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders and has been doing research in the field eating and body concerns for over 20 years. She is widely published with over 65 peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented all over the world on topics related to her program of research, which primarily focuses on the intersection of weight stigma and disordered eating. Her research includes one of the first randomized controlled trials highlighting the importance of promoting a weight-neutral over a weight-centric approach to health and wellbeing. More recently, in search of more accessible digital interventions for individuals who are struggling with eating and body concerns, she piloted the successful use of a smartphone-based heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback app for enhancing mindful self-awareness and reducing disordered eating among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was just awarded a R16 SuRE grant from the National Institutes of Health to provide graduate students in clinical psychology with high quality research experiences investigating methods to optimize the validity of measuring mind-body phenomena. This work specifically aims to improve our understanding and measurement of interoceptive sensibility (i.e., a positive body connection and ability to adaptively read bodily cues), especially as it relates to early detection of eating disorders across the weight spectrum.