Why taking a heart-centered, multi-therapeutic approach to wellness is key for your success: Bridging contemporary research and ancient technology
We now know through modern research that the heart communicates with the brain through multiple pathways:
Neural communication via the vagus nerve and sympathetic fibers
Hormonal communication via atrial natriuretic peptide and other hormones
Pressure wave information
Electromagnetic field interactions
Why do we care? Hear me out….
In my other blog posts and articles, I talk more about heart coherence, what is it, how to get it, why you want it… but here is a quick reminder of why seek heart coherence for healing and wellbeing:
When your heart achieves coherence (which includes heart-brain communication):
Physical Benefits:
Lower blood pressure
Stronger immune system
Better sleep quality
Reduced inflammation
Mental-Emotional Benefits:
Clearer thinking
Emotional stability
Increased resilience
Enhanced creativity
Performance Benefits:
Better decision-making
Improved focus
Greater intuition
Increased energy
So now you know you definitely WANT COHERENCE… and today I share more about how these 4 pathways are a structure we can apply to our understanding of why real healing is multi-modal.
Let me put it this way: Heart Coherence creates changes in 1) the nervous system, 2)hormones, 3) blood pressure “waves”*, and 4) the energy body and when we address ALL or a combination of the different pathways, we achieve greater health and wellbeing.
*Before we go further, what the heck is “Pressure wave information”?
Here’s how this works:With each heartbeat, the heart creates a pulse wave that travels through the arterial system. This isn’t just about moving blood—it’s also a mechanical signal that carries information about the heart’s state and activity.
Specialized pressure sensors called baroreceptors, detect these pressure waves constantly monitoring:
∙ The strength and pattern of each pulse
∙ Changes in blood pressure
∙ Heart rate variability
∙ The timing and rhythm of beats
This pressure wave communication is bidirectional—the brain uses this information to regulate cardiovascular function, but these signals also influence:
∙ Emotional processing and perception
∙ Pain sensitivity
∙ Cognitive performance
∙ Stress responses
∙ Interoception (awareness of internal body states)
The Four Communication Pathways
Neural Communication (Vagus Nerve & Sympathetic)The heart has approximately 40,000 neurons forming its own “little brain” (intrinsic cardiac nervous system). It sends more signals to the brain than it receives. The vagus nerve carries parasympathetic information, while sympathetic fibers carry stress/activation signals. This creates a constant dialogue about safety, threat, and physiological state that directly influences emotional tone and mental clarity.
Hormonal Communication
The heart produces ANP (atrial natriuretic peptide), which regulates blood pressure and fluid balance but also influences the amygdala and other brain regions involved in emotional processing. ANP generally acts as a brake on the body's stress response system, reducing the production of cortisol. Studies suggest ANP helps reduce anxiety and stops panic attacks by suppressing the HPA axis (the pathway that releases stress hormones).The heart also produces oxytocin (the bonding hormone) and other peptides that affect memory consolidation and stress response.
Pressure Wave Information
As we discussed, these mechanical signals create rhythmic influence on brain activity, affecting everything from pain perception to decision-making. The timing of heartbeats relative to brain processing can actually influence what we perceive and how we interpret emotional stimuli.
Electromagnetic Fields
The heart generates the body’s strongest electromagnetic field—about 60 times greater in amplitude than brain waves, detectable several feet away. This field changes with emotional states and may facilitate information transfer both within the body and potentially between people in proximity.
Why Multi-Modal Approaches Match This Physiology
Somatic Work (including acupuncture) addresses the physical body and those pressure wave patterns—breathwork, movement, and body-based practices directly influence heart rhythm, blood flow patterns, and baroreceptor signaling. Trauma often lives in the tissues, including these mechanical patterns; you can’t just “think” your way out of a dysregulated pressure wave pattern. Somatic work also directly affects the nervous system, especially the Vagus nerve and is directly tied to the polyvagal theory and trauma integration.
Energetic Practices (whether framed as qi, prana, shakti, or biofield work) is working with those electromagnetic field interactions that Western science is just beginning to measure. Heart coherence practices show measurable changes in heart rate variability and electromagnetic patterns. What traditional systems called “energy” may partially involve these measurable field effects. Qigong, energy healing, and shamanic healing are all affecting the electromagnetic system.
Parts Work (IFS, ego state therapy, etc.) acknowledges that different neural networks can hold different information and operate semi-autonomously—much like how the heart’s intrinsic nervous system operates. Different “parts” may have different associated heart patterns, hormonal states, and nervous system configurations. Integration requires dialogue between these networks.
Nervous System Regulation directly addresses the neural pathways—vagal tone, sympathetic activation, the polyvagal ladder. Since the heart-brain communication is so heavily mediated by these pathways, and since trauma often involves chronic nervous system dysregulation, this becomes foundational.
Shamanic/Spiritual Approaches often work with altered states, ritual, meaning-making, and connection to something larger. These practices can influence all four pathways simultaneously: they affect breathing and heart rhythm (pressure waves), shift emotional states (hormonal), create felt safety (neural), and can involve electromagnetic field phenomena in group ritual or healing presence.
The Synergy
Trauma is multi-layered: A traumatic memory isn’t just stored cognitively. It’s encoded in heart rate variability patterns, chronic muscle tension affecting pressure waves, hormonal baselines, electromagnetic coherence, and neural network activation. A purely cognitive approach addresses only one dimension of a four-pathway problem.
The body’s communication systems have redundancy by design. If you only work with one pathway, the others can maintain the old pattern. But when you simultaneously shift breath (pressure waves), create felt safety (neural), process the emotional narrative (parts work), and work with energy/presence (electromagnetic/field effects), you’re creating coherent change across all systems.
Different pathways access different information: Some traumatic material is pre-verbal, held in the body before the cognitive brain could process it. Somatic and energetic approaches can access this. Some healing requires narrative and meaning-making (parts work, shamanic journey). Some require physiological safety (nervous system work). The whole person needs all these dimensions addressed.
Coherence is cross-modal:
Heart coherence research shows that when these pathways synchronize—when heart rhythm, breathing, emotion, and electromagnetic patterns align—healing accelerates. Traditional practices (meditation, prayer, qigong/taiji, ritual, ecstatic states, shamanic journeying, singing/mantra/music, dance) have intuited what science is now measuring: that multi-modal synchronization creates optimal conditions for transformation.
A person is an integrated field of electromagnetic, chemical, mechanical, and neural information flows. Holistic healing honors this by working with multiple pathways simultaneously, creating the conditions for the whole system to reorganize into greater coherence and health.
If you are wanting more traction on your health or making positive changes in your life, then taking a synergistic, heart-centered approach is key!
This is how I work in the clinic and in my programs.
Guided Somatic Parts Work Journeys
Acupuncture with hands on energy healing and shamanic work
Soul care shamanic healing with at home integration practices
Addressing blocks to meditation and other wellness practices
and more…