Developing a social biofeedback training system for stress management training

Abstract

Mental stress is the psychological and physiological response to a high frequency of or continuous stressors. If prolonged and not regulated successfully, it has a negative impact on health. Developing stress coping techniques, as an emotion regulation strategy, is a crucial part of most therapeutic interventions. Interactive biofeedback agents can be employed as a digital health tool for therapists to let patients train and develop stress-coping strategies. This paper presents an interactive stress management training system using biofeedback derived from the heart rate variability (HRV), with an Interactive Social Agent as an autonomous biofeedback trainer. First evaluations have shown promising results.