What Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Actually Tells Us
About this episode
Kathy Couch discusses respiratory sinus arrhythmia and its implications in trauma and grief therapy.
KATHY ON THE COUCH — SHOW NOTES ============================================================ Episode Code: S05E08 Release Date: 2026-04-02 URL Slug: what-respiratory-sinus-arrhythmia-actually-tells-us Series: The Polyvagal Debate — Episode 2 of 3 ============================================================ What Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Actually Tells Us The breath-linked heart rate pattern at the center of the polyvagal debate — what it measures, what it doesn't, and what that means for your clinical language. ------------------------------------------------------------ EPISODE SUMMARY ------------------------------------------------------------ Your heart rate speeds up when you inhale and slows when you exhale. That rhythm has a name — respiratory sinus arrhythmia, or RSA — and it sits at the center of one of the most important scientific debates in trauma and grief therapy right now. In this episode, Kathy Couch, LCSW, FT, breaks down what RSA actually is in plain language, what Stephen Porges says it tells us about the nervous system, and why researcher Paul Grossman argues that Porges may have overreached. This is not a takedown of polyvagal theory. It is an…
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