Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) is a condition characterised by episodes of abnormally fast heart rate. While SVT is rarely life-threatening, the experience of an episode, a sudden, racing, pounding heart that can come without warning, can be terrifying. And the aftermath, the waiting, the hyper-vigilance, the fear of when it might happen again, can be just as difficult as the episodes themselves.
For some people, SVT becomes a condition that quietly reshapes their life. They begin to avoid situations, places, or activities that might trigger an episode. They become acutely attuned to every heartbeat. They find it difficult to trust their own body. Relationships, work, and daily life can all be affected and yet, because SVT is not visible and is often dismissed as "not serious," many people feel alone with the psychological weight of it. I come with my personal experience of living with SVT and know how lonely you can feel in your fear. You are not alone. And the psychological impact of SVT is real, valid, and treatable.
Who This Support Is For
I offer psychological support for:
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People living with SVT who are struggling with the emotional and psychological impact of the condition
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Partners, family members, and loved ones of someone with SVT, witnessing episodes, managing fear and worry, and navigating the impact on your relationship and family life
Many people who come to me are functioning well on the outside, but carrying a level of fear, vigilance, or exhaustion that is quietly affecting their quality of life.
What We Might Work On
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Health anxiety — persistent worry about your heart, symptoms, and physical sensations
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Fear of episodes — anticipatory anxiety and hypervigilance between episodes
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Body distrust — difficulty trusting your body after repeated frightening experiences
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Avoidance — withdrawing from activities, exercise, travel, social situations or work out of fear
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Adjustment to diagnosis — coming to terms with a chronic cardiac condition and what it means for your life and identity
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Impact on relationships — the strain SVT can place on partnerships, family dynamics, and intimacy
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Low mood and grief — mourning the life or sense of freedom you had before SVT
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Managing uncertainty — living well alongside a condition that cannot always be predicted or controlled
Practical Information
Sessions are available in person in Leidschenveen, The Hague (Den Haag), and online via Zoom for clients anywhere in the world. Given the specialist nature of this work, the majority of SVT support sessions take place online, allowing people to access this support regardless of where they are based.
All sessions are up to 60 minutes.
Session fees:
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Standard Rate: €80 (online and in person)
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Reduced Rate: €70 (online only)
A free 20-minute initial consultation is available to all new clients.
In addition to individual sessions, I also offer support groups for SVT. Visit the Events & Groups page to see what is coming up.
SVT related FAQ
Can therapy help with SVT anxiety?
Yes, and for many people with SVT, psychological support can be transformative. While therapy cannot change the electrical activity of your heart, it can significantly change your relationship with SVT and the anxiety that surrounds it.
Many people with SVT develop a pattern of hypervigilance, constantly monitoring their heartbeat, avoiding situations that might trigger an episode, and living in a state of low-level fear between episodes. Over time this vigilance itself becomes exhausting and limiting, and can actually heighten the body's sensitivity to stress and arousal, making episodes feel more frequent or more frightening than they might otherwise be.
Therapeutic approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and mindfulness-informed work have strong evidence for reducing health anxiety, building tolerance of uncertainty, and helping people reclaim their lives alongside a chronic cardiac condition. Many of my clients with SVT report that while the episodes themselves have not disappeared, they no longer feel controlled by the fear of them.
Is SVT a mental health condition?
No, SVT is a cardiac condition caused by abnormal electrical signals in the heart. It is a physical, medical diagnosis and should always be assessed and managed by a cardiologist or cardiac specialist.
However, the psychological impact of living with SVT is very real. The unpredictability of episodes, the frightening physical sensations, and the uncertainty about when the next one might occur can lead to significant anxiety, avoidance, low mood, and a reduced quality of life. These psychological responses are not a sign of weakness, they are a natural human response to living with something frightening and uncontrollable.
Therapy does not treat SVT itself. It treats the very understandable psychological consequences of living with it and in doing so, can make a profound difference to how you feel day to day.
How does health anxiety make SVT worse?
This is one of the most important questions for anyone living with SVT to understand because anxiety and SVT can create a particularly vicious cycle.
When we are anxious, our sympathetic nervous system, the fight-or-flight response activates. This causes the heart rate to increase, adrenaline to surge, and the body to become highly sensitised to physical sensations. For someone with SVT, this heightened state can lower the threshold for an episode, making one more likely. The episode then confirms the fear of "something is wrong with my heart", which increases anxiety further, which increases physiological arousal, which makes the next episode more likely.
Beyond triggering episodes, anxiety also amplifies how frightening they feel. A racing heart that might objectively last two minutes can feel catastrophic when experienced through the lens of fear and hypervigilance.
Breaking this cycle is at the heart of the therapeutic work I do with SVT clients. By reducing the anxiety response, building tolerance of physical sensations, and developing a calmer relationship with the body, it becomes possible to interrupt the cycle, not by eliminating SVT, but by significantly reducing its grip on your life.
Is individual therapy or the SVT support group better for me?
Both offer valuable but different kinds of support and for some people, a combination of the two works best.
Individual therapy is the right choice if you want dedicated, private space to explore your personal experience of SVT in depth. It allows us to work at your pace, focus on your specific history, patterns, and concerns, and tailor the therapeutic approach entirely to you. Individual sessions are particularly well suited to people experiencing significant health anxiety, panic, avoidance, or whose SVT is having a serious impact on daily functioning, relationships, or work.
The SVT support group offers something different, the experience of being genuinely understood by others who are living with the same condition. Many people with SVT have never met anyone else who has it, and the relief of being in a room with people who truly get it can be profound. The group also provides psychoeducational tools and practical strategies in an accessible, affordable format. It is a good fit for people who feel relatively stable but want ongoing support, connection, and skills or for those who are curious about therapy but not yet ready for individual work.
Not sure which is right for you? The free initial consultation is a good place to start. We can talk through your situation together and I can help you decide which format or combination would suit you best.