Stress can not only hurt individual employees but makes companies less productive and leads to higher health-related expenses.

But HeartMath has come up with products and services which let people manage their response to stress.

Catherine Calarco, the company’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, said during a recent interview with TMC CEO Rich Tehrani that the device and related products can help users control emotions and increase their capabilities, while also helping them manage the many changes which occur around them.

HeartMath has been around for about 20 years. The company’s institute has studied the connection between the heart and the brain.

“What we learned through the research in our program is that the outcomes associated with human love and appreciation is what transforms you,” Calarco said.

The company’s feedback device – called emWave2 – is held in the user’s hand. It uses an infrared sensor and displays the variability found in a heart rate. If someone is frustrated, their heart rhythm will look like a tracing of an earthquake. By using the device and various training techniques, users can get a rhythm that is far smoother, she said.

“That shift that you make enables you to feel better, live better,” she adds. That translates into less depression, less anxiety and fewer visits to a doctor’s office. Employers and insurance companies like the results, because they lead to lower costs.

“Anything you can do to remove or reduce your stress, you will have positive outcomes,” Calarco said.

Among the company’s products/services are webinars, classes, group sessions, coaching, biomedical testing and stress relief technology, the company said on its website.

As the company looks toward the future, it will be offering more holistic solutions, with more online training and coaching, mobile phone applications and increased use of social media, Calarco said.