Dr. Anomi Bearden

Dr. Anomi G. Bearden has been teaching Psychology since 2008 at Red Deer Polytechnic. She mostly teaches courses in social psychology, positive psychology, mindfulness, motivation & emotion, consciousness, consumerism, interpersonal relationships, and gender. Anomi brings HeartMath research and practices into nearly every class. Students find the techniques (e.g., heart focused breathing and heart lock-in) very helpful for reducing test anxiety and calming presentation nerves. In 2010 Anomi completed her PhD in Psychology (emphasis in Social Psyc). She supervises student research thesis projects (mostly applied community health projects in collaboration with various individuals and organizations interested in the promotion of health and well-being). Her main research interests include; mindfulness, self-compassion, resilience, perfectionism, social connectedness, biases (e.g., victim blame, prejudice, stigma), and social determinants of well-being such as discrimination and poverty. Much of her work focuses on applying social and positive psychology to enhance well-being in students. She has published and presented research incorporating HeartMath into elementary schools and evaluating the impact on the children's HRV and emotion regulation skills.