What is polyvagal informed therapy?
Polyvagal Therapy is a type of therapy that helps you understand and manage your body’s responses to stress and trauma. It’s based on Polyvagal Theory, which looks at how our nervous system affects how we feel, react, and connect with others. By learning to recognize and regulate your body’s automatic responses, Polyvagal Therapy helps you feel safer, more in control, and better able to handle life’s challenges.
Polyvagal Therapy is based on the idea that our nervous system controls much of how we respond to stress, danger, or comfort. When we experience trauma or chronic stress, our bodies can get "stuck" in certain stress states, like feeling constantly on edge, anxious, or disconnected. Polyvagal Therapy helps you understand these responses and teaches you ways to bring your nervous system back into balance.
The therapy focuses on the vagus nerve, a major nerve in the body that helps regulate your heart, lungs, and other organs. The vagus nerve plays a key role in how we calm down after stressful experiences, and Polyvagal Therapy works to help you use this system to feel more grounded and less reactive.
How Does Polyvagal Therapy Work?
Polyvagal Therapy helps you reconnect with your body’s natural ability to feel calm, safe, and in control. It involves understanding how your nervous system works and learning practical tools to manage stress and overwhelming emotions. The main focus areas in Polyvagal Therapy include:
Recognizing Nervous System States: You’ll learn to identify how your body reacts to different situations. For example, when you feel safe, your body is relaxed and calm. When you feel threatened or anxious, your body might go into "fight or flight" mode, which can make you feel on edge or restless. In extreme cases, you might freeze or shut down. By recognizing these states, you can start to make better choices for how to respond.
Building a Sense of Safety: Trauma often causes a feeling of safety to be disrupted, so a big part of the therapy is learning how to feel safe again—whether that’s in your body, in relationships, or in the world around you. This might involve breathing exercises, grounding techniques, or working on building trust in yourself and others.
Regulating Your Nervous System: Polyvagal Therapy teaches you simple techniques to help calm your body’s nervous system when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed. These might include deep breathing, gentle movement, or connecting with people who make you feel supported. The goal is to teach your body how to relax and feel safe again.
Improving Social Connections: Because our nervous system is connected to how we interact with others, Polyvagal Therapy also helps you improve communication and social connection. By becoming more aware of the signals you give and receive (like facial expressions or tone of voice), you can build stronger, healthier relationships and feel more secure in social situations.
Polyvagal Therapy is understood to be benifical because it recognizes that trauma and stress don’t just affect your thoughts—they affect your body too. When you experience stress, fear, or trauma, your body can get stuck in a heightened state of alertness, making it hard to relax or feel comfortable. Polyvagal Therapy helps you understand and "reset" your nervous system so you can feel calmer, more balanced, and more in control. It helps you build resilience, allowing you to respond to difficult situations without feeling overwhelmed.
What to Expect from Polyvagal Therapy
In Polyvagal Therapy, you’ll work with a therapist who will guide you through understanding your nervous system and help you find practical ways to feel better. You might learn techniques like deep breathing, grounding exercises, and ways to increase your sense of safety in your body and in relationships. Over time, you’ll become more aware of your body’s responses and gain tools to manage stress and emotions in a healthier way.
While it’s normal to feel vulnerable when dealing with past trauma or difficult emotions, Polyvagal Therapy provides a safe and supportive environment to explore these feelings and work through them. It’s an empowering therapy that helps you gain control over your nervous system and emotional responses, leading to long-lasting improvements in how you feel and interact with the world.
