Deb Dana - Polyvagal Theory Made Simple

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This episode provides a basic introduction into the core ideas of polyvagal theory. You'll learn about co-regulation, trauma, and the power of finding your anchor.
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The autonomic nervous system is at the heart of daily living powerfully shaping experiences of safety and influencing the capacity for connection. Polyvagal Theory, through the organizing principles of hierarchy, neuroception, and co-regulation, has revolutionized our understanding of how this system works. We now know that trauma interrupts the development of autonomic regulation and shapes the system away from connection into patterns of protection. For many clients, states of fight, flight, and collapse are frequent, intense, and prolonged while the state of safety and connection is elusive. Their autonomic nervous systems now respond in characteristic post-traumatic patterns of hyperarousal, hypervigilance, disconnection, and numbing.
A Polyvagal approach uses an updated map of the autonomic circuits that underlie behaviors and beliefs so clinicians can reliably lead their clients out of adaptive survival responses into the autonomically regulated state of safety that is necessary for successful treatment. Polyvagal Theory gives clinicians a guide to help clients safely tune into their autonomic states, reshape their nervous systems, and rewrite the trauma stories that are carried in their autonomic pathways.
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This session was recorded as part of "A Day on Trauma" Conference in August 2020. To access the full conference package, as well as supporting materials, quizzes, and certification, please visit: theweekenduniversity.com/lect...
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Deb Dana, LCSW is a clinician and consultant specializing in working with complex trauma. She is a consultant to the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium in the Kinsey Institute, Clinical Advisor to Khiron Clinics, and an advisor to Unyte. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally on ways Polyvagal Theory informs work with trauma survivors. Deb is the author of The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices, co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies, and creator of the Polyvagal Flip Chart. For more information, please see: rhythmofregulation.com
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Links:
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- Deb Dana’s website: www.rhythmofregulation.com/
- Deb Dana’s books: amzn.to/3lkgTUO

[@janetharrison9239]

Wow ur voice was so calming and inviting it made feel really safe

[@Shri-laya]

Thank you so much for this useful educational material. The video of you was too small to get cues of safety or threat - but your voice definitely demonstrated the calming and co-regulating effect you talked about. I learned a lot and I am very grateful for it 🙏

[@Babka113]

5:51 the sound and rhythm of your voice is sending such a strong message of safety that I’m getting lulled to sleep😂❤

[@CM-yo9jk]

I was just thinking that as she was talking - how much benefit there is from a soothing & calm voice. You will have come across asmr. If not, have a google. xx

[@scotthawkins8707]

That was wonderful and new information that everyone can use that wants to help themselves and live better in this world. Thank you so very much for presenting it so concisely. aloha

[@nononsense6305]

Loved this presentation! Thank you

[@Dr.Daniela.Psychology]

Thank for the update

[@Mark-Walsh]

Great stuff, and Debs Dana is awesome, and the piece about smile covering not being important is pure politics. Every advertiser uses smiles for a reason

[@kirstinstrand6292]

This Polyvagal theory works; question. How does it work? 🤔 New discovery😮 For a year, I've experienced a trigger finger on my left hand. I finally made a Dr appointment, 30 miles away. On the drive to the doctors, I thought that much of my life I've been too good-natured, allowing folks to take advantage of me. When the doctor came into the examination room, my fingered was unlocked. I was stupefied! Floored!

[@kirstinstrand6292]

To continue, apologies for taking this time, but I believe our body has minut connections between our nervous system and our brains, also. When I drove home from the doctor's office,the only connection I could make intellectually was the realization of being emotionally abused. And I allowed it unconsciously. Now, 2 weeks later, when I'm out of touch with my conscious self, my finger consistently locks up! The same day, if I become self-confident, after waking and getting involved with my day, my finger unlocks and is able to be normal 🙂 just as my other fingers move. This phenomenon is repeated each day. I don't know where the internal key is. But there is one. Somehow, I think this goes hand in hand with the Polyvagal theory. ❤ Only you Dana can connect the connecting dots for me as to where in our body this happens. ❤

[@KarebelleMissKarebear]

@@kirstinstrand6292 Amazing

[@ryarya3291]

I can’t understand this: do our body sensations come first and then we find a story to explain those sensations or is it that we think of a story that triggers our bodily sensations? Thx

[@rembeadgc]

Greetings. Sharing my belief... our bodies are designed to receive and thrive in the context of a story written by our Designer. Elements of distortion were allowed to enter the story. For us this creates dissonance, confusion, discomfort and facilitates dysregulation. The story exists first, outside our consciousness of it until we become aware of our existence, self and others. Evidence of this is that experiences such as pain, which can lead to suffering, are uniform responses for human beings who we've never known or had contact with but who universally understand and relate similarly. Initial physical experience is one thing in the story but how we think of it certainly triggers physical responses beyond the initial event. This, to me, defines suffering, which is not always the same thing as initial pain. For me, in childhood, experiencing pain but not knowing why I was, what it meant and what it didn't mean lead me to process life in a way that facilitated suffering and dysregulation, which itself contributes to pain and suffering. I do believe and feel that I am now, by the grace of God, learning about the original story, my part in it and how that was distorted and also understanding how much power I have been given to correct my processing and re-purpose the distorted version.

[@pedrom8831]

Polyvagal theory confuses the hell out of me. Regarding trauma, we’re told that it’s a stuck state, and when a state is stuck we have to move up the polyvagal ladder in order to reach safety. BUT, we’re also told that we have to cultivate safety before we process our trauma! It’s actually quite disturbing how this paradox is presented to traumatised people.

[@trashyboombashy]

Thats is why you Go and See Someone who helps you co-regulate. You dont do it by yourself, by watching a Video or read a Book about it.

[@pedrom8831]

​@@trashyboombashy This is not a helpful comment. I'm saying the theory doesn't seem to make any sense. If I was confused about functional harmony would you just say 'go and listen to some music?' When one sees a therapist they should still be able to explain what to expect, and what is going on in the system, using some kind of model. This is theory. Without it there'd be no such thing as therapists.

[@trashyboombashy]

@@pedrom8831 i am sorry, i wanted to point out, that the theory Makes sense if you consider, that you, as a traumatized Person work With a therapist, who himself, With his regulated system, gives you safety, represents a safe environment, a constantly Safe person that is w lcoming all of you, no matter how you Show up, leading you in the right moments if you agree, and by This is helping your System to co-regulate, then to regulate by itself, establishing This a Little Bit, More and More and by This automatically the Stuck Energy can Express, unprocessed Energy can Surface and Flow.

[@pedrom8831]

@@trashyboombashy Don't worry. I get a bit touchy around talk of therapists as I've sought them out before (have seen some supposedly very experienced SE therapists) and found them to be really unhelpful. I have to understand what's going on before engaging in any kind of practice; it's just the way I work. Unfortunately a lot of somatic therapists want to skip the intellectualisation stage and go straight to practice. This was very destabilising for me, so I'm trying to find answers through other channels (KZbin being one of them!)

[@rayrayrayrayrayra9916]

@@pedrom8831 have you considered that your need to intellectualise is also probably based in trauma? I know mine probably is; I feel the need to understand everything from first principles. Letting go of this and just trusting the process is hard but also opens up a lot of room for progress. The AA sections in Infinite Jest really helped me realise this.

[@sheerluckholmes7720]

Thank you for curing my insomnia.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[@okdk7]

Having some dark thoughts on the source of the majority of my C-PTSD.... What if one thing happened as apposed to another for instance... Not even feeling bad about it ... just matter of fact. I imagine that sounds cryptic but it's all I can muster.

[@danijeanes5078]

This talk is an hour of fluffy platitudes about Saftey. People need concrete practice instruction, how often and what mechanism is at play that makes it work.

[@tambikhai3601]

I know! Imagine someone not covering every aspect of this theory and it's application in 20 mins! pffftttt the nerve of this woman - "nerve", get it? nerve...

[@danijeanes5078]

@tambikhai3601 hahahh ok boomer. No one asked you. Every single talk is like this. Everytime. Your a fluffy platitude too. Useless and unhelpful 👍

[@ffffffffffffffff5840]

Understanding the mechanisms of neurological safety probably won't help by themselves. Do you have places you can feel safe? It is imperative that you find somewhere safe. If not, keep going and find somewhere you can feel safe

[@truerosie]

@@ffffffffffffffff5840 Deb's work is all about creating safety in the body, and then in relationships. Her books are inexpensive and make this work widely available. They include practical exercises to make the theory real in our bodies' safety. Hope that helps.

[@suedant]

I couldn't further disagree with that comment. This is a really fantastic introduction to the nervous system And how it responds to threats and cues of safety

[@brucey7164]

Yes, some stress reducing techniques are successful, but polyvagal theory is not correct. See Grossman, 2023.