Polyvagal Theory

Polyvagal Theory

Please be aware that I am not a psychiatrist and I have had no training around polyvagal theory, my knowledge is solely from reading books, listening to podcasts, and doing my own research, I have only just begun to scratch the surface of understanding this vast and fascinating topic. At the end I will give you places to research further if you are interested!

Poly-many
Vagal-vegus nerve
Vagus- Latin for wander,
The Vagus nerve wanders all around the body, connects everything.

The creation of Polyvagal Theory;
Polyvagal Theory was proposed by Dr Stephen Porges in 1994, Dr Porges is, amongst other titles, University Scientist at Indiana University where he is founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium, neuroscientist, and works for several universities across America. There is more history on his website.

Polyvagal Theory links the evolution of the autonomic or (automatic) nervous system or ANS in mammals to social behaviour, putting emphasis on our stress response, how we process stress, and how it shows up in our bodies, this includes trauma, behavioural problems, and psychiatric disorders. The autonomic nervous system takes care of a lot of our automatic functions including heartbeat, digestion, and temperature, it also manages survival and stress response, working to keep us alive when our life is in danger. Before Dr Porges developed his theory, the common thought was that you were either stressed or not stressed, it was on it was off, this is what a lot of our stress management theories and practices are based upon. Dr Porges figured out that we have multiple states of stress or multiple states of nervous system activation.

These states are as follows, please think of them as a ladder, thank you Deb Dana for this analogy:
(front branch) ventral vagal social engagement, sympathetic fight or flight and (back branch) dorsal vagal shutdown. You will also hear them referred to by the name of the nerves….
parasympathetic, sympathetic, dorsal vagal parasympathetic.

So what does that mean? Our Vegus nerve as a whole sends two-way messages from all parts of our body to our brain and back again, it is responsible for our very being!

Our Ventral vagal social engagement system developed about 200 million years ago. It is the place in our nervous system where we are able to connect and relate to other people. This is the place where we feel safe and comfortable. When someone is in this state, they are able to co-regulate, they can connect and read other people’s facial expressions and they have empathy to name just a few. We should also have access to joy, love and playfulness. We are in the here and now, present and in our happy place.

Moving down one takes us to sympathetic activation. Developed 400 million years ago. This is a state of stress and mobilisation, it prepares us to fight or flight. It’s also feeling overwhelmed, anxiety and all of the hyperactive states we associate with stress. Our modern lives can keep us in this state long after our bodies should have gone back a step, the repercussions of this over a long period of time can be devastating to the body, causing chronic pain, digestive issues and much more. We can build layers of stress and find it difficult to regulate and get back to ventral vagal.

Dorsal vagal shutdown. this system developed 500 million years ago. This is primal, the freeze and collapse response, when fight or flight has not worked to get rid of the danger. It’s a place of immobilisation. It can be linked to hypermobility of joints where people can have little bits of this shut down in their nervous system (not always, there are many reasons for hypermobile joint!) It’s linked with lethargy, despondency, hopelessness, inability to motivate, shame, depression and more.

As I said before the body cannot sustain long periods of time in sympathetic activation, it will use dorsal vagal shutdown to regulate or block some of the activation.

This capped or hidden sympathetic state can show up as someone appearing very calm, or overly tranquil but this can come with an uneasy feeling when you are around them. It can also show up as sudden bursts of anger or strong emotions.

Why is all of this important?

It’s completely normal for all of us to go through all of these states in a day, and hour or a minuet, our system is designed to move through them, they are the survival states for self-preservation. Some examples of this might be if you are late for an important appointment, you start to feel yourself get hot, your heart rate rises, your mind races, you feel overwhelmed and panicky, this is your nervous system going into sympathetic activation. Once you realise that you have made it to your destination on time and safe your ANS drops back to ventral vagal, and peace is restored! Another example could be a near miss accident in a car or somewhere else, our ANS moves into sympathetic activation then back down to ventral vagal once the preserved threat has gone. Argument with loved ones also move us through the states. The problem is when we get stuck in sympathetic activation or dorsal shutdown states and dysregulated, this happens when we are not able to complete the full cycle, often seen in survivors of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The world then becomes very threatening, hearing can shift to tune into lower frequencies and neutral facial expressions can start to look more aggressive. Dysregulation impairs mental performance and the ability to connect to other people. So the cycle continues.

It’s important to be aware that these systems are in place to keep us safe, it’s not the fault of the person that they went into shutdown and couldn’t fight or run, their system did it automatically to keep them alive. In the case of a traumatic event this may have been the only option at that time. How wonderful for their system to keep them safe.

Trauma.
Mammals in the wild are able to move swiftly from dorsal vagal shutdown into sympathetic then to ventral vagal. For example, an impala caught by a cheetah, the cheetah then flees leaving the impala alive, you would see the impala start to come out of shutdown then shake and shiver and breathe deeply then it would run back to its herd and continue to graze like nothing happened. It automatically moved through all three states. Un-traumatised humans are capable of this too.

Humans who have suffered trauma find this difficult, it can be very uncomfortable to go back through the stages and so easily get stuck in an undesirable and dysregulated state. Trauma is the chronic disruption of connection, the ANS shapes the way we connect, the way we experience and see self, create relationships, and move through the world. When the ANS has been shaped by trauma there is often a disconnect between physiological state, psychological story, and behavioural response. Queues of danger are seen everywhere, and the smallest reminder of the traumatic event triggers the survival response. We can unintentionally make thing worse by shutting ourselves off from the world, not telling anyone about a traumatic event or not being believed or heard by someone we do open up to, all of these things can cause shame and further disconnect. Even when we are heard or listened to it can be hard for the body and mind to let go of the trauma fully. Although it often is, trauma doesn’t need to be from a huge, life changing event, like a car crash, abuse or a parent leaving etc, it could be small things another person might find insignificant. We can also hold generational trauma, passed down through many lifetimes.

Vagal Break and Co-regulation:
The Vagal break is the breaking system for the ANS it calms the heart and keeps our fight and flight behaviours in control, it basically allows us to keep our cool or not run in testing situations, without the vagal break our heart would beat 20-30 beats per minute faster than it does. Someone who has a strong vagal break or strong safe and social system is able to tolerate more stress than someone who has a weaker vagal break. The strength of the vagal break depends on experiences of co-regulation, especially in early childhood. It can be strengthened later but early childhood is very important. Trauma survivors have a weakened vagal break, it’s not broken but it is compromised, small problems become massive challenges and the system becomes overwhelmed. We all have a window of tolerance; this is how much you can cope with before your vagal break releases, and you drop down into sympathetic activation where fight or flight has kicked in. Your window of tolerance is only as strong as the Vagal break and the vagal break is only as strong as has been developed through co-regulation, so can you see a cycle, a pattern emerging here?

Co-regulation is everything, we need others to feel safe, it keeps us at the top of the polyvagal ladder. If we are alone, we don’t feel safe, it’s a queue of danger and we can drop down the ladder. We need, at the very least, one person we feel connected to, who has a strong vagal break and who we can fall apart to emotionally without them join us by dropping uncontrollably down the ladder too, we can co-regulate with that person and come back up the ladder. We all recharge our batteries differently, some people prefer to go on a long walk in the countryside with just themselves and their surroundings as company, others let their hair down with group of people, all these things are brilliant for strengthening!

It’s not only trauma that can damage the vegus nerve, too much looking down at screens like a mobile or tablet has also been shown to have a negative impact. Also think about the content of whatever is being watched, are they queues of danger from social media? A news story? A blunt email from someone? Next time you find yourself in that situation pay attention to how your body responds. What do you feel?

Exercises to strengthen and reset:

Nervous system reset: These exercises are from a book called accessing the healing power of the vegus nerve by Stanley Rosenberg. Sukie Baxter also has resets on her YouTube channel.

If you suffer with vertigo then please be aware or your bodies signals, you might not want to try this one.

1. Basic exercise
1, start by sitting and moving your head from side to side. Take note of how it feels, is there any stiffness? Is it worse one side than the other?

2, This can be done laying down on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the ground or it can be done sitting in a chair. Start by interlocking your fingers and placing them behind your head, this is to help you keep your head still, you don’t want to be able to move your head.

3, move only your eyes to the right and wait, you should wait for around 30 seconds, if you have never tried this before it can take longer, 2 minuets or more. You are looking for a sigh, wanting to swallow or a yawn. Now try moving your eyes the other side.

This can be strengthened by practicing every day!

Move your head from side to side again and see how you feel now?

2. Half salamander

Tilt/lean your head over to the right then look diagonally up to the left, again wait for the sigh, swallow, or yawn! Repeat on the other side.

Don’t worry if you don’t get a response, it just means you need to practice!

There are also many other modalities that can be helpful, breathing exercises, Yoga and Pilates, meditation and other forms of physical exercise, especially where other people are present and co-regulation can occur naturally.

So how does all of this link with NLP?
Since I started NLP I have seen a correlation between the techniques and the regulation of the ANS. Having knowledge about about polyvagal theory has helped me understand why some of the techniques work and what response is likely. When first connecting with a client, being able to pinpoint trauma and connect from empathy is crucial. Being able to discern not only a client’s physiology but what may have caused it is greatly helpful in the process of facilitating change.

Co-regulation, this is particularly important when anchoring emotional states, I am feeling the states along with my client, staying in my window of tolerance and being the person they can co-regulate with.

If you want to know more then check out

Dr Stephen Porges website at www.stephenporges.com
Deb Dana, she has some very good books one being Polyvagal Theory in Therapy.
Sukie Baxter, Whole Body Revolution. (YouTube)
Accessing the healing power of the vegus nerve by Stanley Rosenberg (book)
Stuck not Broken podcast