The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe

by Stephen W. Porges

Bridging the gap between research, science, and the therapy room. When The Polyvagal Theory was published in 2011, it took the therapeutic world by storm, bringing Stephen Porges’s insights about the autonomic nervous system to a clinical audience interested in understanding trauma, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. The book made accessible to clinicians and other professionals a polyvagal perspective that provided new concepts and insights for understanding human behavior. The perspective placed an emphasis on the important link between psychological experiences and physical manifestations in the body. That book was brilliant but also quite challenging to read for some.

Since publication of that book, Stephen Porges has been urged to make these ideas more accessible and The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory is the result. Constructs and concepts embedded in polyvagal theory are explained conversationally in The Pocket Guide and there is an introductory chapter which discusses the science and the scientific culture in which polyvagal theory was originally developed. Publication of this work enables Stephen Porges to expand the meaning and clinical relevance of this groundbreaking theory. ---

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Health, Mental Health, Science, Self Help, Counselling

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2013

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the inaugural step of what has become an OBSESSIVE DEEP DIVE into Polyvagal Theory (PT).

For those of you who do not know, PT is an evolutionarily grounded, neuroscientific and psychological construct that explains the role of the vagus nerve in mammalian threat response and emotion regulation via social connection (co-regulation) initially introduced by Stephen Porges in 1994.

I am a psychotherapist and I do not live under a rock, so I of course have been aware of PT for a real long time.

I just never really got into it.

Some of you may be asking:

Well why not?

Or alternately:

What the fuck took you so long?

I’ve been asking myself that same question lately.

And frankly I don’t really have a great answer.

As it turns out, PT it’s like this HUGE missing link for me, that has been sitting here in plain sight this WHOLE TIME, and that everybody and their brother has been begging me to investigate, but that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about.

Until recently.

I’m the clinical Director at a dual diagnosis treatment center in Malibu.

We recently launched a chronic pain program.

And as a part of that started working with an amazing psychologist (Dr. Less Aria) who integrates polyvagal theory with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in the treatment of chronic pain.

Dr. Aria has brought PT to life for me.

And now I’m sitting here wondering how the fuck I’ve been doing psychotherapy (including trauma treatment) thus far without it.

Anyway…

Now I love PT and it’s making my head explode.

And (more importantly) it’s changing the way I conceptualize and deliver Psychotherapy.

Another reason I’ve never really got into PT is that all of the books I read on the subject prior to this one sort of sucked.

It turns out that Stephen Porges is not a very relatable writer. And I think that’s a very common criticism (so it’s not just me).

Anyway…

This book turns out to be a terrific introduction.

It’s actually a compendium of translated interviews that Steven Porges did with various people.

And it’s a wonderful place to start if you’re curious.

This is a gateway book for me because after this, I moved onto the harder stuff, and now I’m fucking hooked.

So why 4/5 stars instead of 5/5?

This is a good book (or should I say a good enough book) but it’s not great.

That being said, it’s the best introduction of PT that I found, and highly recommend it.

[Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat misnamed as a pocket guide. That would lead one to assume it is well outline, easy to check different aspects of the theory. Nope. Instead, it is a series of interviews with a lot of repetition.

Main points are the vagal nerve has 2 part, the unmyelinated older part that connects below the diaphragm and the mammalian myelinated part that connects above the diaphragm.

The vagus manages the defensive reactions of flight/flight (mobilization) and the reptilian reaction of immobilization. Trauma engages these circuits.

To socially engaged, we have to feel safe. Basically, we have to have calm immobilization. Face to face play is critical to learning safe social engagement.

The vagus controls the facial expression and also the voice, the key signals of social interaction.

The middle ear also plays a part. When the inner ear is not functioning, it is more difficult to turn to voice prosody that carry social signals. Trauma and many psychological disorders are linked with auditory hypersensitivity. Low frequency sounds are associated with danger (predator), higher frequency is associated with safety (baby talk).

Singing is a good way to calm the vagus. The extended exhalations and vocal prosody calm our physiology.

[James Jesso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think as an objective experience for readability; this book derives a 3 1/2 or 4. There are several editing errors and often repeats itself due to being a collection of transcribed interviews.

However, I gave it 5 stars because the information in this book has been profound for me and I believe it is invaluable info for anyone in clinical practice or research around psychology/psychotherapy/social sciences/ etc.

I have not read Porges tome, The PolyVagal Theory, aka "the unreadable book," yet so I don't know how to compare it, but I would, hands down recommend this book for anyone even remotely interested in human motivation, behaviour, or neurobiology.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! It took me at least two months to read because it was so dense, and I literally had to read it with a dictionary next to me at all times. By the end, however, I can definitely say I have an introductory level understanding of the polyvagal theory -- something few of my therapist friends can boast. I learned so much about how to improve my work as a therapist, and this book has absolutely solidified my commitment to incorporating neuroscience research into my clinical practice.

[Emily Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a functional nervous system is foundational to social engagement, learning, happiness. Thank you Stephen Porges for publishing a book that makes your Polyvagal Theory more understandable for us clinicians. To meet a child where they are at, you must understand physiology of the nervous system, you must read this book! I recommend this to everyone who works with children, in a school or in a clinic and especially those in a medical setting. For parents too, understanding is so important, and this book explains the WHY♥️
#jobgoals #NeverStopLearning

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of polyvagal theory but still quite dense reading if you're not very biologically-minded and very repetitive as this is a collection of interviews that often goes over the same material. Some important points in there for clinical practice but not sure this was the best way of presenting them.

[Lynette Monteiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially a transcript of interviews by Ruth Buczynski and Stephen Porges. A useful book to help understand the very complex Polyvagal Theory but not quite what I expected given the title.

[Nithila P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

- "The most important thing to our nervous system is that we are safe. When we are safe, magical things occur…. We can access more areas of the brain… feelings of pleasure - of being expansive, creative and being very positive as well…" - Dr. Porges explains in scientific terms, the role security plays in living and experiencing our humanity and our connection to one another. Dimensions critical to health and well being.

- "When people get triggered, or distrustful… this shifts the physiological state and biases perception…" -

- ".. A mammalian model will be empowering of others, more of a shared environment, and have more empathy and care for others. A reptilian model is going to create isolation and is going to foster coldness." - p. 154

Stephen draws out attention to the fact, that "DARWIN (had) CALLED THE VAGUS - THE PNEUMOGASTRIL NERVE - THAT CONNECTS THE BRAIN AND HEART…" - Charles Darwin had intuited correctly. The vagal system is concerned with relaying information from the heart to the brain, and transforming the brain's response, at some level. Shifting how we read risk, threats and opportunities for engagement.

Dr. Porges - further, creates a therapeutic intervention focussing on the vagal nervous system. The Vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. It has both motor neurons and sensory neurons. It is has 80% more sensory nerves than motor nerves. The Vagus Nervous Pathway originates and terminates in the Brainstem. Three nuclei in the brainstem are critical to this nervous pathway, of the autonomic nervous system. The vagal system gathers information from the viscera, particularly sensory information - i.e. how we viscerally experience and feel the world - and absorbs that information for higher level processing in the human brain. When functioning optimally, this system keeps us socially creative, engaged, helpful and constructive with humanity. When disabled, isolation and alienation, follows.

This dimension of the nervous system is critical, to generate within human beings higher levels of social engagement, "play", flexibility, sympathy and empathy, an expansive need to understand one another - This possibility is severely compromised when the more evolved dimensions of the vagal system are biologically compromised, a myelinated sheath that receives sensory information from supra-diaphragmatic regions - the heart and other organs...

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of this book is excellent and I learned alot from it especially about the connection between hearing, autism, trauma and emotional regulation. Unfortunately the books is desperately in need of a co-author or editor. The first chapter is an insane painful and dense glossary. The later chapters are all transcriptions of online seminars where the author dialogs with someone else. None of it is laid out in a way designed for intuitive understanding. It was a painful slog, but the content was really good and worth digging through....if you are highly motivated.

Immediately after reading this I began Bruce Perry's the Boy who was Raised as a Dog and it really highlighted the difference that having a co-author who is a professional writer makes.

I really want to send this book to a number of my friends who are in the deaf/HoH and or autism communities and be able to talk about a number of things in this book.

[Vicki Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful introduction to polyvagal theory.

[Kit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find the content area very interesting but I don't recommend learning it from this book. The first part is very dense with definitions and the rest is repetitive interviews with Porges which seem to largely serve as self congratulations. Endless stories of how grateful clients and colleagues have been, and how large his contribution to science is. I'd far rather he took the personal anecdotes out and wrote a digestible intro to the theory that is thoughtfully structured as a complement to his extensive book (that I haven't read and probably won't because I'm just a lay person interested in psych).

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with other reviewers that there is a lot of repetition in this book BUT the information is somewhat complicated and I believe I was able to grasp and comprehend the important nuances better as I read the same information explained in various ways.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with trauma survivors. I am likely to copy and paste the basic relevant information into a simplified format for survivors themselves so they can better understand what is happening in their bodies....

[VW · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little repetitive in places, but overall an excellent introduction to the Polyvagal Theory for non-technical readers.

[A. Housewife · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars for readability
4 stars for concepts
Such important ideas, such a difficult format for me to read. Why, after reading this whole book, am I still having trouble understanding the difference between myelinated and unmyelinated muscle fiber and what that means? Why can't I clearly state what the 3 vagus things are? There is up down/down up, lizard/mammalian, fight&flight&freeze/shutdown, above the diaphragm/below the diaphragm, connection to ear and ability to process predators vs recognition of facial expression and speech. 
This is the book that is supposed to be readable, supposed to extract the technical stuff from the published papers and explain the theory. I wish that a good science writer would comb through this book and write a concise and understandable article. I had to read out loud to myself so many of the scientific sentences which were just so difficult to process and so hard to read and understand. (My children were shocked as I am usually excellent and processing reading and am a strong science student, but I am astonished at the 4* rating when the science is like slogging through cement.)

The ideas are astonishing. Exciting, wonderful. The idea of neuroceptivity: that the body perceives threat and automatically reacts and that this is not a conscious decision. And that this affects our cognitive processes and hampers our literal ability to HEAR words and to process facial expressions and to use social connectivity to soothe ourselves is an extremely important idea. 
The idea of getting ourselves used to checking in with our body and listening to its feedback about being safe or getting ourselves to safety. About promoting situations that make our neuroceptive processes detect safety. I really relate to what he says about hospitals not feeling safe.  
And of course, recognizing that when the body went into shutdown mode during trauma, that it was taking heroic protective action. This dovetails nicely with IFS. 

I think the most interesting scientific aspects to me (difficult as it is to extract them from the style of execution) is that the eardrum changes shape based on perceived safety or unsafety, and is focused on threat detection and the ability to hear predators vs the part of the brain that processes human speech.
The other interesting scientific factoid is that the nerve that attaches the heart and lungs to the brain goes to the area of facial movement detection in the brain. Which means that when we interpret subtle facial expressions, we are actually interpreting information about their breathing and heart rate ie stress and threat detection levels.

I hope that we start detecting neuroception that puts people into physiological states that make it harder to process words and facial expressions. And that we respect the limitations people are under when they are in that state. And that we figure out more targeted therapeutic methods to calm ourselves.

[Aleksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

W trakcie czytania można doświadczyć kilku olśnień, teoria poliwagalna stawia w zupełnie nowym świetle to jak działa nasz autonomiczny układ nerwowy i tym samym, my - ludzie (my ludzie- czyli ssaki, które stopniowo ewoluowały z innych organizmów do aktualnej formy). Świetne narzędzie dla specjalistów różnych dziedzin, a dla nas-laików niesamowity wgląd w to, jak i dlaczego tak funkcjonujemy. Ta wiedza to kolejny wytrych, klucz, którym możemy bardziej świadomie wpływać na nasze (nawet) fizjologiczne działanie. Dlaczego czujemy lęk, chociaż obiektywnie sytuacja nie wydaje się niebezpieczna? Jak ukoić taki lęk? Dlaczego nie jesteśmy kreatywni i efektywni, kiedy nie czujemy się swobodnie? O czym może świadczyć to, że ktoś ma problem z rozróżnieniem ludzkiego głosu spośród innych dźwięków? Jak ćwiczyć "słuch" i jednocześnie gimnastykować układ neuronalny? Co ma do tego zabawa ze znajomymi, gra w piłę czy wreszcie sam kontakt wzrokowy? Skąd biorą się problemy psychosomatyczne? Co się stanie jeśli po przeżytej traumie podziękujesz swojemu ciału za to, że zareagowało, tak jak zareagowało zamiast odczuwać poczucie winy?
Niesamowita wiedza, do tego poparta latami badań naukowych.
Treść teorii, przełożenie na praktykę i przesłanie całej książki 10/10
Niestety jeśli chodzi o konstrukcję wywodu nie jest to najlepsza pozycja. To zwyczajnie zbitek artykułów i zapis rozmów, co powoduje, że niektóre wątki powtarzają się wielokrotnie, niektóre proszą się o większe rozbudowanie. Z braku lepszych pozycji na ten temat (przystępnych dla laików) bardzo polecam.
W czasach społecznej izolacji konkluzje płynące z teorii poliwagalnej wydają się szczególnie potrzebne. Najbardziej potrzebujemy interakcji z drugim człowiekiem, to dzięki temu możemy skutecznie regulować pracę naszego układu nerwowego. W skrócie, tylko to nam da poczucie bezpieczeństwa i szczęście.
Temat może zainteresować także tych, którzy mają w bliskim otoczeniu osoby będące w spektrum autyzmu, osoby po traumach (bardzo ożywcze i skuteczne podejście do tematu), lękowe itd.

[Gabriela Żyłka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niesamowicie ciekawe spojrzenie na układ nerwowy człowieka, ale także na życie społeczne czy poczucie bezpieczeństwa. Warta przeczytania dla każdego, choć wymaga podstawowej wiedzy neurobiologicznej.
Porusza ważne kwestie życia w otoczeniu innych ludzi, leczenia pacjentów, ze szczególnym podkreśleniem pacjentów po traumie (choć nie tylko - uwzględnione są dolegliwości psychiczne jak i somatyczne), dialogu między naukowcami-badaczami oraz klinicystami praktycznymi.
Temat jest więc niesamowicie ciekawy, a samo podejście Porges'a innowacyjne. Niezbyt podobało mi się sztuczne zrobienie z tej książki "rozmowy", gdzie przez znaczną większość jest to monolog, a niektóre pytania zadawane przez "prowadzących" są nie na temat i zmieniają bieg wypowiedzi Porges'a. Przez taką formę dużo informacji jest powtórzonych wielokrotnie - z jednej strony jest to dobre i ułatwia zapamiętanie czegoś z tej książki, z drugiej momentami staje się męczące. Niestety bardzo dużo zastrzeżeń mam do polskiego wydania tej książki przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego - ciężko czyta się ten tekst. Sporo fragmentów tłumaczone z angielskiego bez jakiegokolwiek zrozumienia tekstu, liczne błędy - brakujące słowa, powtórzenia tych samych słów obok siebie, czasem naprawdę zastanawiałam się czy przed drukiem ten tekst w ogóle przeszedł korektę. Nachalne tłumaczenie na polski terminologii neurobiologicznej, która niejednokrotnie funkcjonuje w języku polskim w formie zangielszczonej. Tłumacz ewidentnie nie rozumiał co czytał - a można było po prostu zatrudnić neurobiologa z B2 i dostępem do internetu i jestem pewna, że tłumaczenie wyszłoby o niebo lepiej.
Samą książkę szczerze polecam, choć jeśli miałabym po nią sięgnąć 2. raz to na pewno w oryginale.

[Grant Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this perspective as a clinical metaphor with major caveats. I am really disappointed with the (very often incorrect) science.

The science has some major problems, and should not be trusted (neuroanatomy, evolutionary, physiology, scientific rigor, etc.). It's a broad, sweeping theory bringing together multiple fields, and it's just not up to the rigor of any of those fields. Experts in those respective fields have debunked many of his claims.

In general, the overall clinical metaphor is still great, though. The issue is the places where the science being not just unsupported but flat out wrong means a more useful clinical metaphor would be slightly (or greatly) different.

I think that there are some diamonds in the rough here, and I'm excited to see how the discourse and application around these ideas change the next few decades.

I'd probably avoid reading this or other polyvagal work unless you're ready to do so with a really critical and discerning eye.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m probably not the intended audience for this book, but I enjoyed it as much as a non-clinician/therapist could. It’s a compilation of transcripts from various interviews the author has given describing the neuroscience behind flight/fight/freeze and the biological imperative for human connection. As someone who can really nerd out on concepts like co-regulation, secure attachment, and the dynamic relationship between bodily feelings and cognitive function, I thought the theory was fascinating. Some might find the interviews repetitive, but as a layperson I found it helpful that many of the complex scientific explanations were revisited throughout the book. I hope that having an understanding of vagal concepts will make me a more intentional, understanding, and emotionally healthy human.

[Laura Janeiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part is a glossary, heavy but very good.

In the second chapter he gives form and content to the polyvagal theory. The examples are concrete and the explanations clear. The ability to investigate and interrelate the preexistent material and his personal observations, which allows him to give birth to this theory, is amazing.

The rest of the book is VERY repetitive, with very little new contribution to what was already presented in the first two chapters.

It is probably much more profitable in time and neurons invested in reading, to read the original book (The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation by Stephen W. Porges. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company), and not this not so "pocket" version. I guess I'll be doing it in the near future

[Skye Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, the book itself was pretty dense/hard to read and aimed toward a more academic/scientific audience. But I got the gist of it (I think) and was personally really interested in this research and felt vindicated and freed by it. It’s amazing what our bodies will (and won’t) do in response to stress and trauma and I feel so thankful for all mine has done to protect me when needed (even if sometimes misguided).

[Erin Moloney]

DNF at 15%. Soooo I made the mistake of attempting to listen to this as an audiobook. The academic and neuroscience-y way that the theory is presented calls for color coded highlighting and annotating the definitions of unfamiliar terms, which I will definitely do at some point. But hopefully the 2 hours of content I listened to will have added to my understanding of Polyvagal theory, if only by osmosis.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this and was immediately bogged down in the first couple very clinical chapters and was about to return it to the library. Then the format changed into a series of interview transcripts for the remainder of the book. I actually finally understood what the heck the theory is and found the information fascinating. Get past the beginning and things become more clear.

[clove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly repetitive series of interviews that are not organized in a super coherent way. The repetitiveness is helpful in terms of letting a complicated (for someone without a strong background in neuroscience) sink in, but also wanted him to dive deeper into some of the practical applications of his theories. The focus of intervention for Porges is rooted in physiological shifts (i.e. - changing auditory environments to enhance safety), and I'd like to know more about clinical applications rooted in this theory.

[Laura Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content of the book is good, but the format is really odd. Transcripts of several separate webinars makes for disjointed, out of order and jarring read - especially when listening as audio book.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This format makes this material incredibly accessible.

[Isaiah Minick · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! This book is amazing. I am able to understand better why body based therapies are so important, and how to appropriately connect with clients in a way that encourages safety and social engagement.

A passage in the book mentions Descartes famous line " I think, therefore I am." This philosophical viewpoint shifted the importance of cognition and thinking as what it means to be human.

An alternative phrase that would have shaped a different world would have been. "I feel, therefore I am."

This book helps me understand why the feeling is so important for a fulfilled, and healthy life. It is written in a series of interviews, so the reading is conversational. A lot of material is covered in multiple sections of the book, which can feel repetitive to some. For me this repetition helped to really solidify the understanding and applying it in different contexts.

I will attempt to summarize what I learned from this book below, it will will be long, a bit detailed, and of course missing some important nuances. (I am basically typing up my hand written notes here in a easier to access format.)


1. Safety needs to be felt. We need to feel safe to heal.

Our current way of viewing the world puts a lot of emphasis on cognitive evaluations vs bodily response. We are told both explicitly and implicitly that we should 'ignore' 'push through' 'disregard' what we're feeling. Safety is a prime example. Imagine a building with high fences, lots of guards with guns, increased security measures. Cognitively someone might say this place is safe. However to those inside there is not a feeling of safety that is associated. Now imaged a tranquil hut in a mountain village. It is without the same safety measures, but people will probably have a better chance to feel safe.

If we based more of our structures on how it makes us feel, we might create a world where we feel better more of the time.

Feeling safe is essential to healing, to connecting socially with others, to being playful and creative. Basically feeling safe is a core component to a fulfilling life.

2. Our human response to danger has 3 main categories, which have have an evolutionary adaptive reason for being used.

The three main states of our nervous system are rest and digest, fight/flight, freeze. Polyvagal theory suggest that evolutionarily this nervous system adapted new ways to protect us.

The Freeze state comes from the reptilian nervous system. When they are in danger they are able to freeze most of the bodily functions and become very still. We as humans do this when the perceived danger is extremely harmful or life threatening. We can faint, disassociate, feel out of the body, not feel pain etc.

The fight/flight response is a mobilizing response, meaning it prepares our body for action. Mammells go in and out of this state often. When there is perceived danger heart rate increases, oxygen is flowing to muscles,and non vital organs lose function. We feel in danger and so our outward expressions also show danger. Our gut and digestion is paused for the time of danger so that our energy can be used to deal with the danger.

The rest and digest is the most recent of the nervous system responses to evolve. This state encourages social engagement and shows up when we feel safe. Heart rate and breathing is regular, energy is used for things like digestion, restoration, health and growth. Seeing other humans in this state will encourage our body to also move towards this state. Thus co-regualtion is very important to feel safe.

3. Many trauma responses are involuntary, and at some point were used to protect and save us. Therefore we should shift the stigma around 'negative' habits to being responses that kept us alive.

A lot of what is happening between these nervous system responses to dangers are happening subconsciously. We might automatically feight when we see blood because our subconscious is detect high signs of danger. The difficulty is that humans especially have a hard to getting back into the rest and digest state. Also once a specific set of environmental stimulation caused our subconscious to detect danger and put us into a state, it is likely that we will be hypersensitive to that same stimulation in the future. This shows up in PTSD, for example a loud noise will trigger a war veteran in ways that it wont trigger someone who hasn't been to war. The great thing about this thoery is that we can reframe this trigger/response as something that helped us survive in the past and be thankful for it. The narrative around these destructive triggers are often very negative and people feel shame. This negative feeling actually keeps us in a defensive state longer, making it harder to feel safe and to heal. So if we can start to view these triggers/response with self compassion we can start to feel safe for longer periods and heal.


4. Social Engagement is reciprocal, people who feel safe show it, and others will pick up on it. This reciprocity needs to be in face to face interactions.

When someone is feeling safe their vagus nerve is online and its connected to the heart, bronchi, facial muscles and our middle ear. So the feeling of safety actually can appear on a human by noticing their facial expressions, their tone of voice (being able to have emphasis and emotion) and their ability to connect and hear other human voices. (The middle ear muscle will tune out human voices when it is on high alert for danger - predators had low frequencies in our biological history)

So, being around people our are safe, will make other people feel safe. It's reciprocal. This is why social engagement with other humans is so important. We pick up these cues from other humans and learn them ourselves. Having too much technology in place of face to face interactions has a physiological negative impact on someone's felt safety, thus their overall health.


5. Even though many trauma responses are involuntary, we can learn to become aware of them and build toolkits to help us process them and start to feel safe.

There is hope, as we can learn to notice our involuntary trauma responses, we can learn some tools to help us feel safe again quicker. For example if I start to notice my stomach tightening up I can breathe deeply into my belly. This can slow my heart rate. A slower heart rate feels safe and my anxiety will have less an impact on me. This is why 'down - up' / 'body therapies' are so important.

Once I am feeling safe in my body I can cognitively learn reasons why my stomach started to tighten up in the first place. I have increased capacity to understand myself because my subconscious will not override as frequently, often, or strongly. Basically I can start to build resilience.


If you made it this far, congrats five stars! At times what I wrote might be a bit of an oversimplification, but if you really are interested, read the book! It's great :)

[Irène Rauch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book translated into Dutch. The content is enormously interesting, but it´s a true shame that it is brought in such an unstructured way. There are an innumerable amount of repetitions in this book edplaining iver and over again how our autonomous nervous system is structured, how it relates to our evolution from reptile to mammal and how different responses we have are in fact responses from different parts of this system.

The book consists of various interviews, but the basiss of the theory is explained over and over again which makes it really difficult to keep focused for the moment in which new information is given.

A shame, because the theory explains different responses to trauma but also to continouq stressful situations, e.g. muscle pains, digestive problems etc.

What I missed (but it´s hard remaining ficused) is how you can use feedback of muscles to the nervous system to e.g. deactivate the mobilising sympathic nervius system znd activate the dorsal vagal system.

Further small point if critic: as a layperson it is clear that Porges is a very original scientist that connects domains that were seen before as separate and whose research and theory looks to me like causing a paradigmal shift. Only there is a bit too much of awe and admiration in the interviews, it takes away attention from the content.

The polyvagal theory and its application possibilities get 5 stars from me, but the poor editing and repetitions in content made me lower that to 3 stars.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offered an interesting theory of some functions of the nervous system. I liked it but man! was it repetitive! I feel that everything could have been stated in one chapter, instead of the 244 pages of this book. And there were so many points where I wanted to know MORE, like, how can clinicians apply his theory to their work? (other than removing low-frequency sounds from their offices, which is a very impractical suggestion - how are clinicians supposed to have offices with ventilation and heating systems, if they have to remove themselves and their clients from the sounds they make?) Porges talked about a study he had done with autistic kids to improve their hearing abilities, which was interesting, but otherwise there was very little practical knowledge to be gained from this book. I realize that finding practical applications from his theory may be beyond the scope of Porges' work at this time, and I wish other researchers would get on the job and find some! Aaaargh! Very frustrating to read.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good: much easier to read than the original, scientific style book .

The meh: The book features transcripts of webinars and other conversations that the author had with others explaining the polyvagal theory. It becomes quite repetitive. I listened to this on audiobook so I kept wondering if I had skipped backward at some point.

I expected this book to be more about how the theory works in real life perhaps. If that's what you were looking for this is not the book. If you're interested in the science and how the theory came to be. It's worth reading.

[James Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When we're safe, magical things occur. They occur on multiple levels, not merely in terms of social relations, but also in accessibility of certain areas of the brain, certain areas of feeling pleasure--being expansive, being creative, and being very positive as well." 141

Mind blown! Again! Trauma therapy is opening up all sorts of insights and truth for me in 2020!

One of my current thoughts is that many of us are unaware of why we do what we do in relation to interpersonal behavior. This is not an indictment, just a fact. Thankfully, we have people like Porges, a scientist, who is working to understand how mind relates to the body and the body communicates with the mind. We might be tempted to think this is simple, and that is right...on one level. But it is also more complex, and that is because of trauma, which often held in the body, can significantly impact our quality of life but also impacts the quality of our relationships with others. These profound trauma experiences shape not only beliefs and thoughts and therefore actions, but also our unconscious reactions to real or perceived threats.

What if we could un-cover how trauma shapes our beliefs and commitments? Could we become less reactive, less angry, less conditional with our love? Not simple work, that is for sure but it could be transformational or at least, a relief to know what is happening inside your own body and mind to cause us to react or respond in particular ways. And that, what is happening, has a logical root in trauma and not just some inherent personal flaws or lack of determination.

Porges explores all this through a deep dive into polyvagal theory. As Porges states: "the vagus is the 10th cranial nerve, which connects brainstem areas to several visceral organs." This doesn't say much by it does say that difficult emotions and difficulty regulating is not just a matter or will or right thinking but that is has a significant physiological component. And that you can work towards healing those physiological pathways.

“We are moving toward an understanding of trauma as an adaptive reaction. It may be adaptive only for the initial reaction, although the features of reaction may literally get stuck and occur in inappropriate situations.” 195

“There are several adaptive functions of surviving through immobilization or dissociation. The question is: How does your personal narrative explain these immobilization responses? How do you use that information to see who you are? Do you see yourself as a victim, or do you see yourself as heroic?” 176

“When stuck in a states that do not promote social interaction and a sense of safety, individuals develop complex narratives of why they don’t want to socially interact and why they don’t trust others. There narratives provide an interpretation of their visceral physiological feelings. Their nervous system is detecting risk where there is no real risk, and their narrative provides the justification for not being loving, trusting and spontaneously engaging.” 112