Lindsey A.’s Reviews > Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies > Status Update

I need to sit with this one for a minute. Oof. This one !! 💡
• “Trauma was created by a betrayal of trust, a rupture within the context of a relationship, and by someone who was supposed to care for and protect the client.”
—> Attachment Theory
• “Hence, it was assumed that empathy, and the building of a caring relationship, were necessary and sufficient to repair the trauma…”
—> Notes below:

“Respiratory sinus arrhythmia: a paradoxical and opposite response, the heart rate actually decreased on inhalation and increased on exhalation”
—> measured by “vagal tone”

“We help contain these erratic fluctuations by SLOWING DOWN THEIR EXPERIENCE (how??) and CURBING THEIR INTENSITY (how??). As a person is able to experience a sense of control of their arousal (hyperarousal and/or hypoarousal), they renegotiate their relationship to the trauma”
—> this makes me think of how it’s helpful to be around models of “less reactive” responses
—> but how else is this fostered??

“Somatic Experiencing” & “Sensorimotor Psychotherapy”
—> bringing awareness to sensations, accessing and managing implicit memories

“A critical component of the polyvagal theory is focused on the show in neural regulation of the heart…. The neural regulation of the vertebrate ANS progressed through three global stages”
1. Calmed and cued others to calm; vagal pathway
2. Mobilization - fight or flight; PNS & adrenals
3. Ancient immobilization circuit - rapidly shutting down; vagal pathway, originating from brain stem area different from #1

The polyvagal theory provides people who have experienced trauma, “an understanding of how, after experiencing life-threat, their neural reactions were retuned toward a defensive bias and they lost the resilience to return to safety.”

Talking about resilience reminds me of Berne Brown’s “Dearing Greatly,” in which she emphasizes the importance of building resilience….