Polyvagal Exercises For Therapists And Clients

A practical guide to working with the principles of polyvagal theory beyond the therapy session. Deb Dana is the foremost translator of polyvagal theory into clinical practice. Here, in her third book on this groundbreaking theory, she provides therapists with a grab bag of polyvagal-informed exercises for their clients, to use both within and between sessions. These exercises offer readily understandable explanations of the ways the autonomic nervous system directs daily living. They use the principles of polyvagal theory to guide clients to safely connect to their autonomic responses and navigate daily experiences in new ways. The exercises are designed to be introduced over time in a variety of clinical sessions with accompanying exercises appropriate for use by clients between sessions to enhance the therapeutic change process. Essential reading for any therapist who wants to take their polyvagal knowledge to the next level and is looking for easy ways to deliver polyvagal solutions with their clients.

A practical guide to working with the principles of polyvagal theory beyond the therapy session. Deb Dana is the foremost translator of polyvagal theory into clinical practice. Here, in her third book on this groundbreaking theory, she provides therapists with a grab bag of polyvagal-informed exercises for their clients, to use both within and between sessions. These exercises offer readily understandable explanations of the ways the autonomic nervous system directs daily living. They use the principles of polyvagal theory to guide clients to safely connect to their autonomic responses and navigate daily experiences in new ways. The exercises are designed to be introduced over time in a variety of clinical sessions with accompanying exercises appropriate for use by clients between sessions to enhance the therapeutic change process. Essential reading for any therapist who wants to take their polyvagal knowledge to the next level and is looking for easy ways to deliver polyvagal solutions with their clients.

The polyvagal theory presented in client-friendly language. This book offers therapists an integrated approach to adding a polyvagal foundation to their work with clients. With clear explanations of the organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory, this complex theory is translated into clinician and client-friendly language. Using a unique autonomic mapping process along with worksheets designed to effectively track autonomic response patterns, this book presents practical ways to work with clients' experiences of connection. Through exercises that have been specifically created to engage the regulating capacities of the ventral vagal system, therapists are given tools to help clients reshape their autonomic nervous systems. Adding a polyvagal perspective to clinical practice draws the autonomic nervous system directly into the work of therapy, helping clients re-pattern their nervous systems, build capacities for regulation, and create autonomic pathways of safety and connection. With chapters that build confidence in understanding Polyvagal Theory, chapters that introduce worksheets for mapping, tracking, and practices for re-patterning, as well as a series of autonomic meditations, this book offers therapists a guide to practicing polyvagal-informed therapy. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy is essential reading for therapists who work with trauma and those who seek an easy and accessible way of understanding the significance that Polyvagal Theory has to clinical work.

Innovative clinicians share their experiences integrating Polyvagal Theory into their treatment models. Clinicians who have dedicated their work to bringing the benefits of the Polyvagal Theory to a range of clients have come together to present Polyvagal Theory in a creative and personal way. Chapters on a range of topics from compassionate medical care to optimized therapeutic relationships to clinician's experiences as parents extract from the theory the powerful influence and importance of cases and feelings of safety in the clinical setting. Additionally, there are chapters which: elaborate on the principle of safety in clinical practice with children with abuse histories explain the restorative consequences of movement, rhythm, and dance in promoting social connectedness and resilience in trauma survivors explains how Polyvagal Theory can be used to understand the neurophysiological processes in various therapies discuss dissociative processes and treatments designed to experience bodily feelings of safety and trust examine fear of flying and how using positive memories as an active "bottom up" neuroceptive process may effectively down-regulate defense shed light on the poorly understood experience of grief Through the insights of innovative and benevolent clinicians, whose treatment models are Polyvagal informed, this book provides an accessible way for clinicians to embrace this groundbreaking theory in their own work.

Offers therapists a low tech–high impact, interactive way to explain polyvagal theory to clients. When clients are stuck in the cognitive experience of their story, an explanation of polyvagal theory helps to bring their attention to the autonomic experience— to bring the importance of the biology of their experience back into awareness. Yet polyvagal theory can be challenging and intimidating to explain. This flip chart offers therapists an easy, standardized way to support clients in understanding the role of the autonomic nervous system in their lives. Using a flip chart makes psycho-education an interactive experience. Therapists can feel confident in teaching their clients polyvagal theory by following the chart. With a flip chart visible during sessions, the therapist can: remind clients of the ways the autonomic nervous system has been shaped and is active in their daily living experience, display a page corresponding to the present moment, thus anchoring that experience in the theory, keep a page of the hierarchy visible when working with a client's habitual response pattern.

In sharp contrast with the current top-down medicalized method to treating addiction, this book presents the felt sense polyvagal model (FSPM), a paradigm-shifting, bottom-up approach that considers addiction as an adaptive attempt to regulate emotional states and trauma. The felt sense polyvagal model draws from Porges' polyvagal theory, Gendelin's felt sense, and Lewis' learning model of addiction to offer a graphically illustrated and deeply embodied way of conceptualizing and treating addiction through supporting autonomic regulation. This model de-pathologizes addiction as it teaches embodied practices through tapping into the felt sense, the body’s inner wisdom. Chapters first present a theoretical framework and demonstrate the graphic model in both clinician and client versions and then teach the clinician how to use the model in practice by providing detailed treatment strategies. This text’s informed, compassionate approach to understanding and treating trauma and addiction is adaptable to any school of psychotherapy and will appeal to addiction experts, trauma specialists, and clinicians in all mental health fields.

This is an imminently practical workbook that shows a variety of invaluable techniques to get centered, calm and organized. An effective and enjoyable guide to help you feel in charge of yourself." ~ Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. This is the workbook that all mental health professionals wish they had at the beginning of their careers. Containing over 100 approaches to effectively deal with trauma, this workbook pulls together a wide array of treatments into one concise resource. Equally useful in both group and individual settings, these interventions will provide hope and healing for the client, as well as expand and solidify the professional's expertise. Tools and techniques drawn from the most effective trauma modalities: * Art Therapy * CBT * DBT * EFT * EMDR * Energy Psychology * Focusing * Gestalt Therapy * Guided Imagery * Mindfulness * Psychodrama * Sensorimotor Psychology * Somatic Experiencing and Movement Therapies -BONUS: Book includes a link to all reproducible worksheets! Print and use with clients right away!! Praise for 101 Trauma-Informed Interventions: “Linda Curran's unflagging energy and dedication to the healing of traumatized individuals has led to a voluminous, exciting, and comprehensive, 101 Trauma Informed Interventions. This workbook provides a plethora of effective tools -- traditional as well as innovative -- that can be used in whole or as a part of a course of therapy and also as self-help. The variety of options offered goes a long way towards dispelling the (unfortunately) popular misconception that there are only a limited number of interventions that help people to recover from trauma. Survivors as well as therapists who have been frustrated by the rigidity of strict adherence to evidence based practice will be greatly relieved to find a wealth of useful strategies to experiment, evaluate, and sort into a personally tailored trauma recovery program. This workbook is a god-send for the trauma field, expanding the possibilities for recovery in a most generous way.” ~ Babette Rothschild, MSW author of The Body Remembers and 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery "Linda Curran has carefully and knowledgeably curated a practical, effective collection of interventions that actually work for trauma survivors. Any clinician committed to helping those suffering from posttraumatic stress needs to have these tools and resources to draw upon, because standard talk therapy, nine times out of ten, is simply not going to cut it. These exercises will." ~ Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, author of Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal “Drawing from the whole spectrum of trauma-based therapies, Linda Curran has compiled a sampling of practical exercises designed to help therapists and their clients better navigate the mine field that trauma work can be and find the path to healing.” ~ Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. author of Internal Family Systems Therapy "101 Trauma-Informed Interventions provides an accessible functional “playbook” for therapists committed to the rehabilitation of the client with a trauma history. In a readable volume Curran integrates diverse approaches of treatment and emphasizes the unique role that trauma plays in mental health. Underlying this eclectic strategy is the common theme emphasizing that healing will only begin when the trauma related feelings embedded in the body are appreciated." ~ Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D., author of The Polyvagal Theory "An interesting compendium of potential interventions that can be interwoven into any therapist's existing conceptual framework" ~ Louis Cozolino, Ph.D., Pepperdine University, and author of 5 books including the best-seller The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, Healing the Social Brain (2nd edition)

This practical guide to understanding the cranial nerves as the key to our psychological and physical well-being builds on Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory—one of the most important recent developments in human neurobiology. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience as a craniosacral therapist and Rolfer, Stanley Rosenberg explores the crucial role that the vagus nerve plays in determining our psychological and emotional states and explains that a myriad of common psychological and physical symptoms—from anxiety and depression to migraines and back pain—indicates a lack of proper functioning in the vagus nerve. Through a series of easy self-help exercises, the book illustrates the simple ways we can regulate the vagus nerve in order to initiate deep relaxation, improve sleep, and recover from injury and trauma. Additionally, by exploring the link between a well-regulated vagus nerve and social functioning, Rosenberg’s findings and methods offer new hope that by improving social behavior it is possible to alleviate some of the symptoms at the core of many cases of autism spectrum disorders. Useful for psychotherapists, doctors, bodyworkers, and caregivers, as well as anyone who experiences the symptoms of chronic stress and depression, this book shows how we can optimize autonomic functioning in ourselves and others, and bring the body into the state of safety that activates its innate capacity to heal.