Mental Health Services
Polyvagal Theory: Understanding How Your Nervous System Shapes Safety and Connection
What Is the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve plays a vital role in the connection between your brain and body. It’s responsible for sending information about your body’s state to your brain—and for carrying signals back that help regulate heart rate, digestion, and emotional balance.
Recent research highlights how the vagus nerve helps manage stress, inflammation, and emotional regulation, making it one of the most important parts of the body to understand when working toward mental and physical well-being.
What Is Polyvagal Theory?
Developed by neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory helps us understand how the autonomic nervous system influences how we feel, think, and respond to life’s challenges.
This theory shows that our nervous system constantly scans for signs of safety or danger, and that our reactions, whether calm, anxious, or shut down, are automatic survival responses rather than conscious choices.
Polyvagal Theory centers around three core ideas:
- Neuroception: How our body subconsciously detects safety or threat
- Hierarchy: The three main states of the nervous system (ventral, sympathetic, dorsal)
- Co-Regulation: The healing power of safe connection with others
Understanding these principles helps us learn how to work with, not against, our body’s natural responses to stress and trauma.
The Polyvagal Hierarchy: Three States of the Nervous System
Each trauma therapy plan is personalized, but here’s what you can expect:
- Ventral Vagal – The State of Safety and Connection
This is the state where we feel calm, present, and connected. When our nervous system is regulated, life feels manageable—we can think clearly, communicate, and experience hope.
In therapy, we aim to strengthen this state so you can return to it more easily after moments of stress or overwhelm. - Sympathetic – The State of Mobilization
In this state, the body prepares to fight or flee. You might notice anxiety, restlessness, anger, or racing thoughts. While this response helps us survive danger, it can also lead to chronic stress, tension, or burnout when constantly activated. - Dorsal Vagal – The State of Shutdown
When the nervous system senses extreme danger or exhaustion, it can enter a freeze or shutdown mode. You may feel detached, numb, or hopeless. Therapy helps create a path back from this place—slowly restoring safety and connection.
How Polyvagal Theory Supports Therapy
At Safe Haven Counseling & Wellness, we use trauma-informed and neuroscience-based approaches to help you:
- Understand your body’s stress responses
- Learn practical ways to regulate your nervous system
- Build emotional resilience through connection
- Create lasting patterns of safety, calm, and self-trust
Whether you’re healing from trauma, anxiety, grief, or chronic stress, understanding the nervous system can help you create deep and sustainable change.
Recommended Reading and Resources
If you’d like to explore more, here are a few books and tools that expand on Polyvagal Theory and nervous system healing:
- Anchored – Deb Dana
- Poly vagal Card Deck
- Rewire Your Anxious Brain – Catherine Pittman & Elizabeth Karle
- 50 Ways to Rewire Your Anxious Brain: Simple Skills to Soothe Anxiety and Create New Neural Pathways to Calm
- Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve – Stanley Rosenberg
- The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
- The Trauma Spectrum – Robert Scaer
- The Body Bears the Burden – Robert Scaer
Why
Co-Regulation: The Power of Connection
Healing doesn’t happen in isolation. Co-regulation, the shared exchange of calm, safety, and trust between people, is a biological necessity. In therapy, we use co-regulation to create a safe space where your nervous system can relax, rebuild, and learn to trust connection again.
Even though our culture celebrates independence, we are wired for connection. Therapy grounded in Polyvagal principles helps you rediscover that sense of safety within yourself and with others.
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- Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC)
- Experienced in treating anxiety, trauma, grief, depression, and specializing in brainspotting
- Secure, HIPAA-compliant video sessions
- Serving adults in Austin, TX and Minnesota
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Ready to take the first step toward reclaiming calm and control?
Schedule a telehealth consultation today to discuss how anxiety therapy might support you.
You don’t have to face it all on your own.
Begin Your Healing Journey
If you’re ready to understand your mind and body in a deeper way, therapy informed by Polyvagal Theory can help you reconnect with safety and balance.