Polyvagal Therapy

Your nervous system holds more than thoughts.
It carries your safety, stress, and past experiences in your body.

Polyvagal Therapy helps you understand that language.

What is Polyvagal-Informed Therapy?

Polyvagal-informed therapy is a nervous system–focused approach developed from the work of Dr. Stephen Porges. It explains how your body responds to safety, danger, and connection through the autonomic nervous system.

Instead of asking “What is wrong with me?”, this approach asks, “What state is my nervous system in right now?”

It is built on three core states:

1. Ventral Vagal (Safety and Connection)

Refers to the part of the autonomic nervous system that supports regulation, social engagement, and a felt sense of safety. When someone is in this state, they can usually stay present in the room, think with more clarity, and connect with other people without feeling guarded or overwhelmed.

2. Sympathetic (Fight or Flight)

Prepares your body to deal with danger, pressure, or perceived threat and can show up as anxiety, anger, or racing thoughts. Even when there is no immediate danger, your nervous system may stay activated if it has learned that the world does not feel fully safe.

3. Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown or Freeze)

A protective state that often appears when stress feels too intense, too prolonged, or too overwhelming to manage. Instead of mobilizing into action, your system begins to shut down in order to conserve energy and protect you from further distress. You may feel emotionally numb, disconnected from yourself or others.

How does Polyvagal Therapy work?

Instead of focusing only on thoughts or insight, this approach pays attention to what happens in the body during moments of anxiety, shutdown, overwhelm, or connection.

Techniques may include:

Tracking nervous system states

You learn to notice when your body is moving into regulation, fight or flight, or shutdown, and how those shifts affect your thoughts, emotions, and relationships.

Body awareness

Therapy builds your ability to read early nervous system cues such as breath changes, tension, or heaviness. It helps you to catch activation or shutdown sooner and intervene before your nervous system enters a sympathetic state.

Co-regulation

Your therapist uses steady tone, pacing, and attunement to signal safety to your nervous system. Your body begins to settle in response, and over time, you internalize that regulation and rely less on external support.

Gradual processing

Difficult material is approached in small, controlled steps. You briefly engage with a memory or feeling, then return to regulation.

Grounding and regulation tools

Your therapist may use paced breathing, sensory grounding, posture shifts, movement, or other body based strategies to help your system settle without forcing it.

Resourcing

Therapy strengthens anchors such as memories, sensations, or present moment cues that feel stable or safe. You learn to access and hold these states, so your nervous system has something to return to during stress.

What Can Polyvagal Therapy Help With?

It supports conditions where the nervous system feels stuck, overwhelmed, or shut down.

Chronic anxiety or panic
Trauma and PTSD
Emotional numbness or disconnection
Burnout and chronic stress
Difficulty with relationships or trust
Mood instability
Somatic symptoms such as tension, fatigue, or sleep issues

I’m here to support your healing journey. Take the first step today.

How is Polyvagal Therapy different from talk therapy?

Traditional talk therapy often focuses on thoughts, emotions, patterns, and insight gained through conversation. Polyvagal therapy is a type of somatic therapy may include that reflective work, but it also pays close attention to what your nervous system is doing at the moment.

It looks at how stress, threat, safety, and connection are showing up in your body through activation, shutdown, or regulation. That added layer matters because many responses to trauma or chronic stress are physiological, not just intellectual.