Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: An Autonomic Roadmap to Safety, Connection and Healing

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Deborah Dana, LCSW, LICSW Related seminars and products

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Deb Dana, LCSW, LICSW, is a clinician and consultant specializing in using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma and create ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally on ways Polyvagal Theory informs clinical work. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, clinical advisor at Khiron Clinics, and an advisor to Unyte.

 

Deb is the author of The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton, 2018), Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices (Norton, 2020), Befriending Your Nervous System (Sounds True, 2020), Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory (forthcoming from Sounds True), co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018), and creator of the Polyvagal Flip Chart (Norton, 2020).

To learn more, visit rhythmofregulation.com or www.polyvagalinstitute.org.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Deborah Dana maintains a private practice, is an advisor with Unyte/iLS and is a consultant with the Veterans Association and Khiron Clinics. She receives a consulting fee and speaker honorarium from Sounds True. Deborah Dana receives a speaking honorarium from Life Architect and Embody Lab and receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. All relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations have been mitigated.
Non-financial: Deborah Dana has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Target Audience

• Psychotherapists
• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Nurses and Doctors
• Other Professionals Who Work within the Mental Health Fields

Outline

ESSENTIALS OF POLYVAGAL THEORY 

• Evolution of the autonomic nervous system
• How trauma influences autonomic profiles
• Three organizing principles
  • Neuroception: Detection without perception
  • Hierarchy: 3 predictable pathways of response
  • Coregulation: The biological imperative

NEUROCEPTION AND THE SHAPING OF AUTONOMIC PATHWAYS

• Understand the internal surveillance system
• Track cues of safety and danger
• Everyday “biological rudeness”
• Trauma, autonomic wisdom, and cognitive override

NAVIGATE THE AUTONOMIC HIERARCHY 

• Exploring three autonomic circuits
  • Sympathetic branch
  • Ventral vagal pathway
  • Dorsal vagal pathway
• How trauma shapes cycles of autonomic response
• Engage the regulating capacities of the autonomic nervous system
• Introduction to autonomic mapping

THE SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 

• The five elements of the Social Engagement System
• What happens when parts of the system are unavailable?
• Using the Social Engagement System to regulate states
• Exercising the Social Engagement System

TRACKING AUTONOMIC STATES 

• Seeing patterns over time
• Use micro-moments to resource change
• Explore the blended states of play and stillness
• Create autonomic anchors

MEETING THE BIOLOGICAL NEED FOR CONNECTION 

• Mapping the continuum of solitude to sociality
• Create safety in co-regulation
• Working with the cycle of reciprocity - rupture - repair

SHAPING THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM TOWARD SAFETY 

• Identify portals of intervention
• Create neural exercises
• Use breath as a regulator
• Resourcing new patterns through movement
• Explore the autonomic response to touch
• Use autonomic imagery

INCORPORATING POLYVAGAL THEORY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

• Getting comfortable teaching Polyvagal Theory to clients
• Tracking the 8 steps of a Polyvagal-Informed clinical session
• Polyvagal-Informed assessment and treatment planning
• Polyvagal Theory and Phase I trauma treatment

RESPONSIBILITIES OF A POLYVAGALINFORMED THERAPIST 

• The guiding questions
• Ethical considerations
• Research limitations and potential risks

Objectives

1. Describe the principles of Polyvagal Theory and how to communicate them in client friendly language.
2. Explore three circuits of the autonomic nervous system for the purpose of client psychoeducation.
3. Analyze how the autonomic nervous system operates as an internal surveillance system and its impact on clients’ habitual responses to trauma.
4. Determine how to help clients engage the regulating capacities of the autonomic nervous system in order to create an environment of safety.
5. Explain how to exercise the Social Engagement System to assist clients in becoming more adept in skills of co-regulation and creating reciprocal relationships.
6. Assess for patterns in clients’ autonomic states to better inform treatment planning.
7. Summarize the trauma-informed therapist’s role as co-regulator and its impact on clinical outcomes.
8. Identify portals of intervention in the autonomic nervous system to more effectively establish safety and treat trauma.
9. Discover the right degree of neural challenge and exercises to employ with clients to help shape the autonomic nervous system toward safety and connection.
10. Examine how to work with the cycle or reciprocity-rupture-repair in helping clients achieve the biological need for connection.
11. Design a Polyvagal-informed clinical practice based on appropriate assessment and treatment planning.
12. Examine ethical issues, research limitations, and potential risks to be considered by a Polyvagal-informed therapist.

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