The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

by Deb Dana

For the next two months we will be reading The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy by Deb Dana. This is a fascinating book that deals with the science of safety – “the science of feeling safe enough to fall in love with life and take the risks of living.” Through the lens of the Polyvagal Theory, Deb Dana demonstrates how your autonomic nervous system evaluates risks in your environment, and how it shapes your experience of safety and your ability to connect to others. This book is written in a very accessible and practical way. It shows us how our physiology drives our responses and our outlook on life. 

I chose this book because I think that the ideas presented here are incredibly useful to all of us, both as students and as teachers of yoga. This book encourages us to examine why we drop from the state of peaceful connection to ourselves and others into the state of suspicion, irritation and self-protection, and, occasionally, total withdrawal and immobilization. It teaches us how to recognize the reasons behind our behaviors, and gives us tools to better manage our reactions. I think that this book would also be incredibly useful to anybody who works with clients in a therapeutic setting, because it shows us what we can do to help our clients recognize their triggers, and co-regulate their automatic physiological reactions to become more self-aware. This book is particularly useful for anybody who works with, or themselves experienced, any kind of trauma.

The book includes worksheets for tracking your physiological responses and practices for re-patterning your responses and behaviors. It also features a series of autonomic meditations.

So much of our work as yoga teachers and yoga therapists goes beyond simply providing yoga instruction. It involves creating a safe space for our students, giving them our undivided attention, and promoting the kind of energetic exchange that uplifts and empowered them. I was reminded of those more subtle aspects of our work as I was reading this book. While the book is mostly geared toward mental health therapists, I believe that information presented there about the physiology of the client – practitioner relationship is fundamental to what we do as yoga teachers. I hope that you pick up the book and check it out for yourself. Here are some specific lessons for yoga teachers from the book that I thought were particularly valuable.