The Polyvagal Theory. Explained.

hey there you guys Eirene line here welcome to this video to this YouTube channel and to this world of healing trauma nervous system health and all things near plasticity thank you so much for being here today I want to get into a more sciency topic it is something I've covered a little bit in the past but I've never named it specifically and that is the polyvagal theory I will say it one more time the polyvagal theory basically poly means many vagal means the vagus nerve and this is a very important herbal I guess all nerves are important aren't they but this is one of the key ones that we need to understand fully like fully fully fully and I'll get into that today in order to heal trauma and restore health back to our nervous system I've got a book here I want to show you this is the magnum opus of the polyvagal theory it's written by dr. Steven Porges he was the person he is the person that really put this nerve on the map and he really did the research and the study and the scrutiny to figure out what it is that's different about us humans as mammals compared to say reptiles or birds or other animals that just don't have that social connection part and so the title of this book I'll read it out is neuro physiological foundations of emotions attachment communication and self-regulation those are a lot of big words so emotions attachment communication and self-regulation if you've been following me for a while you know that these are four areas that I'm always talking about in some way shape or form if it's not directly it's on the sidebar so quick note about the polyvagal theory it is a real thing it is an explanation that gives us information about how we find safety how we find connection with others how we shut down how we go into fight and flee responses how we survive it explains all of the things that we talk about here and all of the trainings and teachings I've studied through Peter Levine and Kathy Cain and even dr. Moshe Feldenkrais so first thing you need to know is the vagus nerve basically is our parasympathetic nervous system so I'm going to talk a few pieces and I'm going to bring them all together so the parasympathetic nervous system is part of our autonomic nervous system I'll post another video that goes into all these branches in intricacies so please watch that after this one so the parasympathetic nervous system part of the autonomic nervous system which is part of the peripheral nervous system this is known as our slowing down nervous system some people say rest digest but that isn't 100% accurate because there are multiple branches of the parasympathetic nervous system of the vagus nerve hence polyvagal theory so keep that kind of on the side for now second thing you need to know there are three kind of neural circuits within this polyvagal theory that are responsible for overall regulation and function of the human system one of them we would call immobilization and so that is part of the parasympathetic so I'll say that again immobilize ation the other is mobilization that is to act to move to fight to flight that is part of our sympathetic nervous system which is not part of the vagus nerve it's just part of another branch of our nervous system and then the third neural circuit that is responsible for regulation and and just how we work in general if what we would call social engagement or social connection this is important when we look at what for example an infant so a newborn baby comes out they have no skills to connect and self-soothe the part of them that we need to prime and perk up and teach and model to is this part of the polyvagal theory the social engagement the social connection part this is part of the parasympathetic nerve system but it's not part of the rest digest I told you it was a little complex so I'm going to review those again there are three basic neural circuits for regulation functions so a mobility or immobilization the ability to mobilize so that could be something like fight/flight but it also could be the energy to get up in the morning the ability to go out and walk to exercise to do chores around the house to have the the interest in just getting up and going I've talked about the importance of healthy aggression in other videos I'll post those below as well but this ability to move forward to just get going that is part of our mobilization nervous system part of the sympathetic and then the third neural circuit this idea of how we as mammals connect communicate and engage again that's part of the parasympathetic nervous system but different than the part of the parasympathetic nervous system the immobilizes us and puts us into rest digest okay so polyvagal again means many so if I go back to this idea of our fight our flight our freeze and our connection I'll break these branches down so stay with me here maybe get a pen and paper out and write them down so again we've got this ANS autonomic nervous system that branches off to the SNS sympathetic or and I should say The Pianist the parasympathetic nervous system the SNS is pretty simple it's about mobilization it's about getting up and going so we'll just leave that one to the side the pns that is more complex we have two branches that then divide further so one branch is the immobilization that is the shock state that is the Free State we say a person is in freeze a person is in shock they're in kind of a catatonia this this very low metabolism low oxygen blood pressure goes down heart rate goes down all of that so this is part of the parasympathetic nervous system I'm going to add in one more word it's part of the dorsal vagus dorsal Vegas and the only reason that's called that is because the part of that nerve the vagus nerve that comes out of the brain and comes through the brainstem up through the brainstem around the brainstem it goes to the back dorsal means back and so the part of the parasympathetic nervous system the part of the vagus nerve that governs our shutdown fries you know prepare for death kind of thing that is the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve and it runs back of the brainstem and then goes into the gut and into the viscera and if you think about it to give you an example if someone was to go into shock we would want them or we would hope let's just say there's a giant cut or an accident and then their life needs to be preserved the system will go into a shock response this parasympathetic dorsal vagal shutdown freeze response to preserve heart rate goes down blood pressure goes down etc okay so remember that one that is the branch of the vagus nerve that is parasympathetic that is for immobilization shutdown preservation of life etc low oxygen all of that the other part of the slowing down is called the rest digest now this one's a little different this is technically called the the the dorsal as well the dorsal vagal branch of the parasympathetic but it is not the high tone dorsal that shuts us down it is the low tone dorsal that puts us into kind of that nice rest digest post eating you get a little sleepy all the blood goes to the gut you digest all those things the low tone dorsal is also what we want to be in when we're beeping so that the system can repair cells the immune system can enhance our gut can repair so again I said at the very beginning of this we often just say the parasympathetic is rest digest that is half true part of the dorsal branch of the vagus is rest digest but the other part the other gear we could say is the high tone so depending on the state of the person depending on the situation a person will either be living in revving in high tone let's call that like 5th gear of the dorsal vagal branch or they'll be in a low tone let's just say you know neutral of the the vagus branch just resting recouping regenerating repairing so going back we've got this autonomic nervous system it's got the sympathetic it's got the parasympathetic the parasympathetic has this dorsal branch or the vagus nerve back of the brainstem goes to the gut and it is responsible for either shut down or rest and digest easy calm being that's like lounging at the beach just chilling out now the next part of this vagus nerve hope you're still with me is the ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic and this is where this book here the discoveries that port is made are very interesting so ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic means that that branch comes in front of the brainstem it goes to the face the ear the mouth the pharynx the larynx the heart the lungs everything above the diaphragm interestingly enough when we're born little baby their ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic is not myelinated yet so myelinated myelination of nerves helps things go fast and smooth it makes things refined the potential is there but it has to get let's say polish stuff it has to be used with good connection good at Oommen good attachment and a caregiver or a mother or a father who can help us learn learn how to engage and self-soothe so what's interesting is that when we think about calming a baby down what we're doing by talking to them rocking them a little bit looking into their eyes making faces that is sparking up the ventral vagal branch of their parasympathetic nervous system and that interestingly enough connects directly to the heart and it lowers the heart rate it affects the pacemaker of the heart so we want that good connection not just more infants but when we're adults think about when someone has an accident it's known that if someone has connection immediately after after an accident and they're soothed and they feel safety their likelihood of getting PTSD is less and that is because that settling that self-regulation is occurring as a result of that connection through the ventral Bagle branch of the parasympathetic nervous system it's a big one so just to review again we've got this parasympathetic nervous system it's got a lot of responsibility immobilization rest digest and this other ventral aspect that is to connect and engage here's what's interesting when we have got trauma that is trapped in our system in our survival physiology in our organs and our tissues we will often live in one of two states in that mobilization sympathetic that that wanting to get go leave be hyper-vigilant or what we find is more common in our society is we live in that free state that parasympathetic dorsal vagal shut down that that part of the nerve that goes to the gut that preserves remember I said that that part of the vagus nerve that parasympathetic that dorsal shut down it puts us into low metabolism it puts us into that it's almost like low gear you know it just doesn't get moving for anyone who has chronic conditions depression fibromyalgia autoimmune you know that is characterized by this lack of flow feeling lethargic feeling heavy having gut problems immune system problems so when there is this revving of survival stress that is still in the system and the system is trying to protect through a shutdown response we would be living more in that high tone dorsal and it isn't healthy we only want to stay in that for like minutes but many of us have been living like that for decades if not lifetimes so trauma again trapped trauma unresolved trauma untreated trauma it will create this this high tone dorsal or sympathetic or a blend of both sometimes they're both mixing around like a cocktail in order to heal we need to spark up that social engagement that ability to connect to ourselves connect to our environment I've done some other videos on the orienting response and how so important it is to understand what orienting is I will post that below as well if you think about this ventral vagal this nerve that goes to the face the neck the heart the lungs all of it by actively facilitating more engagement with the environment the engagement with ourselves actually doing a little bit of self biofeedback with all the ways we do that some people use breathwork I teach neurosensory exercises ways that we reach our selves how to calm down and self-regulate that is directly going to this eventual vagal branch of the parasympathetic which then in turn allows that that high dorsal tone parasympathetic that wants to shut down and frees it allows that to be less on guard less on board one of my mentors Kathy Cain will say when we have unresolved stress physiology in our system the phrase response and the sympathetic responses will run the front of our bus someone who is healthy and has regulation what runs the front of their bus is that social engagement social connection branch of the ventral that helps the heart rate come down but they're also being dominated by that rest digest dominate is not the best word but the rest I just part of parasympathetic will be more dominant and then you have better health because when you live more in that rest digest it allows the cells to repair the immune system to repair and so on okay so quick review polyvagal means many vegas --is many branches of this vagus nerve it's actually called the wandering nerve because it goes everywhere from face to here to heart to lungs to gut all the way down to the reproductive organs all of it there are these branches parasympathetic sympathetic parasympathetic has two branches it's got that rest digest and then that shut down and we want to facilitate and foster getting out of that shut down out of that freeze evans sympathetic and into more social engagement and into more of that rest digest of course that is what i teach in my programs you have not checked those out yet be sure to o have that all inch below and thank you for being here thank you for watching thank you for learning and you'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Irene Lyon

Views: 201,884

Keywords: healing, ptsd, mentalhealth, wellness, anxiety, adrenalfatigue, polyvagaltheory, somaticexperiencing, trauma, healingtrauma, traumahealing, add, addiction, recovery, peterlevine, irenelyon, education, neurophysiology, porges, vagusnerve, neuroplasticity, hsp, highlysensitiveperson, empath, movement, movementculture, traumainformed, howtohealtrauma

Id: 8AnHlx3qZ30

Length: 16min 31sec (991 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019