Exploring the Science of Safety and Connection

The autonomic nervous system is at the heart of daily living powerfully shaping our experiences of safety and influencing our capacity for connection. Polyvagal Theory provides a guide to the autonomic circuits that underlie behaviors and beliefs and an understanding of the body to brain pathways that give birth to our personal stories of safety and survival. Come learn the language of the nervous system and get to know your personal autonomic pathways. Deb has provided some handouts for the workshop, which you can download HERE and HERE. Learn more about Deb’s work here: rhythmofregulation.com Polyvagal Theory Reflection Prompts & QuestionsAs part of our polyvagal focus this month, I wanted to offer some additional reflections based on the work of Stephen Porges and Deb Dana; work that is still evolving. I also included some discussion of ‘hybrid’ states, or states that often receive less attention that the defensive stress responses of fight/flight and freeze. This is not meant to be exhaustive, but just an offering for reflection. Open questions for me are around how we can understand the polyvagal theory and neuroception (which we talk about in the workshop), in relationship to systems of oppression, white body supremacy, and the cultural ethos that gave birth to those things. We’re planning to make this the focus of a later session to follow this month; bringing into the discussion other perspectives from people occupying different social locations and cultures/traditions.EDIT (post-Deb workshop): (note from Deb) consider changing ‘fawn’ response to ‘appeasement’. I wrote ‘fawn’ in the reflections as it’s so commonly used, but she urges us to use other terminology. :)