What's the importance of safety to health? 

In this episode we’re going to be talking about the neuroscience of safety and how our sense of safety can be hugely important to the way we communicate and learn. Research shows that when we perceive threat, we go into a hyper-vigilant state and certain circuits of the brain shut down to focus on self-protection. If we can become aware of this as it’s happening we can not only use certain tools to mediate it, but we can also help others not end up in that state too.

We are extremely lucky today to go straight to the horses mouth so to speak of this research, speaking with the founder of Polyvagal Theory himself, Dr Stephen Porges. Dr. Porges is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at Indiana University. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers across several disciplines including, biomedical engineering, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, and substance abuse.

In this episode we’ll be unpacking his Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behaviour. The theory is leading to innovative treatments based on insights into the mechanisms operating in several behavioural, psychiatric, and physical disorders.

He is the author of several books which we’ll be mentioning in the interview and you can find links to in the show notes.

What we discuss in this episode?

06:29 What’s going on inside people’s heads?

09:00 If your body is in a state of threat you can’t access certain areas of your brain

12:49 What does the Vagal nerve do?

17:00 Facial expression and tone of voice broadcast our physiological state via the Vagal nerve

22:30 Co-regulation between parent and child

24:00 Polyvagal Theory explained by its founder

28:00 Bidirectionality: feedback between physiological state and mental state

32:00 Trauma, making ourselves numb, disassociation and turning off your body

35:00 Co-regulation VS co-exacerbation between individual and collective systems

40:30 Dan Siegal’s ‘window of tolerance’

43:00 Error in thinking about trauma, of focusing on event and not on bodily reaction and feelings

45:30 Stephen’s new book ‘Polyvagal safety: attachment, communication, self-regulation’

48:00 Physical and mental illness are the same, but medical professionals aren’t taught this

51:45 Vagal metrics to help explain ‘medically unexplained symptoms’

57:00 Moving beyond Paul McLean’s outdated concepts of the Triune brain and the Limbic system

54:00 ‘Neural exercise’ (play and social interaction) should be a fundamental part of a healthy education

1:04:34 Being listened to is crucial to feeling safe

1:07:30 Voice cues for safety have been critical to man’s survival

1:07:40 The ‘Safe and Sound’ protocol for inducing clam and safety

1:12:00 Tools from Polyvagal theory for bypassing trauma triggers

1:13:45 Listen to your body don’t hack it.

References and books mentioned: 

Dr. Stephen Porges ‘The pocket guide to Polyvagal Theory: the transformative power of feeling safe?’ https://www.stephenporges.com/books

Dr. Stephen Porges ‘Polyvagal safety: attachment, communication, self-regulation’ https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324016274

Dan Siegal’s ‘window of tolerance’ concept https://www.stmichaelshospital.com/pdf/programs/mast/mast-session1.pdf

Stephenporges.com

Polyvagalinstitute.org

Safe and Sound protocol™ https://integratedlistening.com/porges/