Polyvagal and Attachment Theory in Therapy

You are more than just your brain; your whole human body is made up of magnificent, complex, and interdependent systems that impact your mental health. It makes sense to work with a therapist who is holistic, somatic, and mindful of these interdependent systems. By respecting these complex systems, a holistic and mindful therapist can help you connect with your somatic experiences, emotions, and moods through guidance during sessions, homework assignments, and psycho-education. With this guidance, you are empowered with knowledge and understanding of your whole body, especially your autonomic nervous system (ANS).

We like to think of your ANS at Flourish as your ‘danger detection system.’ This system picks up external and internal cues that the vagus nerve determines are a ‘perceived threat’ and then the vagus nerve re-routes internal resources to help you protect from a perceived threat to your survival. Without this fantastic danger detection system the human species would not have been able to survive for this long.

By valuing your danger detection system, our perspective on anxiety can shift. For instance, your danger detection system can increase your heart rate, make your breath shallow and your body sweat, and shift your thoughts into urgent worry as a way to warn you that the vagus nerve has picked up a perceived threat. Instead of trying to medicate these symptoms to make them go away, we encourage our people to be with these symptoms, give ourselves gratitude for the signaling, use our eyes, ears, and breath to establish we are safe and ok.

Developing mindful awareness of the signals your body is sending you takes patience, time, and self-compassion. It is not an easy thing to do, but it is achievable, especially if you are working with a therapist who has had clinical training on how to utilize polyvagal theory and mindfulness in a therapeutic setting.

Learning to become mindful of which physiological state you are in can help you cope with anxiety, overwhelm, hopelessness, and feeling shut down by knowing what strategies and skills to use in these different states. Combining the mindful awareness of your physiological state with attachment theory in therapy can help you gain more understanding of why your body may have a difficult time disengaging from anxiety or depression. A therapist who uses polyvagal and attachment theories can help you learn when and why your body chooses to engage in fight or flight or a freeze state. This can help you to accept and process past experiences, which in turn will soften intense emotional states that may seem impossible to soothe.

Practicing mindfulness of your nervous system and how your body is responding to situations, interactions, or the environment can help you turn down the volume of the loud, critical, judgmental, and shame-provoking voices within you. Instead of believing you’ve reacted the wrong way or your behavior is not rational/logical, you can shift to a self-compassionate narrative. This narrative allows you to be human, connects you to the discomfort of the present moment, and embraces acceptance that your behavior was an innate defensive and protective mechanism at work on an unconscious cellular level, which Dr. Stephen Porges refers to a ‘neuroception'.

Flourish therapists bring polyvagal theory into their work so you can learn how to make anxiety your friend, develop emotional flexibility, and comfort distress with self-compassion.