Dr. Stephen Porges on Polyvagal Theory

As a closing thought, I'd put it this way. What I'm after, and I suspect this holds for a lot of people I work alongside, is a plain question: what are the actual rules our nervous system runs by? It sounds like an odd thing to chase. But in a sense we're trying to write out the manual for living well.

That's close to what therapy does, at least how I see it. You're reteaching someone to read the rules their own nervous system already follows. Polyvagal Theory spells out a few of the most basic ones, and they circle around feeling safe in the presence of other people, staying connected to them, and the fact that caring for mental health and caring for physical health turn out to run through the very same neural machinery.

Eric: Once more, everyone, that was Dr. Stephen Porges talking about Polyvagal Theory. There's a link below if you want to look over his website, read more about the work, and see what events he has coming up. Dr. Porges, thanks again for sitting down with us.

Dr. Porges: Thank you, Eric. I appreciate the invitation.

Eric: Alright. Goodbye.