Coaching particulieren / Somatic Experiencing (SE) in Polyvagal Approach
Somatic Experiencing (SE) in Polyvagal Approach
Many of us are not just traumatized by single events. Somatic Experiencing (SE) techniques are extremely helpful to break those cycles of activation. Lots of us are disturbed in more complex ways, involving childhood relationships and the development of our personalities. My SE work with clients benefits largely from Stephen W. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory.
The part of the autonomic nervous system that regulates heart and lungs is neuroanatomically and neurophysiologically linked to social interaction through facial expression, gaze, voice, listening and gesture. This component of the autonomic nervous system - the Ventral Vagal Complex - has more complex connections with the psyche than the Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC) and the Sympathetic branch. If disturbed in its function, resettleing the Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC) needs recovering and resolving inner conflict in earlier (often childhood) situations that may have caused the VVC to turn off, and still does so.
After re-establishing safety in the bodily felt sense, it is nescessary for the client to also experience safety in the affective, social setting, in order to allow the VVC to turn on again. (I find Stephen Porges' term "neuroception" beautiful and useful.) As well as it is essential for clients to learn to recognize the signals, thoughts and impulses that cause the VVC to turn off, and how to resettle it. Thus allowing the client to sense self awareness and ability to keep connection to the self and unique personal feelings in relation to partner and others. The turning off of the VVC also exposes us to almost unlimited activation, by anything that occurs, of the Sympathetic branch, eventually followed by total “shut down” by the DVC.
Recovering and solving inner conflict from the personal history of the client requires other techniques beside SE, such as systemic psychological insights of Alice Miller and The Work of Byron Katie (two of my personal favourites). I find it most effective to switch in the middle of sessions, after tracking sensations and stumbling on issues in the functioning of the VVC, to dialogue with the client in terms of disturbed familyrelations, fears and misbeliefs that resulted in coping mechanisms, right then and there.
The important difference is, that in psychological perspective the use of resources, such as in SE, is absolutely not productive, and can even be harmful. To undo misbeliefs caused by misunderstanding or abuse requires noticing how the mind created the coping mechanism. To present resourcing in such a conflict would affirm the damage and prolong it, instead of resolve it. On the other hand, it would be damaging to leave a client in a difficult situation with a nervous system that is shut down or highly activated, without resources. Therefore, it is a special and beautiful art to switch between the "inner languages", from speaking "reptilian" (defense) in one moment of the process, and “mammalian” (caring and benevolent) in the next moment, to “neocortical” (psychologically) in other moments.
Concluding: following the Polyvagal Approach you first need to help the client to find safety in the bodily felt sense, allowing the Sympathetic branch to remove the fear of “shut down” associated with the Dorsal Vagal Complex, and then help the client to engage the Ventral Vagal Complex, by providing appropriate social interactive cues while enabling the client to resolve whatever caused it to turn off. Through understanding the complex and subtle ways that our nervous system deals with affective and social issues, and how these thoughts and feelings influence the VVC, we can help ourselves and our clients live and experience a more “balanced” and socially interactive life.
© Author Marja Arons, Bureau Inca Vision, Baarn, The Netherlands, May 2008.
Read more:
- Porges, S.W. (1995). Orienting in a defensive world: Mammalian modifications of our evolutionary heritage. A Polyvagal Theory. Psychophysiology, 32, 301-318.
- Porges, S.W. (2001). The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42, 123-146.
- Porges, S.W. (2003). The Polyvagal Theory: phylogenetic contributions to social behavior. Physiology and Behavior, 79, 503-513.
- Porges, S.W. (2007). The Polyvagal Perspective. Biological Psychology, 74, 116-143.
Polyvagal Theory by Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D.: www.stephenporges.info
Coaching with SE in Polyvagal Approach: www.incaknowhow.nl/levenscoaching
Somatic Experiencing (SE) by Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.: www.traumahealing.com
Somatic Experiencing (SE) in the Netherlands: www.traumahealing.org
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