What is polyvagal therapy and how can it help you heal?

In recent years, there’s been a growing interest in understanding how our nervous system shapes our emotional world, relationships, and responses to stress and trauma. Polyvagal guided therapy is an approach that helps us tune into this system, recognising its signals, understanding our internal states, and learning to move between them in healthier ways.

In this article, we'll introduce the core principles of polyvagal theory and explain how therapy informed by this model can help clients manage anxiety, depression, trauma, and emotional dysregulation. Whether you’re someone struggling with chronic stress, feeling stuck in unhelpful patterns, or just wanting to understand yourself more deeply, this approach may offer something meaningful for you.

How does polyvagal guided therapy help?

Polyvagal-informed therapy teaches you how to recognise your nervous system state, understand what’s triggering it, and learn tools to move towards safety and connection. It helps you build a healthier relationship with your body’s natural responses, without shame or judgment.

Understanding your nervous system

Polyvagal theory offers a powerful framework for understanding how our nervous system responds to life experiences, especially those that are stressful or traumatic. Rather than seeing emotions as random or irrational, this model helps us see them as biological responses to perceived safety or threat.

At any given moment, our nervous system is operating in one of three main states:

1. Ventral vagal state - safety and connection

In this state, we feel calm, safe, connected, and present. We’re able to engage meaningfully with others, think clearly, and respond flexibly to challenges. This is the 'rest and digest' state where we are most regulated. When we’re here, we feel emotionally balanced and able to enjoy life and connect with others.

2. Sympathetic state - fight or flight

When the nervous system perceives danger, it shifts into survival mode. You might feel anxious, panicky, irritable, or on edge. Physiologically, your heart rate and breathing increase, and adrenaline floods the body. This state is designed to help us mobilise and escape danger, but when it’s activated too often or for too long, it can become exhausting and overwhelming.

3. Dorsal vagal state - shutdown and disconnection

If escape doesn’t feel possible, the body may move into a freeze or shutdown response. This can look like emotional numbness, depression, chronic fatigue, dissociation, or a sense of disconnect from the world or yourself. It’s the nervous system’s way of trying to protect us by 'shutting down' to avoid pain.

Key techniques in polyvagal guided therapy

Co-regulation

The therapeutic relationship itself becomes a tool for healing. When your therapist maintains a grounded, calm presence (in the ventral vagal state), your nervous system can begin to regulate in response. This process of co-regulation helps you feel safe enough to explore difficult emotions or past trauma.

Personal profile mapping

We create a personal 'state map' by exploring what each nervous system state feels like for you. You might complete reflective prompts such as:

• When I’m in a sympathetic state, I feel…
• When I’m in a dorsal state, the world feels…

This helps you notice subtle shifts and patterns, so you can respond with compassion and skill rather than getting stuck.

Triggers and glimmers

Most people are familiar with the idea of triggers - situations that throw us into anxiety, panic, or emotional shutdown. But we also have glimmers - those small, positive moments that bring a sense of peace, connection, or joy. Polyvagal therapy teaches us to notice and amplify glimmers so that we can strengthen our ventral vagal pathways and increase resilience.

What can polyvagal therapy help with?

Because it works with the body’s natural stress responses, polyvagal-informed therapy can be especially helpful for clients struggling with:

• anxiety and panic attacks
• depression and emotional numbness
• post-traumatic stress (PTSD and complex trauma)
• health anxiety, and chronic stress
• disordered eating
• attachment wounds and relational trauma
• burnout or nervous system overwhelm
• developmental trauma or neglect
• emotional dysregulation and mood swings

It is also an excellent fit for people who find that traditional 'talk therapy' hasn’t reached the deeper, body-based roots of their distress. By learning to listen to your body and regulate your nervous system, healing can become more integrated and long-lasting.

Trauma, patterns, and the nervous system

When we talk about trauma in polyvagal therapy, we’re not just talking about the story of what happened - we’re also looking at how your body responded at the time and how it continues to respond now. We explore questions like:

• Did you fight?
• Did you flee or freeze?
• Do you still feel like you’re stuck in that moment, physically or emotionally?

These patterns are not flaws. They’re intelligent, protective responses from your nervous system. The goal is not to 'fix' them, but to understand them - so you can gently shift towards new ways of being.

Our nervous system is doing its best to keep us safe, often using old patterns that once served us but no longer help. Polyvagal guided therapy gives us the map, tools, and support to navigate these states, develop self-awareness, and cultivate real emotional safety.