Through the Polyvagal Lens

This week in one of my Play & Creative Arts Therapy sessions, I found myself playing cards with a teenage client. No deep trauma processing as in his previous sessions, just connecting through shared enjoyment. Over time, his ventral vagal state (the state of feeling grounded, safe and connected) has strengthened through the attunement and co-regulation of our sessions. He has stepped into sympathetic nervous system activation (the fight/flight/freeze state), without being hijacked by it and faced his overwhelming feelings, by 'borrowing' the regulation of my ventral vagal state. Now we can simple enjoy our connection. As we played, he made eye-contact, initiated conversations and we laughed - none of which he could have managed a year ago - his social engagement system was online and his ventral vagal state strong.

You don't have to be a therapist to help strengthen the ventral vagal state of the young people you work with - find out more in my book 'Polyvagal Theory in the Classroom'

#polyvagaltheory #teaching #CYP #childmentalhealth #emotionalwellbeing #SEMH