Through the Polyvagal Lens ...

This week in play therapy, I spent almost an entire session with one little chap blowing bubbles! I know that doesn't sound much like therapy, but something very powerful was happening in that session.

We made far more eye-contact than usual, and laughed together as we tried to catch the floating bubbles with our bubble wands, and even catch them in our mouths. We took deep diaphragmatic breaths and exhaled slowly as we tried to blow bigger bubbles, which took our autonomic nervous systems into strong ventral vagal states. This is a traumatised child, who is very easily dysregulated, and doesn't have a strong ventral vagal state. The eye-contact as we breathed would have fired the child's mirror neurones, in response to my actions, further strengthening his ventral vagal state. In between blowing the bubbles, I used 'body tracking' to help him connect with what was happening in his body, for instance noticing aloud how he was moving his body as he tried to bite the bubbles in the air, and asking him what they tasted like, to draw his attention to the sensory input. Connecting him to his body movements and sensory experience would also strengthen his ventral vagal state and improve his self-awareness.

This child was connecting strongly with me, and with his own body. We weren't simply blowing bubbles, we were practicing strengthening his ventral vagal state, and we were building his experience of a secure attachment through attunement.

You don't have to be a therapist to strengthen a child's ventral vagal state. Activities such as these are most effective when used for small periods of time on a daily basis as a 'Connection Diet', which is described in more detail in Part 2 of my book, 'Polyvagal Theory in the Classroom'.