ABSTRACT
Polyvagal theory (PVT) was developed by distinguished scientist and researcher Stephen Porges, whose research is based on the workings of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Deb Dana is a clinician who specialises in making PVT accessible for use within therapy. Porges advocates that in Western culture, when it comes to trauma, people tend to rely on a head-led, cognitive interpretation. Porges argues that in the first instance, trauma affects the body's physiology, leaving people's cognitive thought processes to follow swiftly after. When explaining how the brain and ANS are affected by trauma to individuals the author has worked with, she has found it helpful to combine Siegel's hand model alongside Dana's ladder metaphor. This ‘power couple' is the ideal combination, and acts as a concrete and constant reminder of ‘where people are at'. The vagal brake was a term developed by Porges to describe people's inbuilt ‘heart pacemaker'.
