What is the Polyvagal BASIC Approach?
The Polyvagal BASIC approach comes from the Polyvagal Theory and helps us to attend to our nervous systems to actively reshape our autonomic pathways and strengthen our capacity for safety and connection. This aids in not only understanding our drives for survival but also how we can take an empowered role in our own healing.
B: Befriending the Autonomic Nervous System
A: Attending to the Autonomic Nervous System
S: Shaping the Autonomic Nervous System
I: Integrating new Autonomic Rhythms
C: Connecting to others
B: Befriending the Autonomic Nervous System
“Befriending is learning to tune in and turn around autonomic state and story with curiosity and compassion”
The exercise of befriending our nervous system actually establishes a foundational ability to safely experience the different autonomic states, develop an understanding of what each feels and looks like for us personally, and with the added power of self-compassion and curiosity we can fundamentally change the relationship we have with our brain and bodies responses to triggers/stressors. The awareness that comes from being able to experience, name and understand what is happening for us puts us in the position to be able to respond differently.
A: Attending to the Autonomic Nervous System
The more skilled we become at attending to the movements in our Autonomic nervous system the more psychological flexibility we develop (believed to boost resilience) and the greater capacity we have to choose rather than react to triggers/stressors. The more attuned we are to what we are experiencing, the greater our capacity to connect with others wholly as well.
S: Shaping the Autonomic Nervous System
Shaped by our past experiences our autonomic nervous system responds with a focus on survival, it determines when we are safe and when we are in danger in the current moment from the collection of memories it has stored for reference. When we have experienced trauma, our ability to flexibly move through the different states is disturbed. We become more likely to live in a state of survival protection mode, with only fleeting experiences of feeling safe and connected to others. Engaging in practices to aid you in being calm, grounded and safe in the present puts you in the position to rebuild these feelings of safety, giving your nervous system alternative memories to store for reference is a fundamental part of healing. These exercises should stretch you outside of your comfort zone, however not so much that they overly activate your survival/protection modes.
I: Integrating new Autonomic Rhythms
Your autonomic nervous system has learned ways to keep you safe in the past; these were likely highly adaptive. Often though as we age, when we are no longer in these unsafe environments, those learned ways to cope are no longer adaptive and tend to do more harm than good. As such we have to teach our nervous system new ways of responding, this in itself can be scary because this new way is unpredictable because we haven’t experienced them before. It is important to get clear on your intentions behind the changes you are trying to make as this sets you up to keep moving towards your goals when this gets challenging. The other important component of this step is exercising resilience through the deliberate cultivation of habits and a life that supports you.
C: Connecting to others
“Looking at relationships through the lens of a reshaped system brings clarity to what is autonomically draining and filling.”
We are social beings, connection is hardwired into our brains and bodies. When this need is unmet, research has largely supported impacts on wellness, quality of life, illness and mortality. If we have been consistently dysregulated there is a high chance that we are connected with other similarly dysregulated individuals. Often people say, I attract these people into my life. These relationships can be draining and for some, very unhealthy. However, as you begin to rewire your Autonomic nervous system and behavioural responses, we find that we start to look for people and attune with those who mimic our new state of being.
Refer to the other page I have written on Polyvagal theory.
This information was adapted from Deb Dana’s book Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection.
Author: Samantha Sheppard, B Psych (Hons).
Samantha is a registered psychologist with experience working with children and adolescents (and their families), young adults and adults. Samantha empowers others with their mental health using a non-judgmental, compassionate approach and particularly resonates with the social and emotional well-being framework.
To make an appointment with Samantha Sheppard try Online Booking. Alternatively, you can call M1 Psychology Loganholme on (07) 3067 9129.