Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory with Stephen Porges, PhD: Trauma, Attachment, Self-Regulation & Emotions

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Faculty

Stephen Porges, PhD Related seminars and products

Kinsey Institute, Indiana University and Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill

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Stephen W. Porges, PhD, is a distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium within the Kinsey Institute. He holds the position of Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland, and is a founder of the Polyvagal Institute. Dr. Porges served as president of both the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published approximately 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers across several disciplines including anesthesiology, biomedical engineering, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, psychometrics, space medicine, and substance abuse. His research has been cited in more than 50,000 peer-review publications. In 1994, Dr. Porges proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. The theory is leading to innovative treatments based on insights into the mechanisms mediating symptoms observed in several behavioral, psychiatric, and physical disorders.

He is the author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation (Norton, 2011), The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton, 2017), Polyvagal Safety (Norton, 2021), co-author with Seth Porges of Our Body Polyvagal World (Norton, 2023), and co-editor with Deb Dana of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018). Dr. Porges is also the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol™, which currently is used by approximately 3,000 therapists to improve spontaneous social engagement, to reduce hearing sensitivities, and to improve language processing, state regulation, and spontaneous social engagement.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Stephen Porges has employment relationships with Indiana University Bloomington and the University of North Carolina. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Porges receives a speaking honorarium, book royalties, and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He receives royalties from Integrated Learning Systems/Unyte. All relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations have been mitigated.
Non-financial: Dr. Stephen Porges is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He holds a patent on Televagal equipment. Dr. Porges is co-owner of Polyvagal Music, LLC launching in 2024.

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Objectives

1. Characterize the principle features and foundation of the Polyvagal Theory.
2. Articulate how the Polyvagal Theory may explain behavioural features related to psychiatric disorders and other behavioural problems.
3. Determine how maladaptive behaviours, which may accompany several psychiatric disorders, may reflect adaptive responses triggered by survival mechanisms.
4. Communicate how the neural process (neuroception) evaluates risk in the environment and triggers adaptive neural circuits promoting either social interactions or defensive behaviours.
5. Appraise the definition of the features of the Social Engagement System to include the neural pathways that connect the brain, face, and heart.
6. Illustrate how deficits in the regulation of the Social Engagement System are expressed as core features of several psychiatric disorders.
7. Specify how therapeutic presence is based on the interaction between the Social Engagement Systems of client and therapist.
8. Evaluate how the Social Engagement System is involved in optimizing therapeutic outcomes.
9. Ascertain which features of the Social Engagement System are compromised by stress and trauma.
10. Determine how acoustic stimulation, via the Safe and Sound Protocol, may function as an acoustic vagal nerve stimulator to shift autonomic state and facilitate spontaneous social engagement behaviours.

Outline

The Polyvagal Theory

• The biology of safety and danger
• The principles and features of the Polyvagal Theory and how to apply it in a clinical setting
• How the Polyvagal Theory can explain several features related to stress-related illnesses and psychiatric disorders such as PTSD, autism, depression, and anxiety
• The Social Engagement System and how it compromised by stress and trauma
• Resetting our Social Engagement System
• Evolutionary changes and adaptive functions in the autonomic nervous system
• Humans response hierarchy to challenges
• Three neural platforms that provide the neurophysiological bases for social engagement, fight/flight, and shutdown behaviours

Social Engagement System and Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders

• A description of the “face-heart” connection that forms a functional social engagement system
• How our facial expressions, vocalizations, and gestures are regulated by neural mechanisms that are involved in regulating our autonomic nervous system

Neuroception: Detecting and Evaluating Risk

• How our social and physical environment triggers changes in physiological state
• Understanding that adaptive physiological reactions may result in maladaptive behaviours
• Immobilization without fear
• Play as a neural exercise
• Listening as a neural exercise

“Demystifying” Common Biobehavioural Responses to Trauma and Abuse

• Fight/flight and immobilization defence strategies
• Adaptive function of immobilization and the associated clinical difficulties
• How the stresses and challenges of life distort social awareness and displace spontaneous social engagement behaviours with defensive reactions

Polyvagal informed therapy: Applying the Polyvagal Theory in Clinical Settings to Improve Treatment Outcome

• Understanding the principles underlying Polyvagal Informed Therapy
• Learn about the Safe and Sound Protocol as a Polyvagal Informed Therapy that may be useful in understanding and treating auditory hypersensitivities and other features of a dampened social engagement system
• Emotional state regulation as a core feature of psychiatric disorders
• Deconstructing features of autism and PTSD
• Strategies to explain disruption and repair of symbiotic regulation
• Identifying social cues that disrupt or repair defensive reaction
• Risks & limitations of the theory & clinical practice

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals