Do you ever feel like your anxiety shows up out of nowhere- like your body is stuck in overdrive even when your mind says everything is “fine”?
You’re not alone. And it’s not just in your head. Your nervous system might be trying to protect you in the only way it knows how.
An approach called Polyvagal Theory can help make sense of those hard-to-explain experiences.
What Is Polyvagal Theory?
Polyvagal Theory was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at the Kinsey Institute. It offers a way to understand how your nervous system responds to stress, especially when it doesn’t feel safe.
In simple terms, your body has three main states:
Ventral Vagal (Safe and Social): You feel connected, calm, and engaged with the world.
Sympathetic (Fight or Flight): You feel anxious, panicked, or on edge. You might get irritable, overwhelmed, or find yourself overthinking everything.
Dorsal Vagal (Shut Down or Freeze): You feel numb, disconnected, or like everything is “too much.” It might feel like depression, fogginess, or dissociation.
Your body shifts between these states automatically, based on whether it senses safety or a threat. That means your anxiety might not be about what’s happening now, but rather it might be related to what your nervous system remembers from the past.
So... How Does This Help With Anxiety?
When we work with Polyvagal Theory in therapy, we help you:
Identify what state your nervous system is in- not as something to fix, but as something to understand
Recognize your personal cues of safety and danger, which may come from present events or old experiences
Build your capacity to shift into a state of calm and connection, using gentle and accessible practices
These tools are not about “pushing through” or “fixing yourself.” They’re about learning how to befriend your body and helping your nervous system find its way back to safety, over and over again.
Therapy That Honors the Wisdom of Your Nervous System
If you’ve ever felt like traditional talk therapy didn’t quite reach the root of your anxiety, working with a therapist trained in Polyvagal Theory could be the missing piece.