An intense conversation, a spat with a partner, or even an obnoxious tweet - these situations aren't life-or-death, yet we often react as if they are. That's because our bodies treat most perceived threats the same way. Yet one approach has proven to be incredibly effective in training our nervous system to stop overreacting: polyvagal theory. In Anchored, expert teacher Deb Dana shares a down-to-earth presentation of polyvagal theory, then brings the science to life with practical, everyday ways to transform your relationship with your body.

Whether you are stuck in the distress of life, or appear like nothing’s wrong, you may have faced trauma, or incredible stress, or suffocating fear. Maybe you wonder whether those emotions, memories, and experiences are blocking you from being as fulfilled and happy as you could be. Maybe you’re stuck in patterns that simply no longer work for you. What if you could change it all? What if you could feel safe and solid and secure inside your own body? What if your life could be peaceful and centered and fulfilled?

Kathy L. Kain and Stephen J. Terrell draw on 50 years of their combined clinical and teaching experience to provide this clear road map for understanding the complexities of early trauma and its related symptoms. Experts in the physiology of trauma, the authors present an introduction to their innovative somatic approach that has evolved to help thousands improve their lives. Synthesizing across disciplines - Attachment, Polyvagal, Neuroscience, Child Development Theory, Trauma, and Somatics - this book provides a new lens through which to understand safety and regulation.

It can be incredibly frustrating when your body reacts to situations in ways that you can’t control. But what if you could harness the same mechanisms that cause fear and panic to instead summon peace and spaciousness? In Befriending Your Nervous System, clinician Deb Dana offers practical advice and exercises for engaging with your subconscious nervous system responses for greater wellness and resilience.

Vagus Nerve Basics is an easy-to-digest explanation of what happens within the complex nervous system, how it impacts mind-body health, and the physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that may occur when imbalanced.

Discover the innovative intersection of somatic therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS), featuring 5 core practices to transform modern therapeutic approaches. Enhance your clinical practice and patient outcomes by skillfully uniting body and mind through an evidence-based therapeutic modality—endorsed by leaders in the field, including Richard Schwartz.

This practical guide to understanding the cranial nerves as the key to our psychological and physical well-being builds on Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory - one of the most important recent developments in human neurobiology. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience as a craniosacral therapist and Rolfer, Stanley Rosenberg explores the crucial role that the vagus nerve plays in determining our psychological and emotional states and explains that a myriad of common psychological and physical symptoms.

The causes of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse. Many survivors grew up in houses that were not homes-in families that were as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous. If you felt unwanted, unliked, rejected, hated, and/or despised for a lengthy portion of your childhood, trauma may be deeply engrained in your mind, soul, and body. This book is a practical guide to recovering from lingering childhood trauma. It is copiously illustrated with examples of the author's and his clients' journeys of recovering.

How can you begin holistically tackling your anxiety whenever the moment strikes? In The Anxiety Healer’s Guide licensed counselor and creator of the Instagram account @TheAnxietyHealer Alison Seponara brings her expertise and commitment to healing anxiety to the world. While the journey toward recovery might look different for everyone, this portable resource is full of concrete activities, tools, and techniques that have been scientifically proven to calm the sympathetic nervous system and give sufferers a better sense of control over their minds and bodies.

In this accessible and groundbreaking book—filled with the moving stories of real people—medical doctor and bestselling author Gabor Maté shows that emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and many others. An international bestseller translated into over thirty languages, When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing, providing transformative insights into how illness can be the body's way of saying no to what the mind cannot or will not acknowledge.

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Listeners will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution" - a transformation in the relationship to one's self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance.

Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: Why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.

In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health?

Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment - and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives.

With Somatic Descent, you are invited to tune in to the natural wisdom of your body, refine and amplify it, and explore it fully. In this program pioneering teacher Dr. Reggie Ray presents a fascinating audio program on this rich dimension of Tibetan Buddhism: how to go beyond the veil of the thinking mind to tap the wondrous yet wholly trustworthy domain of your body.

For those suffering chronic pain - even after years of surgery, rehabilitation and medication - only one question matters: How do I find lasting relief? With Freedom from Pain, two pioneers in the field address a crucial missing factor essential to long-term recovery - healing the unresolved emotional trauma held within the body.

If you've ever struggled with depression or know someone who has, take heart: Mindfulness practice is a simple, powerful way to naturally break depression's self-perpetuating cycle. With The Mindful Way Through Depression, four leading researchers present insightful lessons drawn from both Eastern meditative traditions and cognitive therapy about how to triumph over this illness - and, more importantly, how to prevent it from striking again.

It's pernicious...it's diabolical...it creeps into every moment of our lives. It influences our relationships, impacts our physical body, works its way into our conversations, sparks non-nourishing behaviors, and forces us to do things we'd never want to do. It's infectious; it's relentless.... It's stress! We all know it. We all experience it. It's the human condition - but through this audiobook, you will learn to transcend it.

This breakthrough book presents a disarmingly simple idea: The way we pay attention in daily life can play a critical role in our health and well-being. According to Dr. Les Fehmi, a clinical psychologist and researcher, many of us have become stuck in “narrow-focus attention”: a tense, constricted, survival mode of attention that holds us in a state of chronic stress - and which lies at the root of common ailments including anxiety, depression, ADD, stress-related migraines, and more.

Mindfulness—the art of paying attention with openness and curiosity to the present moment—has attracted ever-growing interest and tens of thousands of practitioners. This uniquely accessible guide provides a scientific explanation for how mindfulness positively and powerfully affects the brain and body, as well as practical guidance.

Tap into the wisdom of the body with down-to-earth practices like “Surrendering to the Breath” and “Befriending Feelings” that allow the body to become the source of mindfulness. Willa Blythe Baker introduces meditation practice as the cultivation of a way of being, rather than a way of doing. It is a way of being that is self-aware, self-compassionate, and embodied. This way of being is not limited to practice on the cushion or on the yoga mat—somatic mindfulness is available at any moment, activated by attention to the body’s wisdom and its teachings.

A somatic counselor offers tools for developing a deeper, more awakened relationship with your body through sensation, breath, and movement.

Clients who have experienced traumatic events and seek EMDR therapists rely on them as guides through their most vulnerable moments. Trauma leaves an imprint on the body, and if clinicians don't know how to stay embodied in the midst of these powerful relational moments, they risk shutting down with their clients or becoming overwhelmed by the process. This book offers an integrative model of treatment that teaches therapists how to increase the client's capacity to sense and feel the body.

Writing for both EMDR therapists and substance abuse counselors, Laurel Parnell provides user-friendly tools to help support clients in recovery with EMDR-based techniques that can be easily integrated into all levels of addiction treatment. Emphasizing the practical clinical application of principles and techniques helpful for addictions and addictive disorders, this book interweaves case material throughout, with some chapters presenting in-depth cases to illustrate the techniques.

When The Polyvagal Theory was published in 2011, it took the therapeutic world by storm, bringing Stephen Porges's insights about the autonomic nervous system to a clinical audience interested in understanding trauma, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. The book made accessible to clinicians and other professionals a polyvagal perspective that provided new concepts and insights for understanding human behavior. The perspective placed an emphasis on the important link between psychological experiences and physical manifestations in the body.

Building on the foundation laid by Moshe Feldenkrais, Thomas Hanna's groundbreaking work completely redefines the body's potential for withstanding decline. His gentle program for the mind and body proves once and for all that so many problems we accept as inevitable over time - chronic stiffness, bad back, chronic pain, fatigue, and, at times, even high blood pressure - need never occur if we maintain conscious control of nerve and muscle, replacing Sensory-Motor Amnesia with Sensory-Motor Awareness.

A Therapist's Guide to EMDR reviews the theoretical basis for EMDR and presents new information on the neurobiology of trauma. It provides a detailed explanation of the procedural steps along with helpful suggestions and modifications. Areas essential to successful utilization of EMDR are emphasized. These include: case conceptualization; preparation for EMDR trauma processing, including resource development and installation; target development; methods for unblocking blocked processing, including the creative use of interweaves; and session closure.

Clinicians who have dedicated their work to bringing the benefits of the Polyvagal Theory to a range of clients have come together to present Polyvagal Theory in a creative and personal way. Chapters on a range of topics from compassionate medical care to optimized therapeutic relationships to clinician's experiences as parents extract from the theory the powerful influence and importance of cases and feelings of safety in the clinical setting.

This book offers therapists an integrated approach to adding a polyvagal foundation to their work with clients. With clear explanations of the organizing principles of Polyvagal theory, this complex theory is translated into clinician and client-friendly language. Using a unique autonomic mapping process designed to effectively track autonomic response patterns, this book presents practical ways to work with clients' experiences of connection.

Deb Dana is the foremost translator of polyvagal theory into clinical practice. Here, in her third book on this groundbreaking theory, she provides therapists with a grab-bag of polyvagal-informed exercises for their clients, to use both within and between sessions. These exercises offer readily understandable explanations of the ways the autonomic nervous system directs daily living.

Here’s the deal: chronic stress, anxiety, trauma—it’s all taking a toll on your nervous system, whether you realize it or not. And if left unchecked, these problems will get worse, not better. We’re talking about constant fatigue and a total breakdown of your physical and mental health. Not exactly the life you had in mind, right? But what if you had a roadmap—a proven blueprint—to actually heal your nervous system, so you can finally feel calm and in control again?

It is now thought that people who have been traumatized hold an implicit memory of traumatic events in their brains and bodies. That memory is often expressed in the symptomatology of post-traumatic stress disorder - nightmares, flashbacks, startle responses, and dissociative behaviors. In essence, the body of the traumatized individual refuses to be ignored. While reducing the chasm between scientific theory and clinical practice and bridging the gap between talk therapy and body therapy, Rothschild presents principles and non-touch techniques for giving the body its due.

The premise of Trauma and the Body is that, by adding body-oriented interventions to their repertoire, traditionally trained therapists can increase the depth and efficacy of their clinical work. Sensorimotor psychotherapy is an approach that builds on traditional psychotherapeutic understanding but includes the body as central in the therapeutic field of awareness, using observational skills, theories, and interventions not usually practiced in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Dysregulation is often referred to as being triggered or upset. Quite often people who are unaware of their dysregulation are angry, explosive, or they might shut down or be overly emotional. Dysregulation can be exaggerated by difficult past experiences - especially in childhood. It is also useful to understand that dysregulation is the CORRECT expression of a properly functioning nervous system - everyone can become dysregulated at times.

Parents act as a mirror to show a child who she or he is. Throughout childhood there will be other mirrors, but children inevitably return to the reflection in that original mirror in order to determine their goodness, importance, and self-worth. In Healing Your Emotional Self, Beverly Engle offers her highly effective Mirror Therapy program to help you reject the distorted images your parents either intentionally or unintentionally projected onto you.