• Amy Hertle Counseling Polyvagal / Mindfulness Therapy

Polyvagal / Mindfulness

Polyvagal Theory and Mindfulness-Based Approaches

Life can often feel uncertain, stressful, and overwhelming, especially when navigating a rapidly changing world or coping with adverse experiences. Chronic stress and trauma can dysregulate the nervous system, affecting physical, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning, as well as relationships.

When the nervous system is dysregulated, symptoms may include:

  • Heightened sensitivity or hypervigilance

  • Difficulty concentrating or cognitive challenges

  • Emotional reactivity, anxiety, or depression

  • Physical manifestations such as tension, fatigue, or somatic pain

  • Challenges in connecting with others

Even with traditional clinical interventions, individuals with a history of trauma or chronic stress may continue to experience persistent nervous system dysregulation, limiting overall quality of life.

How Polyvagal Theory Informs Therapy

Grounded in Polyvagal Theory, my approach helps clients understand how the nervous system responds to stress and threat. By recognizing patterns of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, we can begin to uncover the underlying mechanisms driving emotional and physiological responses.

Mindfulness-Based Techniques for Nervous System Regulation

In addition to Polyvagal-informed strategies, I incorporate mindfulness-based somatic techniques, including:

  • Breathwork to calm the nervous system

  • Body mapping and awareness to identify areas of tension or dysregulation

  • Meditation and grounding practices to enhance emotional stability and present-moment awareness

These practices help clients reconnect with their bodies, regulate stress responses, and cultivate resilience, enabling them to approach life’s challenges from a place of balance, calm, and clarity.

What is Polyvagal Theory?

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, provides a framework for understanding how the nervous system responds to safety, threat, and trauma. At its core is the concept of neuroception, our autonomic nervous system’s ability to detect cues of safety or danger both inside our bodies and in the world around us. These responses happen below conscious awareness, shaping our automatic reactions—whether we turn toward connection, back away, or protect ourselves.

The Role of the Vagus Nerve

Polyvagal Theory highlights the connection between mind and body through the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system, running from the brainstem to the colon. This “wandering nerve” regulates:

  • Heart rate and blood pressure

  • Digestion and speech

  • Social engagement and emotional expression

It also processes incoming information and shapes our automatic responses into three primary states:

  1. Parasympathetic / Ventral Vagal State – The safe, centered “true self” state where social engagement, connection, and higher cognitive functioning occur.

  2. Sympathetic State – The fight-or-flight response activated when the nervous system perceives threat. Actions are automatic and protective, bypassing higher-level cognitive decision-making.

  3. Dorsal Vagal State – The freeze response, triggered when the body perceives extreme threat, often resulting in immobilization or shutdown.

How Polyvagal Theory Informs Therapy

By understanding how your unique autonomic nervous system has been shaped by trauma or adverse experiences, we can gain compassionate insight into why you feel and act the way you do. While early experiences influence nervous system patterns, neuroplasticity allows your brain to change, forming new neural connections through intentional practice and experiences.

Our nervous systems are designed to seek connection and co-regulation. In a safe, supportive therapeutic environment—one that provides cues of safety, respect, and trust—the autonomic nervous system can begin to regulate and create new, healthier patterns.

Mind-Body Interventions for Nervous System Regulation

Therapeutic strategies informed by Polyvagal Theory include:

  • Polyvagal-informed exercises to strengthen self-regulation

  • Meditation and mindfulness practices

  • Breathwork and body mapping to connect with bodily sensations and release tension

  • Co-regulation through a safe, attuned therapeutic relationship

Through these approaches, combined with self-care and self-compassion, clients can reshape automatic nervous system responses, strengthen the vagus nerve, and restore balance. The result is often a greater sense of safety, presence, and ease in the body and the world.

“Balance is the core of health. We feel and function best when our body’s systems are in balance, and when we’re in balance with friends, family, community, and nature.” – Bruce D. Perry, What Happened to You

Want to learn more? Let’s talk!

Polyvagal Theory Videos

These videos may help you to understand Polyvagal Theory better.