Following trauma, the body’s warning system often gets stuck on high alert . . .
. . . but in Wednesday’s webinar with Stephen Porges, PhD, we got into some effective ways for “speaking” directly to a trauma survivor’s nervous system.
Stephen revealed how things like tone of voice, certain gestures, and even the use of music can help someone reestablish a sense of safety after a traumatic experience.
We also spent a lot of time delving deeper with Stephen into his groundbreaking Polyvagal Theory and how to apply it with patients who are recovering from trauma.
6,490 people across 57 different countries joined Stephen and me for the Wednesday broadcast (according to Google analytics). There were people on the webinar from Morocco, Romania, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Ukraine (just to give you an idea of some of the countries represented).
I was gratified to read people’s takeaways from this first session – here are just a few of them that I found inspiring (and I hope that you might, too):
I love Stephen’s work and have been following it for years. I feel that I already have my money’s worth just from this one seminar so thank you very much Ruth for providing this excellent service. I have had clients cry with joy from the “aha” that they have received when I have used Polyvagal Theory to explain why they or their child may have behaved a particular way for so many years. So finding ways to help a client feel safe is now a cornerstone of my practise. Looking forward to the rest of the series. All the best!
Paul North, Psychologist, Canberra Australia
As a music therapist, Porges was singing to the choir! I loved hearing how he incorporates singing and speaking in long phrases into his treatment for social anxiety. This is something patients can actually DO. I have a patient right now who has social anxiety and is resistant to mindfulness meditation and breathing. But this he could do! I’m taking it into our session next week. Thanks for broadening my toolbox!
Louise Dimiceli-Mitran, Counselor & Music Therapist
Porges’ perspective and message couldn’t have been more human, relational, or lovelier. “Creating safety is the work” (although not the only work) is such an important and easily overlooked but ongoing aspect of the process. Great reinforcement about the effects of a calm voice, voice modulation, speaking as though to a loved (or frightened) animal, breathing, and breathing as an aspect of speaking, and on and on. Thanks so much. I am looking forward to more.
Chuck Moshontz, LMFT, Portland, OR
Valerie Baker, BSW, Jackson, TN
It’s so exciting to see the response this webinar got . . . and we’re just gathering steam.
So if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the new series on Rethinking Trauma, here’s the link where you can check it out.
It’s free to watch each webinar at the time of broadcast, you just have to sign up.
Or, if you missed our webinar with Stephen Porges, PhD this past Wednesday, become a Gold Member, and you can download the audio and video recordings, as well as the transcript and several supplemental learning tools.
With a Gold Membership, you can watch all of the webinars in the series whenever, and wherever, you’d like.
What was your biggest takeaway from the webinar with Stephen Porges, PhD? Please let us know in the comments section below.
I did the 2 hour course
“Why the Vagal System Holds the Key to the Treatment of Trauma”
I have questions
1) When do we go into shutdown versus fight or flight ? Stephen said in people with trauma. But I don’t see this happening always in people with trauma.
I would love a more detailed answer.
2) Also, when do we dissociate and why not shutdown via something else ?
3) When do we pass out and again why not shutdown via something else ?
4)
a) What’s the adaptive function of immobilisation?
b) What for dissociation?
c) And what for passing out ?
5) what’s the solution to chronic stress?
6)
a) Should we tell our clients to engage in play ?
b) What kind if they are adults?
7) The course had two questions that I didn’t understand
The first is Pat Ogden makes a distinction between healing from trauma and post-traumatic growth. Which of the following is (are) part of the process of healing from trauma?
a. Recalibrating the nervous system
b. Completing the action of the body
c. Returning to baseline functioning
d. All of the above
the answer is all of the above
can someone explain answers a, b and c as well as what is post-traumatic growth
The second question is
According to Pat Ogden, what needs to happen before a client can get out of ‘trauma time’?
a. Bodily responses need to be metabolized.
b. Insecure attachments need to be repaired.
c. The inner critic needs to be silenced.
d. All of the above
The answer is a. can someone explain what is meant by a ?
Does anyone have any research that indicates that people suffering from PTSD should receive therapy in the same environment rather than changing rooms within a facility?
Ruth, I wonder if the center for disease control has anything to *say* about the epigenetics that cause cancer (as in Stephen Porges prostate cancer). My nose for this epidemic comes from uncovering my own history of *birth chemicals, and endocrine dysruptors* administered to all mothers of persons with cancers in later life.
I note that lately, in the past year, two great researchers, Dr .David Chamberlain and Dr. Stephen Porges, have suffered with prostate cancer…and that this epigenetic epidemic has, like that of autism and transgenderism, been caused by the loose regulation of CHEMICALS, especially plastics (bisphenols and phthalates), and a host of fake estrogens administered to pregnant mothers(particularly DES-diethylstilbesterol, replete with a legal payoff and gag orders).
Have we examined their birth records to see if DES was administered to David and Stephen’s) mothers during pregnancy? And what indeed, do all the plastics leaching into our food mean to our breasts, wombs, genitalia, internal organs? Now, how do we proceed to eliminate these built-in stresses to our physical and mental health?
Ruth, THank you for sharing these wonderful researchers and teachers. I became aware of Stephen Porges’s work when studying TRE with Dr. David Bercelli. Enlightening perspective on the human condition and how we respond. Porges is courageous in facing the community of people who previously found the earth to be flat and don’t wish for change.
For those who missed it, I managed to find a Youtube discussion of Stephen, just googling his name and “polyvagal theory”. Very interesting!
What I found very important is the importance of creating SAFETY, and How to create the safety.
I missed about 7 minutes of the conference, but I found everything very interesting.
I had to listen very carefully to Dr Stephen, may be something went wrong with my speaker.
Thank you so much for making those conférences available to me.
And Ruth, you are helping a lot with your questions and your personal experience as well,
I very much enjoyed the trauma specific discussions of Polyvagal Theory, however like others I only received about half of it. Wondering if it is possible to have a re-broadcast of this first lecture since there were so many technical difficulties?
Thanks much!
I was also unable to access this webinar. Like others I request that you consider rebroadcasting it.
I have seen interviews with Stephen Porges and was really looking forward to this one.
I have no words of gratefulness for all the things we are learning in this space of yours Ruth, you have heaven’s gates open after this no matter your sins!!!!(joke)…..Stephen was amazing, and such a nice person himself, so sincere, when expressing his own experience. Once we are able to understand, this is, to “translate”, so to speak, what happens to us su often due to some traumatic experience, everything acquires light and clarity. I myself, came to this world with forceps intervention, as my mother could not gave birth naturally after 48 hours of labour. This has been undoubtedly, a very profund mark in my existence, and am grateful to know be able to give myself the “aha” about so many behaviours which worried me and now I can make sense of them and, help myself through meditation, breathing, and of course, encourage my patients to do the same. Thank you very very much again.
Ruth , have been struggling with repeated and deep seated trauma and abuse since childhood for thevlast 37 years and its taken its toll..The last two years have been physically bound to the bed and that in a way has been a blessing wherein trying selfhelp online though its been a struggle and challenge and unsafe.
I would also like to request like Pam Durrant Clinical Psychologist in Private Practice please consider if there can be say maybe a 24-48 hour accessible free replay time of this wonderful series you ve put together ? I am in India and had been really looking forward to helping self and others through deep traumas and like pam , the times of the broadcast ( at 2:30 a.m. and 4.00 a.m.) are difficult for me to access .
As we are currently unable to afford the Gold Membership expense , It would be wonderful if the rebroadcast could be expanded to accommodate us?
Thank you so much ,
D
I had a difficult time getting the Webinar as it would cut out so I missed many parts of the Webinar ?
Can you replay the first session please
Thank you
I will be sharing Dr. Porges work with two of my students who will be working with at risk youth and abused young women. Certainly, trauma lives here! To have such simple yet effective methods on hand to calm the reactive nervous system and teach it new ways of response is invaluable to helping our clients who have been through, and continue to, suffer from trauma.
I love the comments, “feeling safe is the treatment,” and “Creating safety is the work.” My father, with an 8th grade education, was the best counselor I’ve ever known. He didn’t practice in the counseling field, but was a farmer who loved his family, friends, and neighbors. He was well-known in several communities for being someone who cared and could be counted on to be there. Anyone that knew him, knew the safety Dr. Porges talks about, and the positive effects of that on a person’s life. Thank you for putting it into terms that can be explained and how that happens from a social and scientific perspective.
I work with somatic experiencing, jungian and shamanic practices and have followed Phorges work for some time. He is GREAT. I was intrigued by his thoughts on music and singing. As a sufferer of anxiety (and the genetics to back it us!), I have found exercise, yoga, tai chi, and singing to help significantly. Interestingly, singing lowers cortisol, raises serotonin and dopamine (and I have read, singing with others also raises oxytocin). Also, there is research when monks singing gregorian chant were restricted in their singing, depression increased significantly.
Ruth, keep it coming with things clients can do THEMSELVES without outside intervention (which of course is also imperative).
Unfortunately, for those of us who live in South Africa, the times of the broadcast are midnight and 1.30 a.m. In addition our exchange rate is R11.00 to $1 so the cost of the Gold Membership is also prohibitive. It would be wonderful if the rebroadcast could accommodate us?
I had trouble keeping reception too and missed more than half of the presentation. Perhaps the lines were overloaded with so many participants? I hope to be able to view the next webinar in full. I got a lot from the part of the presentation that I was able to view. Thank you for making these great webinars available to so many.
thank u v.much. i am unable to atnted classroom lectures as i had to opt for distance education. here with you i have excellent classroom lecture facility in my home. your explanations are very lucid and is improving my sanskrit knowledge as well.
Safety is the therapy! I work with people with PTSD and childhood trauma and have also found the sense of safety must be established. We look and see that the painful and scary sensations and energies, the words and pictures are all part of the body’s protective mechanisms. Understanding the mechanism, I can reassure someone “this is how our system works, there is nothing wrong with you because you’ve reacted to trauma in this way”. It helps to release shame around ‘decisions’ we’ve made when we can see the physiological reasons and how the mechanism works.
The sense of safety, creating the sense of safety, right from the environment of the waiting room – something so crucial. That’s probably the biggest thing I took with me. And also lengthening the exhale to create good inner adjustments – like through adding words to a sentence without taking an extra breath, or through singing.
I have not been able to access the seminars- in video or audio format even though I registered as Gold member. Please let me know how I can access the material. thank you Karen Diaz-Green
I had previously signed up as a Gold Member and I have not been able to access any of the past or current seminars -the videos or audios. I need to know what I can do to access this information. Thank you Karen Diaz-Green
I was hoping that you would rebroadcast Stephen Porges, PhD. … I was unable to get through to this webinar. Please think about it — perhaps 7 thousand others could not get through either.