Collective Healing Conference, online, 24 September–1 October 2024
Helping professionals seeking to support others in times of threat need to step up their efforts to ensure they’re regulated, otherwise their states will signal threat to others and they won’t be helpful, warned Stephen Porges, who developed Polyvagal Theory.
Speaking at the Collective Healing conference (online, 24 September-1 October), an 8-day online gathering to explore trauma-informed pathways for personal, ancestral, and collective healing, Porges shared how after the events of 7 October in Israel, he was contacted by therapists wanting to help others.
However, “They were in a hybrid state of anger and fear because the sense of feeling safe enough had been compromised. When that occurs, the repertoire of our resources gets changed and we become very good defensive organisms and we are poor at being empathic, generative, benevolent and supportive.
“The intonation in [these therapists’] voices meant they were really upset… with the sense of fear and threat, they wanted to go to places that needed them but in that physiological state they couldn’t be a good therapist. What they didn’t realise is that their bodies were broadcasting exactly what they wanted to help [address] in others – fear, threat, anger and dysregulation.”
When our systems are dysregulated, such as “when society is more chaotic and less predictable… not giving us the safety shield we’d like,” we may not be able to do so many sessions with clients; we may need to go for a walk with a pet in a safe space, identify individuals close to us who can help us feel safe with them so we can get some sense of co-regulation, for example.
Porges shared how we can use rhythm of breath and speech to calm our nervous system, for example, taking longer breaths and lengthening our phrases.
Music with a changing beat which progressively slows can be helpful too. With audio innovator, Anthony Gorry, Porges has developed a listening therapy to support healing, restoration and homeostasis, Rest and Restore Protocol, which will soon be on the market.
VOLUME 19 ISSUE 6