Feeling safe: An embodied understanding of living with a heart condition from birth.

Our book (left) is now available to pre-order (click the image) & it will be published in June (USA) & July (UK). In my chapter, I explore how The Polyvagal Theory can provide an embodied understanding of living with a heart condition from birth.  

​The Polyvagal Theory & Neuroception of Safety
Neuroscientist Professor Stephen Porges’ Poly Vagal Theory (PVT) offers an embodied understanding of our nervous system, senses, emotions, social self & behaviours. He proposes that one of the most fundamental jobs of our body’s nervous system is to keep us safe, a task he calls Neuroception. To this end, three systems have evolved over time; each controlled by a different branch of the vagus system (hence, The Polyvagal Theory).  This enables us to self regulate & respond to threat (including social threats like rejection or physical threats). 

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"Your chapter provides new information for those of us, who have studied the bidirectionality of brain and body.  As a scientist, I have frequently talked about the bidirectionality between heart and brain and between visceral states and mental function.  However, your chapter truly provides a personal narrative of these concepts that has been missing from the scientific literature and specifically from Polyvagal Theory."  Prof Stephen Porges, Neuroscientist.

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