Polyvagal theory is a neurophysiological model created and developed by neuroscientist and psychologist Dr Stephen Porges. The theory is concerned with how the brain and body respond to stressors in everyday life and how that effects our behaviour. Understanding this process can help us to learn how to navigate the world. The approach centres around the idea that the brain’s priority is to keep us safe and alive, and it does this through constantly scanning our environment, our own body and other people, for signs of safety or danger, a process known as neuroception (Porges, 1995).
Our autonomic nervous system (ANS) then reflexively responds to these cues of safety or danger, shifting us into defence states so that our resources can be prioritised accordingly to optimise our chances of surviving the threat. This process is mediated by the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve which passes down the side of our face, passed the eyes, ears and throat, down to the lungs, heart and abdomen, creating a link for information to pass to and from the brain and body.
When the brain and body receive cues of safety the parasympathetic nervous system engages the ventral vagal pathway. Here the body’s heart rate, breathing and muscle tone is normal. It is here that we are calm, connected, focused, creative, playful and in community with others. This is known as ‘rest and digest’ or the social engagement system.
When the brain and body sense cues of danger, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. Here we are mobilized into defence states such as ‘fight and flight’. Our heart rate and breathing speed up, our muscles tense ready for action and our brain releases hormones such as adrenaline. We can begin to feel angry, agitated, stressed or anxious.
When the brain and body perceive cues of life-threatening danger, feel overwhelmed by the threat, or their previous responses aren’t helping, the parasympathetic nervous system engages the dorsal vagal pathway, immobilising us. Here the body’s heart rate drops, breathing slows, muscle tone and energy are low, and we start to shut down and withdraw. In animals that can look like playing dead. We can begin to feel unhappy, hopeless, lonely or depressed.
There can also be hybrid states, where two states overlap. When we are mobilised and safe we may be engaging in play, sports or dance. When we are immobilised and safe we can feel relaxed during quiet moments of intimacy. When we are between mobilisation and immobilisation we can experience the freeze state of defence, where we are unable to move but we are activated, which has a very different energy to the ‘flopping’ we experience when in full immobilisation (Polyvagal Institute, 2025).
Porges did not include the defence state of fawn (or friend, as its sometimes known) in his original model but as it has developed, he has researched the state further. He suggests fawn is a hybrid state that most likely involves the sympathetic and dorsal states. This state is where we use our social engagement system to comply, or appear friendly through smiling, agreeing or helping, in order to stay safe. This state is frequently seen when an individual is living with chronic threat, for example, when someone is living with domestic abuse (Porges and Porges, 2023).
Porges suggests that the ANS shapes our capacity for behaviour, emotion and social connection (Porges, 2025). However, trauma and adversity can induce persistent changes in our ANS, leading individuals to become anchored in survival states, remaining in chronic dysregulation, even once the danger has passed. This can manifest as hypervigilance, anxiety, dissociation or depression. Being in survival states long term reduce our capacity for growth, restoration and connection (Kseib, 2022). A healthy ANS should be flexible and fluid, allowing us to respond to threat when necessary and to feel safe and connected when appropriate. However, the ANS has not evolved for our modern and chronic stressors so we can often find ourselves stuck in survival states, unable to complete the threat response cycle. We can improve the activity or our vagal nerve, known as vagal tone, through mindfulness, movement, breath-based practices, acoustic stimulation, social connection and cold-water exposure (Harper, 2022). Low vagal tone has been associated with reduced emotional resilience and increased sensitivity to stress (Hage et al, 2017). By harnessing our awareness of polyvagal theory, we can intentionally select stimulus that will cue or nervous system for safety. For example, as the vagus nerve passes the inner ear, we can take cues for safety from sound, music or voices. Deb Dana (2024) refers to these micro-moments of connection, joy and safety as glimmers.
This biologically grounded approach can contribute to the development of trauma-informed practices which emphasise relational safety, rhythm, predictability and co-regulation. This can impact education systems, medical professionals, workplaces, parenting (Kolacz and Porges, 2024), social justice and policy across the lifespan (Porges, 2025). There is a growing body of evidence that the polyvagal perspective can help us understand physical conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, inflammatory disorders and immune conditions (Rajabalee, et al, 2022). It can also help us to better understand presentations including neurodiversity (Inderbitzen, 2024) and addiction (Porges and Porges, 2023). Other approaches have developed from the theory, such as Polyvagal informed EMDR (Kase, 2023) and its influence can be seen in the work of Peter Levine (1997), Bessel van der Kolk (2015), Gabor Mate, (2024), Deb Dana (2024) and Arielle Schwarts (2025). In popular culture, polyvagal theory has informed and influenced research in areas such as drumming (Hoggle et al, 2024), sports performance (Lopez Blanco and Tyler, 2025), group singing (Wünnenberg and Baumann, 2025), cold-water exposure (Hof, 2025) and meditation apps. There is even the development of an electronic device that can stimulate the vagus nerve.
Polyvagal Theory allows us to view human behaviour and emotion without judgement, considering what has happened to a person rather than what is wrong with them, through the lens of adaptive survival states rather than failures of emotion or cognition (Kolacz et al, 2019). Psychoeducation can help us to understand these processes were not under our voluntary control, which can help us to make more accurate beliefs and stories about ourselves and the world and to reduce feelings of shame, blame, disbelief or dismissal (Porges and Porges, 2023) and move towards understanding and compassion. Working with this approach can provide us with a map to navigate our lives, feelings and behaviours. The approach is often used when working with clients who have experienced depression, anxiety. stress, abuse, trauma and emotional neglect (Blanning, 2025).
Despite widespread recognition, critics of the approach argue that it is scientifically questionable and dispute the core biological claims of the approach, claiming the theory is too broad and vague to be empirically tested (Girous et al, 2023), suggesting there is no evidence to support Porges claims around the roles of the autonomic nervous system states (Grossman, 2023) biological accuracy and evolutional framing (Grossman et al, 2026). In the thirty years since Polyvagal Theory’s inception there has been progress in the fields of psychotherapy, epigenetics, neuroscience, neuroanatomy, and critics such as Manzotti et al (2023) suggest these new developments highlight the limitations of the approach. Porges (2026) refutes these suggestions. The clinical value of the approach can be appreciated whilst acknowledging that the terrain is far more complex than any map can capture.
Reference List
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