Understanding Polyvagal Theory: The Nervous System’s Role in Safety and Connection
Why do we sometimes feel calm and connected, and other times anxious, frozen, or shut down, even without obvious danger? This post explores Polyvagal Theory, Dr Stephen Porges' science-based framework for understanding the nervous system's role in safety and threat, and how it can support trauma-informed, compassionate healing in therapy.
How EMDR can help anxiety
Anxiety often has roots in earlier life experiences, moments of feeling unsafe, overwhelmed, or powerless, that the brain continues to carry. This post explores how EMDR helps identify and reprocess the memories and beliefs fuelling anxiety, easing its emotional charge. Learn what an EMDR session involves and how it supports lasting, not just symptomatic, relief.
How Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy Can Help
IFS therapy views the mind as made up of different "parts," each with its own role. This post explores Dr Richard Schwartz's compassionate framework, and the calm, wise "Self" at the centre of every person.
The Vagus Nerve Explained: 10 Ways to Calm Your Nervous System
The vagus nerve plays a key role in shifting your body between stress and calm. This post explains how it works, its links to anxiety, depression and trauma, and offers ten practical techniques, from breathwork to cold exposure to gratitude practice, to help strengthen vagal tone and support a more balanced nervous system.
What Happens in the Brain During EMDR?
What actually happens in the brain during EMDR? This post explores the neuroscience behind trauma processing, from why memories get "stuck" in the brain's fear centres, to how bilateral stimulation helps the brain reprocess them, and shifts their storage from short-term, emotionally charged memory into calmer, long-term narrative memory.
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