Stephen Porges
DISTINGUISHED UNIVERSITY SCIENTIST/PROFESSOR, POLYVAGAL THEORY NEUROSCIENTIST AND ACTION TRAUMA NETWORK AMBASSADOR
Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award.
He has published approximately 400 peer‐reviewed scientific papers across several disciplines that have been cited in more than 45,000 peer-reviewed papers. He holds several patents involved in monitoring and regulating autonomic state. He is the originator of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental, and health problems related to traumatic experiences. He is the author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton, 2011), The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, (Norton, 2017), Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation (Norton, 2021), and co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018).
He is the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol™, which currently is used by more than 2000 therapists to improve spontaneous social engagement, to reduce hearing sensitivities, and to improve language processing, state regulation, and spontaneous social engagement.
Workshop Six - Stephen Porges - Polyvagal Theory in a Challenging World: reclaiming our evolutionary heritage as a connected and benevolent species
Polyvagal Theory provides a new understanding of normal and atypical behavior, mental health, psychiatric
disorders, and chronic illness. By incorporating an evolutionary perspective, the theory explains how regulation
of autonomic function forms the neural “platform” upon which social behavior and the development of trusting
relationships are based. The theory explains how experiences of abuse and trauma may retune our nervous
system to respond to friends, caregivers, and teachers as if they were enemies. Moreover, the theory explains
how signals of safety reverse these challenges by optimizing autonomic state to promote homeostatic processes
that support health, growth, restoration, resilience and sociality
Learning Outcomes:
1. To illustrate how a Polyvagal perspective provides insights into the assessment and treatment of mental health.
2. To describe how autonomic regulation is linked to mental health, behavioral problems, learning processes,
and sociality.
3. To describe strategies to retune autonomic nervous system state via signals of safety to optimize mental and
physical health
4. To describe a neural process (neuroception) that evaluates risk in the environment and triggers adaptive neural
circuits that promote either social interactions or defensive behaviours.
