Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that these negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a negative cycle. CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts. Unlike other therapeutic modalities, CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis. A major aim of CBT is to reduce anxiety, depression, and avoidance by analyzing and then changing the cycle of problematic behavior, cognitions, and emotion. Used both with and without medication, CBT is the most popular and commonly used psychotherapy for the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders.
Somatic Psychotherapy:
Somatic therapy is a holistic form of therapy that recognizes and utilizes the relationship between the body and the mind. This therapeutic approach is grounded in the understanding that our bodies hold onto experiences, and these held experiences can affect our mental and emotional health. Somatic psychotherapy is based on the idea that the human body has an innate capacity for healing and growth. It also assumes that thought, emotion, and bodily experience are linked, and that change can be brought about in one domain by mindfully accessing another.
Polyvagal Theory:
Polyvagal theory is a neurophysiological model that explains how the autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, regulates our responses to perceived threats and safety cues. The The vagus nerve plays a crucial role in regulating bodily functions and social interactions. Polyvagal Theory has three defining principles: the hierarchy of the autonomic nervous system, neuroception, and co-regulation.
- The Hierarchy of the ANS: According to the theory, the ANS has 3 principle states. These states functionally and adaptively shift according to how safe we feel at any given moment. These states form an underlying neurophysiological foundation for our feelings and emotions, and consist of Relaxed, Mobilized, and Immobilzed.
- Neuroception: Neuroception is the mechanism involved in shifting these states which occurs beneath the level of conscious awareness. We are dynamically and continuously interpreting information regarding risk that is being transmitted via sensors throughout the body. Neuroception and autonomic state are intertwined: although neuroception is a powerful mechanism capable of shifting autonomic state, it is dependent upon the individual’s current autonomic state and historical flexibility to move back and forth among states. A more resilient individual will have a neuroception biased towards detecting cues of safety, while a less resilient individual will have a neuroception biased towards detecting threat. Neuroception is biased towards detecting threat when the ANS is in a state of defense either dominated by the sympathetic nervous system supporting fight/flight or the dorsal vagal pathway supporting immobilization and dissociation. When in a calm state dominated by ventral vagal pathways and the social engagement system, neuroception is less likely to reactively trigger defensive states and behaviors. If our neuroception is faulty, it sends a signal of danger when we’re actually safe, or it sends a signal of safety when we’re actually in danger. Faulty neuroception may be influenced by a history of adversity. For example, individuals with a history of severe adversity may find themselves habitually hypervigilant in anticipation of threats. In addition, to optimize the detection of risk and the preparation for defense, they might habitually seek out risky behavior to insure that their autonomic state remains in a chronic state of heightened sympathetic arousal that would prepare them for fight/flight behaviors.
- Co-regulation: We naturally, and unconsciously, send signals of safety or danger to each other which either encourage or discourage the reduction of psychological and physical distance that operationally defines social engagement behaviors.
