11/19/2025
Most bodyworkers have heard clients say things like “I don’t know why I’m crying,” “I feel like something just released,” or “I suddenly feel lighter.” For years, we trusted our hands more than the textbooks and held space for what rose to the surface. Now, Polyvagal Theory gives us the science that explains what we have felt beneath our palms all along.
Created by neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, the Polyvagal Theory describes how the vagus nerve perceives the world through sensations, tone, posture, breath, and touch. It shows us that emotional expression is not random; it is the language of the autonomic nervous system, shifting between states of protection and connection. The body releases emotions not because it is dramatic or fragile, but because it has finally found a moment when it feels safe enough to let its survival patterns soften.
When a client enters your space, their nervous system is already speaking. A body in sympathetic activation feels taut, warm, guarded, quick to brace. These clients often require a gentle, calming contact that signals to their system that it no longer needs to run or fight. A body in dorsal vagal shutdown has a different pulse altogether. It may feel heavy, distant, or unreachable. These clients respond to warmth, presence, and gentle, patient pacing that invites them back into their bodies without overwhelming them. And when a client is in ventral vagal engagement, the system opens. Breath deepens, tissues receive, and deeper work becomes possible. Their body is ready to reorganize the old patterns it no longer needs.
Understanding these states is not about labeling people; it is about listening to the stories their nervous systems are telling beneath the skin. Touch becomes more ethical, more attuned, and more transformative when we understand the state of the body and how to meet it. The Polyvagal Theory provides us with a language for what somatic practitioners have sensed for generations. It teaches us that emotional release is not a mysterious or mystical phenomenon. It is biological. It is the body stepping out of survival and into safety.
As bodyworkers, we do not force emotion out of the body. We create the conditions where the body feels safe enough to release what it has carried for far too long. The more we understand the vagus nerve, autonomic states, and Polyvagal Theory, the more skillfully we can support clients as they unwind, soften, tremble, breathe, and release. This is where art meets science, where intuition meets anatomy, and where the human body remembers itself through touch.
Tomorrow, I will dive deeper into Polyvagal Theory and how each autonomic state influences the emotional responses we observe on our tables. For now, know this. Emotions are not just thoughts; they are physiological and reside in the body.
