Yasmin
27 September 2025
Let’s start by understanding the neuroscience in an accessible way to help us understand polyvagal therapy. Your body runs an invisible radar called neuroception, scanning 24/7 for inside‑and‑outside cues of safety or threat. When it feels safe, your social‑engagement system (ventral vagal, the relaxed state) switches on – so it’s easier to talk, connect, learn, and play.
However, when stress or overwhelm show up, your body changes state (like shifting gear) and behaviour can flip fast. If you can spot the state, you can choose one helpful next step. With practice, your self‑awareness grows; consequently, you notice the shift sooner – so your choice guides the moment, not your stress.
Polyvagal theory, founded by Dr Stephen Porges, describes how the vagus nerve – think a major two way superhighway between brain and body – helps regulate our autonomic nervous system. In simple terms, it explains why our body shifts between:
Ventral vagal (safe & social/ relaxed state): grounded, curious, connected.
Sympathetic (mobilised state): fight/flight energy for action and protection.
Dorsal vagal (immobilised state): collapse, numbness, or disconnection when overwhelmed.
These are adaptive survival states. They’re not “good” or “bad” – they’re how your body stays alive – keeps you safe. Understanding them helps you meet yourself (and others) with more accuracy and compassion.
Polyvagal theory has three organising principles – the autonomic nervous system states, neuroception and co-regulation.
Polyvagal therapy isn’t a single technique. Instead, it’s a therapeutic approach that uses polyvagal principles to build safety, co‑regulation, and state flexibility. Practitioners integrate body‑based tools into counselling, coaching, education, communities or healthcare to help people stabilise, connect, and heal.
In practice, common elements include:
Safety first: environments, relationships, and language that signal “you’re safe here.”
Co‑regulation: steady nervous systems steady other nervous systems. Our favourite phrase “Share Your Steady“
Interoception: noticing internal signals (breath, heartbeat, muscle tone).
State‑informed skills: matching tools to your state (e.g., grounding when shut down, movement when agitated, prosody and eye contact when connected).
As a result, when you work with your nervous system (not against it), you can:
Reduce anxiety and panic by learning micro‑skills for down‑shifting.
Recover from trauma through titrated, body‑led pacing that prevents overwhelm.
Support neurodivergent communication with clearer cues, predictable rhythm, and consent‑based connection.
Improve focus and learning by building a sense of safety in classrooms and workplaces.
Strengthen relationships via kinder tone, timing, and repair.
Prevent burnout by noticing early signs and choosing restorative actions.
Notably, polyvagal‑informed work can support:
People living with trauma, PTSD, or C‑PTSD
Neurodivergent folk (including ADHD and autistic people)
Parents, carers, and teachers
Couples and families navigating conflict
Teams and leaders aiming for psychologically safe culture
Anyone curious about a kinder relationship with their body and behaviour
In short, thoughts, emotions, and which “state” your nervous system is in (think which gear) form a two‑way street. Your body shapes what your mind notices; your mind shapes what your body prepares for. Polyvagal‑informed practice respects that behaviour is state‑dependent. Therefore, purely “thinking your way out” doesn’t always work. The body needs to feel safe enough for the thinking brain to come back online.
We’re committed to being trauma-informed – and then going further. Not only do we support people after harm, we also reduce future harm by shifting culture and communication now. When we build in safety cues – tone, pace, predictability, consent, and repair – nervous systems read “safe enough,” so unnecessary threat responses ease. As a result, we can prevent avoidable traumatisation before it starts.
In practice, that means: calm voices, a slower pace, clearer agreements up front, and explicit consent signals throughout. And when ruptures happen, we rupture repair – promptly and kindly. Taken together, these simple habits lower stress for everyone and make connection possible.
Polyvagal-informed psychoeducation is clear, practical teaching about how the nervous system works – through a polyvagal lens of safety cues, neuroception, and state-dependent behaviour.
It turns complex science into everyday language, visuals, and simple practices so people, families, schools, and workplaces can notice state and match supports (movement, rhythm, breath, pacing, consent, predictability). Because we’re all different – and neurodiverse – one size fits no one.
Validation, not blame. Meltdowns, shutdowns, and “freeze/appeasement” are state shifts, not moral failures. Naming state reduces shame and opens choices.
Sensory & social fit. We emphasise predictability, choice, and consent. That means reducing threat cues (noise, harsh lighting, interruptions) and increasing safety cues (warm tone, clear timing, visual supports).
Communication that lands. Together we find the right-fit method: plain language, visual schedules, scripts, and repair cues to lower cognitive load and support co-regulation.
Self-advocacy skills. Simple phrases and signals – “I need a pause,” “lights down please,” “text, don’t call” – help needs be met before overwhelm.
Better systems over time. Families, classrooms, and teams can design neuro-affirming environments that prevent unnecessary stress and reduce traumatisation.
Driven to improve the emotional wellbeing of young people, adults, and parents, Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar is the founder and creator of Polyvagal Teen®. She also developed The R.U.D Process® – a practical, step-by-step approach that helps teens and adults recognise and manage stress and anxiety by becoming Polyvagal Aware.
In addition, Yasmin leads several social-impact initiatives that promote steady, consent-based communication and co-regulation:
Glad We Talked® programmes
Neurosloth® Academy
Talky Talk Cards
Scribbledeedo®
World Stop Shouting Day – a campaign to reduce conflict and aggression in everyday interactions
Alongside this work, Yasmin runs a small private counselling practice in North Yorkshire and online, specialising in emotional regulation and working with neurodivergent, multi-faith, and mixed-heritage clients.
