TPP 311a: Deb Dana on Befriending Our Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
38 min
1 speaker
7 chapters
transcribed 9 hours ago
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is Polyvagal Theory and why does it matter for parenting?
Hey, it's Debbie. This month on Playback Fridays, we're revisiting conversations about self-regulation and co-regulation, two of the most powerful tools we have for changing the energy in our homes and creating more connection during the moments that feel the hardest. Welcome to Tilled Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber. If you are a regular listener of this show, you'll be familiar with polyvagal theory, as it's come up in multiple interviews, including those with Dr. Mona Della Hook and Seth Perler. But this episode is the first one dedicated solely to exploring this powerful theory.
And to do that with us, I am thrilled to be talking with Deb Dana, a clinician, consultant, and author who's known for being a translator of. Polyvagal theory, which was developed by Dr. Stephen Porgis in the mid-1990s. In this episode, Deb explains nervous system pathways, why co-regulation is essential to our survival, what befriending and listening to our autonomic nervous system looks like in practice, and the benefits of having a breathing practice. Before we dive into this interview, here is a little more about my guest, Deb Daniel. Dana, a licensed clinical social worker, uses the lens of polyvagal theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma. She is the author of several books on polyvagal and the nervous system, including the one we're talking about today, Anchored How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory.
Thanks so much, and now here is my conversation with Deb Dana. Hello Deb and welcome to
the podcast. I am really happy to be here and and to meet you and to dive into a conversation.
Yeah, me too. This is a conversation I've been looking forward to and was thrilled when you accepted my invitation to come on the podcast. I know you're interviewed a lot, so I want to just start with your personal why and if you could just tell us a little bit about the work that you do in the world.
I like that, my personal why. Yeah. It's a thing I've been reflecting on recently because, you know, I'm I'm sixty nine and I'm at that place where I'm trying to decide what is it that I want to bring out into the world and and my passion is really for helping people understand. how their nervous system operates so that they can begin to become active operators of it. Because the nervous system is at the heart of every moment in our lives and and I think in the world we're living in right now, a regulated nervous system is a path forward to healing, to individual and and community well being and it feels like it's a time to to really be offering how I look at this work to to others. So I suppose my personal why began in the clinical world.
I'm a I'm a clinician and began, you know, wanting therapists to be able to help their clients in a different way. And now it's expanded to oh, can can we help reshape the world perhaps so that it's a safer place for people to live.
I love that mission. And it is so timely. You are known as a translator for polyvagal theory, which I love because It is complicated. Even reading your book, which we'll talk about today, I was telling my child I have to keep going back and like rereading these paragraphs. And you're breaking it down in such an accessible way, but it's a complicated theory and just concept. And it's something we've dabbled in here on the show. Dr. Mona Della Hook has been on a couple of times, and I know her work is very rooted in polyvagal theory to talk about your book. What were you hoping to do through Anchored? And the subtitle is How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory.
Yeah, and and and we should give a beautiful round of sending gratitude to Stephen Porgis, you know, my dear friend and colleague, who is the developer of Polyvagal Theory. And he and I were actually talking earlier today and and, you know, just really marveling on his creation, right? Which which has then allowed us as people, as clinicians, as parents, partners to understand how we are human in in a different way, which really I think is the gift of polyvagal theory and and for me
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is Polyvagal Theory and why does it matter for parenting?
0:00–10:14
2
Why did Deb Dana write *Anchored* and what is its core mission?
10:14–17:01
3
How are the three nervous‑system pathways (neurosensory, hierarchical, and co‑regulation) described in the book?
17:01–23:33
4
What does ‘co‑regulation’ look like in everyday family life?
23:33–30:03
5
How can we ‘befriend’ our autonomic nervous system through listening and micro‑moments?
30:03–34:14
6
Why is regular breathing practice, especially sighing, a tool for resetting the nervous system?
34:14–37:43
7
How can families create a personal ‘resource menu’ for regulation and resilience?
37:43–38:11
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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