Cutting-edge strategies for interrupting your body's stress response, becoming stress-resilient, and achieving lasting calm in the face of chaos.

Does it feel like you're always on high alert--fighting, fleeing, or flailing your way through daily life? You're far from alone. Stress has reached epidemic levels in our society, and can wreak havoc on both our physical and mental health--leading to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse. Your body was designed to cope with stress, but too much for too long overrides your built-in capacity to recover and restore. So, how can you transform the way you respond to and manage stress?

The Polyvagal Solution provides a clear path to becoming stress-resilient in the face of daily chaos. Based in the neuroscience of polyvagal theory, this breakthrough guide will introduce you to your vagus nerve--the conductor of your emotions that's running the show when everything just feels like too much. By stimulating the vagus nerve, you can interrupt your body's stress response and achieve lasting calm. In addition to exercising your nervous system, you'll find go-to skills to reduce overwhelm and feel better in the moment, and even develop your own stress management tool kit. You'll also discover techniques to regulate, soothe, and quiet your embattled nerves, so you can recharge and start living a more fulfilling life.

If you've had enough of being hijacked by stress, and your health and happiness being held hostage by fear and anxiety, it might be time to rewire your nervous system to find balance, build resilience, and discover true inner peace. This book can help you get started right now.

Polyvagal Theory and EMDR are two well-respected theoretical and practical models with immense implications for therapeutic practice. Polyvagal-Informed EMDR outlines a comprehensive approach for integrating Polyvagal Theory into EMDR Therapy. Individually, each model offers powerful pathways to healing. Combined, these models supercharge therapy and the recovery process.

The integration of Polyvagal Theory within the eight phases of EMDR Therapy offers the psychotherapist a robust, dynamic, neuro-informed framework for case conceptualization, treatment planning, and client transformation. The approach applies not only to work with trauma and PTSD, but also in the treatment of addictions, anxiety, depression, grief, chronic pain, and adjustment disorders.

EMDR therapists will find a method that maintains fidelity to the evidence-based practice of EMDR and aligns with current neuroscience research. Topics covered include the nervous system and toxic stress, neuroception, adaptive memory networks and autonomic resiliency, neuro-informed history taking, and the importance of therapeutic presence. Clinical interventions, scripts, and handouts are included for all eight phases of EMDR, as well as case examples and opportunities for experiential practice.

This is the first book to treat these topics together: assessing complex material and presenting it in an approachable, engaging manner.