The Arrival of "Autonomics": First Impressions
An Updated and Extended Version of "Polyvagal Theory"
I am a big fan of Dr Stephen Porges’ “Polyvagal Theory”, which is a map of how our Nervous System’s evaluation of whether we safe or in danger relates to our everyday experiences of ourselves and others. In a clinical setting, it provides an explanation of how states such as fight, flight or freeze, map onto to symptoms of chronic conditions. Indeed, I have mentioned Dr Porges and his work several times in these articles.
I will be forever grateful to Dr Porges, as his work was what finally allowed me to understand my Parkinson’s diagnosis, and what I needed to do, and not do, to repair. Indeed, Polyvagal Theory was instrumental in my figuring out that “Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease” is what happens when we get stuck in the Tonic Immobility/Catatonic/Playing Possum type of Freeze response of the Nervous System.
It is important to remember that Polyvagal Theory is a map, and as such should not be confused with the territory, so not taken too literally. As a map, it cannot describe the full, real life, richness, complexity, and range of human experiences. However, even as a map, it seemed to me there were some obvious missing parts which didn’t match with everyday experience.
For example, the hands and feet were not included as part of the “Social Engagement System” in Polyvagal Theory,
and it also has too little to say about Appeasement type of stress responses:
of the substack, and creator of the original Polyvagal Theory poster, which can be found on many a clinician’s wall, also came to similar conclusions.
Gabriel has been working on updating and extending Polyvagal Theory, especially to address these obvious missing elements, for many years, and has now come up with a new version he calls simply “Autonomics”. Autonomics is a high level [probably a bit too complex for the neophyte lay person, but very informative for clinical practices], designed to better explain how the Nervous System creates our embodied, lived experiences, through our senses of safety, danger, or life threat.
As part of this development, Gabriel has also replaced the Polyvagal Theory poster with a new Autonomics explainer poster [see image at top of post]. He also has created an introductory video to Autonomics.
Autonomics incorporates the hands into the “Connection System” [which replaces Porges’ “Social Engagement” or “Ventral Vagus Complex” System], and Appease type stress responses into the “Spinal Movement” and “Deep Belly” Systems [which replace Porges’ “Sympathetic Nervous” and “Dorsal Vagus” Systems, respectively]. Autonomics also places patterns of breathing as more relevant than heart rate variability [HRV], the latter being the principle diagnostic tool for Polyvagal Theory.
It is important to remember that Autonomics is still a map, and as such should still not be confused with the territory, or taken too literally. Again, as a map it cannot describe the full, real life, complexity, and richness and range of human experience, but I do believe it is a more complete map, with greater explanatory and predictive power, and hence more pragmatic applicability, than Polyvagal Theory, on which it is based, albeit at the expense of somewhat increased complexity.
To learn more about this, or to follow Gabriel’s work, he writes for a number of intriguing Substack’s, including:
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Great stuff, Gary. I would love to find time to explore the Autonomics theory.
On first glance, I wonder whether some of these responses are not "built in" to our being, but are the result of ancestral trauma and thus are learned. It's like how when someone does something hurtful, a lot of people immediately say, "Humans are violent." I disagree with that blanket statement and lean more toward trauma as the root of such aberrant behaviors. I would go so far as to say many ailments are the result of traumatic experiences that remain unhealed.
Furthermore, we are being poisoned at exasperating levels in our water, air, and food — not to mention our minds filled with "entertainment" and other garbage — and of course this is all traumatic to our entire being.
Wow I so look forward to delving into this!
After a particularly depleting work week, I was actually working in a new way just today with my hands and feet! Using breath and qigong to reactivate my hands especially, it brought my overall energy a massive upgrade.
I also just talked to my gal who is away at massage school. She has taken to polyvagal theory as an essential aspect of what she wants to do - the school presented it as a kind of organizing principle on the very first day of class which impressed me greatly.
Thank you for this update - so grateful for your and others' ongoing work!