The bestselling guide to the vagus nerve, now in 20+ languages: unlock the self-healing power of Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory

Vagus exercises for reducing anxiety, healing trauma, and rebalancing your autonomic nervous system

This comprehensive guide offers an easy-to-understand overview of the vagus nerve—and helps you unlock your body’s innate capacity to heal from stress, trauma, anxiety, and injury. 

Dr. Stanley Rosenberg, PhD, dispels long-held myths about the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and offers up-to-date research on how our physical health, emotional wellness, and the vagus nerve are all interconnected. Most importantly, he shows how these insights can help you heal your ANS—and live a less stressed, more balanced, and emotionally regulated life. This book offers:

• An in-depth overview of Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory
• Step-by-step self-help techniques for regulating the vagus nerve
• Vagus exercises to relieve emotional, psychological, and physical symptoms
• Real-life case studies and stories from the author’s clinical practice
• Insights into the vagus nerve’s role in social behavior
• An overview of what happens in our bodies when we get stuck in stress states—and how to heal them
• Simple, research-backed recommendations for initiating deep relaxation, improving sleep, healing from trauma, and stimulating recovery from illness and injury
  
  

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve is written for therapists, bodyworkers, trauma survivors, parents, and anyone struggling with chronic stress. Grounded in neurobiology research, clinical stories, and easy-to-follow exercises, this book gives you the tools to bring your body back into a state of safety, balance, and optimal functioning.

The best-selling book on the topic-now in 13 languages.

This practical guide to understanding the cranial nerves as the key to our psychological and physical well-being builds on Stephen Porges's Polyvagal Theory-one of the most important recent developments in human neurobiology. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience as a craniosacral therapist and Rolfer, Stanley Rosenberg explores the crucial role that the vagus nerve plays in determining our psychological and emotional states and explains that a myriad of common psychological and physical symptoms-from anxiety and depression to migraines and back pain-indicates a lack of proper functioning in the vagus nerve.

Through a series of easy self-help exercises, the book illustrates the simple ways we can regulate the vagus nerve in order to initiate deep relaxation, improve sleep, and recover from injury and trauma. Additionally, by exploring the link between a well-regulated vagus nerve and social functioning, Rosenberg's findings and methods offer new hope that by improving social behavior it is possible to alleviate some of the symptoms at the core of many cases of autism spectrum disorders. Useful for psychotherapists, doctors, bodyworkers, and caregivers, as well as anyone who experiences the symptoms of chronic stress and depression, this book shows how we can optimize autonomic functioning in ourselves and others, and bring the body into the state of safety that activates its innate capacity to heal.

“Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve is Stanley Rosenberg’s personal expression of his insight into and appreciation of the role that vagal pathways play in the healing process by calming the body and enabling the body to welcome touch. By intuitively understanding this integrated process, Stanley has developed a system of manipulations that promote states of safety, allowing the body to retune the nervous system, thus optimizing behavior, mental health, and physiological homeostasis.… His powerful insights, metaphors, and treatment models are beautifully conveyed and archived.”—From the foreword by Stephen W. Porges, PhD, Distinguished University Scientist, Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, and professor of psychiatry, University of North Carolina
 
“Stanley Rosenberg has put his encyclopedic clinical knowledge to work through the lens of the Polyvagal Theory, illuminating the path away from the underlying cause of so much of today’s disease: anxiety. A tour de force.”—Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains
 
“Stanley Rosenberg is one of the world’s most skilled and creative hands-on therapists. His diagnostic and treatment techniques have immediate application for everyone. Read and enjoy this book, and apply the techniques in your life or in your practice.”—James L. Oschman, PhD, author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis
 
“An excellent and most valuable resource, written by one of the true masters in the field.”— Dr. Robert Schleip, director of the Fascia Research Group