The Triple Vagal Method
What is the Triple Vagal Method?
The Triple Vagal Method® (TVM™) is a so called bottom up somatic approach to trauma healing. What that means is that we first release the trauma and the energy of the trauma that is stuck in the body. While a bottoms down refers to e.g. talk therapy where the mental part is addressed first.
The trauma release in TVM is achieved by releasing trauma from the nervous system in order to complete any unresolved trauma cycles. Cycles is e.g. when unfinished movements, expressions are still stuck in the nervous system and we trigger the nervous system to finish them and by that the energy behind that unfinished action is released form the body/nervous system. This then encourages the releasing of oxytocin (the love/connection hormone) while reducing the levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in the body.
TVM™ is based on the polyvagal theory. Where it is understood that the body stores different types of trauma in different parts of the nervous system, soft tissue, facia and even organs.
All that may be released through physical touch to stimulate the vagus nerve to rapidly switch from sympathetic (threat or survival mechanism) to the parasympathetic system (rest and digest).
But it is this switching between the sympathetic and parasympathetic that is the mechanism where trauma gets released.
As it can be seen on the grapics above. We can move from safety, green, to experiencing danger, yellow, this is the active part of the nervous-system. Then if the nervous-system discerns that it’s no longer safe to take action (fight or flight). We move into the shutdown part, red, where we display different states of being frozen, numb or fawning. People can often still move even if the nervous-system is in a state of frozenness.
In TVM we both work with releasing unresolved states of shutdown, red, frozen, numb. As well as unresolved, unexperienced, unexpressed states of danger (fight and flight). As these different types of energies are released, or the cycles are finished. The nervous-system can land back in safety, green where we experience calmness, wellbeing, having fun, freedom and other expressions of that part of our nervous-system.
TVM sessions can be conducted in person or online.