An Introduction To The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model

This video offers a brief educational introduction to the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, followed by a guided practice of the 6 Steps of Focusing. You’ll be supported to slow down, listen inwardly, and connect with the body’s felt sense as a pathway to nervous system awareness and self-regulation. This practice may help with stress relief, emotional clarity, trauma healing, grounding, and a deeper sense of inner safety. Please note that this practice is supportive and does not replace professional mental health or trauma care.

Transcript

So this is Eugene Gendlin's work. I trained with Gendlin. For over 30 years. Shenlin was a one of the Founders really the of the somatic therapy. Movement. There were people, Of course, Before him and after him. But Jendlin was the one who discovered the felt sense. And he did this through research with Carl Rogers. They were really curious about what produces change for people. Why can some people? Really benefit from psychotherapy and other people really don't. And so they interviewed clients and therapists who reported really positive outcomes. And what they found. And interestingly, Because they listen to the recordings of the psychotherapy sessions, And what they found was that there were these long spaces where there were Nobody talking. And so he asked clients, What were you doing there in that time where nobody was speaking? And what he discovered in speaking with them was that they were using that time to connect into what was happening in their bodies. Surprise, Surprise, People that do well. And make changes in their lives and have a good life. Are experiencing a sense of integration between mind and body. This should not be surprising to us. And so what he then discovered. Was that. If we could. Offer people a safe enough space to be inside that experience in their bodies, Especially if it was an uncomfortable experience. Like talking about a problem. And we could do that in co-regulation. With a therapist or with another person. Who was able to greet you. To meet you in this embodied way. And to give you this sense of loving kindness, Of safety. Whatever that problem was that was sitting in your body, Because bodies carry our problems. Whatever that was would begin. To awaken. Soften around the edges. It was like. . . Discovering that our Inner pain was longing to be heard. Which makes sense, Right? And that really nothing had to change in terms of what was actually going on out in the world in response to our problems, What needed to change first. First and then that second step. Was how our bodies carry that problem. And that if we touched into that place, That wound, With, Particularly with another person. Who cared about us. The wound would open and it would begin to heal. And when that wound opens. The person would experience what he called a felt shift in the body. As the wound opens into healing. So as the wound feels, As we feel, Held by another person in safety. And kindness. Our body. Longing for that. Co-regulation. Shifts into more ventral energy. And that's what. I discovered and put together in the felt-sense polyvagal model. That that felt shift I'd been trained. To listen to more deeply. I knew it in my body. Jenlin's naming it. And I realized that, Oh, That felt shift. That physical release in the opening that happens is a shift in autonomic state into ventral energy. So I put that together when I learned about polyvagal theory in the autonomic nervous system. So when we know that, When we realize, Oh, That shift. Is a shift into ventral. Then I brought together the felt-sense polyvagal model which helps us to Learn about the nervous system. Through embodiment. So not just to teach our clients in a top-down kind of way. This is how the nervous system works, As these branches of blah, Blah, Blah. We do this in the Felton's Polyvagal community. Through an embodied approach. To teaching about the nervous system. I created this graphic model. To help people to appreciate the embodiment. And we created the model through focusing. We, Over years and years with clients and students, Teaching in groups, Teaching focusing, And then I started integrating the nervous system. People really helped me to. . . Create the model out of the right hemisphere. So we have a circular model, It's not linear. Because the body image, The map, Lives in the right hemisphere, And the right hemisphere is a hemisphere of circles and feedback loops in the body and imagery and color and shape and emotion live here. And so the model is all of that, Its colors and shapes. And. We use the model to bring in also how deeply we're experiencing the felt sense into the body. So I think that really offers us. A somatic journey of learning about the nervous system. Through. Felt sensing. Now some of you may say, Well, How can you do that? In the dysregulated states, We don't feel into the felt sense in the body. And that's true. And that's all part of how we shaped the model. And so what's very powerful is when you show clients the bottle. And often we would, You know, Blow it up into four by six and put it on, Laminate it and put it on the wall and then help people trace their journey. Through the psychotherapy process. And to see where they were in different states and to appreciate the lack of connection. The trauma feedback loop. Between that sympathetic response. And then shifting into a dorsal response and then back again into sympathetic. And when they saw the lack of ventral energy there. And the kind of grayness of dorsal and the redness of sympathetic. And then what we discovered was that almost everybody would describe ventral. In yellow colors, And we created these beautiful body cards. To help people learn about their nervous system. Through their bodies. Not just through their heads. Is a lot of folks, Some folks will like to learn it that way. And that's great. So use that doorway in the top down doorway is a good one to use, Often with people living in dorsal who are afraid to come into the body for good reason. But there are many folks who really enjoy beginning that connection, Especially if they're living in too much sympathetic. And they can understand that red ball, We made it like a red ball of wool tangled up in that state. People would talk about feeling that in their gut or in their chest. And so we made that the visual representation of the sympathetic state. So Dor, You know, It was really, It was Jenlyn who really. . . The genius of Jen and who really helped me to understand how It is so important to bring embodiment into the creation of theory. And he created this whole philosophy called the process model that brings embodiment into theory that we're creating. And a process called thinking at the edge, Which I used, Because how can we really understand the theory? Unless we get into the body and understand how that works. Fits with what's really going on in the body. We can talk about it up here. You can talk about the word neuroception up here. But what we need to do is take the word neuroception. And drop it down into the body. And notice. How does my body carry this process? Of monitoring how safe I am. And I actually created a somatic practice for that, Where we imagine that our body Our neuroceptive process is an animal. And what animal would that be? Okay, So for now, I'm going to take you through the six steps of focusing. And then. . . You can bring this process into the ways in which you are beginning to also understand your autonomic nervous system. All right, So settling yourself, You might want to pause here and just get yourselves comfortable. And settling yourselves. You might want to stand up. Some bodies really love standing up as well. So the six steps of focusing. We're going to go through each of those steps. We're not going to go into something really difficult. Focusing was designed to deal with problems. But we also can use it. To resource wonderful grounded states in the body. And that's what we'll do more of in learning the steps of focusing. But I'll just give you a little hint of how we would go to an uncomfortable place. Okay. The six steps of focusing. So settling yourself. If you don't feel comfortable to close your eyes. You can simply look at something in the room. You can just listen to my voice. Wherever your body is right now. Is just where it needs to be to help you to feel safe. In the world. But you can come along if you want to. And listen to the steps. And some of you will feel comfortable to go deeply down in, Not too deep. Because we're learning those steps. You know, Remember, Focusing is a natural process. We only teach it in steps. To help people find their way back. To the way that bodies work. Once you've learned those steps. You can really let them go if you want to. But I have found them to be helpful as a way of teaching. And listening to and going more deeply into the process. Step one. We call clearing a space. And this is, It's like a meditation, Mindfulness meditation step. It isn't really focusing. It's getting us ready. To be able to focus. It's a beautiful kind of grounding practice that helps us to slow things down to pause and begin to come inside. So. . . Just dropping your attention. Somewhere down into the center of your body. And then we just ask this beautiful question. What's coming between me? And feeling Settled. Inside. And then. . . You're going to notice that Often there are several things that pop up that want attention. Usually we have Four or five things were. Wandering around with in our mind. So we don't go into any of those, Just take one of them. And maybe name it, Like putting a label on it. And then find a way. To gather all of it up. Put it into a container. Just for now. Just for now we want to. It's like making an inner list. Put it into some kind of a container or write it down. And set it aside. And just notice. How much distance does your body need from it in order to be able to set it aside? And once you've been able to do that with the first thing, Then check back in and say, Well, What else is in here? That's coming between me and feeling settled inside. And just notice what the second thing is. Maybe label it again in a container. And just asking it. Just for now. To Maybe be beside you. Maybe it needs to go further away. Maybe it needs to go out onto the front lawn. Maybe it needs to go really far away, Out into the ocean. Just getting the right distance for you right now. So that you can put it to the side. And then once you've got both of those things, With some distance. Just check and see, Is there anything else in there that's getting in the way of. . . Feeling very clear and calm. We're feeling somewhat clear and calm. It doesn't have to be perfect in there. And then just taking whatever else there is, Another thing that comes. A worry about this or something you need to do or some person you need to call out to. All of those things on your list. And naming it. Gathering it up. And placing it just at the right distance. Just for now. And you might want to even stop the recording to take some more time to do this. Don't go into it. Just naming them. And then once you've got all of them to put to the side, Just notice what it feels like in here now in your body. Without all of that. Even if there's just a little loosening, A little more clarity, A little more cleared space in there, That's what we're looking for. And just bringing your attention into that space. Jenlin would use. The analogy of tidying up the living room. You know, If you've got that. Newspapers spread across the floor, You gather them all up. Put the blanket back on the couch. Just tidying up what's inside for now and then noticing, And this is a place where you could just stop. You don't have to continue on with it. Into focusing on a problem or an issue. You can just use this as a kind of. . . Grounding Practice. And then. If you want to focus on an issue. Moving on to step two, Finding a felt sense. So here we come into the body. And we let the body choose which one of those issues that you put out. Is calling to you. Which one of those issues would like some attention now? Just one of them. And invite that one. To come inside, Somewhere down. Into the center of your body. And now inside, There's you and this issue. And just notice where. It settles. In your body. Notice where your body is carrying the beginnings. Of a whole felt sense experience. Of this issue in your life. And you might want to just put a hand where you feel it. And just beginning. To sense into. What comes here when you're with this? Problem. If you find yourself getting too close to it, Just back up three or four steps. You'll learn how to do this more. With the practice of focusing. And then just checking to see what are the feelings in there. The thoughts. Noticing the physical sensations. You want to be with the whole of this situation. As it comes into the body. Just allowing yourself to really be with. This problem. And coming back to your cleared space if you need to. If it gets to be a bit too much. And then coming back into the felt sense. This is like when we pause and really allow. All of what we're experiencing with this issue. Notice if there's a. . . Color or shape. So step three. As you're staying with the felt sense. Is getting a handle. For this experience. So that's like a word. A phrase. Color. A shape. Maybe a gesture in your body, Something that's helps you to really capture the essence. Of this. Experience in here. Often. If it's a word or a sentence or a phrase, It's like poetry. Or it can also be. Powerful image that comes. Often we feel this. This comes to us in dreams, The handle for. A felt sense. Might be thick. Might be black, It might be. Spongy. And might have a. FUD. Quality to it in the body. Noticing. As you stay with it. How it shows up in your body. And then. In step four, We resonate that felt sense. Handle. And if we are doing this with a partner, A focusing partner, The partner would say that back to you, What the handle is. So it might be. Brilliant. Gold. So you may find that this handle changes over time and You can resonate. Back and forth to see if it just fits with what's happening inside so it a billowy kind of floaty sensation. Can shift into something that feels a little more. Open. Like a flower opening. So we just say that back and forth, Resonating the handle together. Just what seems to fit with what's happening in the body. And when that fits so nicely that image or the words. It settles in the body. It feels good. Yeah, That's it. It's this. Sunny. Pebbly. Awakening. And then as we stay, With resonating, We begin to become aware. Very curious about asking into that felt sense. So we might say something like, Do I know this place? Is this place familiar? In my body? It's a powerful question. Or how far back? Does this felt sense go in my life? Sometimes we can find it way back into childhood. Way back into being a little person. We might say. What's the worst of this place if we're trying to get a little closer to it? We might say, Is it okay to be here? If we start to feel overwhelmed by it. Asking is a very important step. It comes. In different ways being curious, Right? Always being open to that curious place. And then the final step in focusing is one of welcoming whatever came. Especially the uncomfortable. Places in The body. Really welcoming that the body showed us what's going on at a deeper level in our lives. And sometimes. . . Focusing is a little piece and sometimes it feels very big and deep. And we welcome all of that that comes. And sometimes we get this real shift in perspective. What Jenlin called the felt shift. When the body opens and we listen with kindness. Very often something new comes. Something that we didn't already know, This is the place of focusing. An awareness that we didn't already know up here. That we're now experiencing down here. And then we bring it up. Into our head and take it back down again. So it might be. A shift in, Wow, I didn't realize how angry I was. Or wow, I didn't realize how. Fast I was going. And being with that and really welcoming it. And the expansiveness of it. And sometimes that welcoming moves us into very deep spiritual places. In the body. And as you become a more experienced focuser, You can really learn how to titrate. Coming into and being with something that feels very traumatic. And holding it gently at the right distance. With some really good energy. Some good grounding energy in the body. And that's the way we can slowly work through traumatic. Reprocessing.