Attachment

Our bodies have the natural capacity and neurocuitry for healing, developing, building, integrating and restoring our natural capacities for secure attachment relationships with a sense of safety, trust, resonance, syncing up with each other, attunement, mutual respect and boundaries, and moving through challenges resilienty together. Attachment-informed approaches including Emotionally Focused Therapy, Polyvagal skills practice, Mindfulness-Based approaches, parts work and more help us actively cultivate our bodies natural capacities for healing in these areas and respond skillfully with awareness to our own needs and our relationships. In overwhelming states, our prefrontal cortex (executive functioning, critical/rational thinking, decision making part of our brain) is not adequately connected to our middle brain which is in a stress/threat response, which may be why calming down doesn't happen when we try to rationalize and tell ourselves there is nothing to be anxious, or that our fears/depression is irrational. During these states (when the prefrontal cortex goes offline), we can engage bottom-up regulation practices, and send cues to our brain from our body/movement/orienting of safety, to calm/soothe and regulate the brain and body. Further, we can activate the Social Engagement System of the Vegas nerve to activate a sense of security in the body through movement, music, rhythm, social connection, co-regulation, storytelling, and much more. Engaging in practices that activate the Social Engagement System of the Vegas Nerve including self-compassion work, and skillful work with fragmented parts, mindfulness, and somatic(body-based) approaches can help access unresolved/unprocessed trauma patterns and integrate and resolve them, and move into an intact sense of self, resolve, wellness, and meaningful sense of connection with self and others.