Blog Update - Motivating Survivors of Child Abuse to Embrace Second Chances

[Jamie]

Motivating Survivors of Child Abuse to Embrace Second Chances

Around three decades ago, American psychologist Dr Stephen Porges developed polyvagal theory, which highlighted the impact of trauma on individuals’ ability to form thriving connections and forge a meaningful life. The basic idea of this theory is that the level of safety we feel impacts our health and happiness. When children experience trauma, their sense of safety is impacted, causing them to either enter fight-or-flight mode or shut down and disengage. Porges and other academics also discovered, however, that it is possible to regain a sense of security, calmness, and safety by resetting the nervous system and relying on the brain’s innate ability to repair itself and create new neural connections. This is the idea behind neuroplasticity, a promise for those who have experienced abuse as children.

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[Harry]

”Polyvagal theory” is pseudoscience.

The approach may sometimes have some clinical usefulness, but is based on false assumptions and ideas.

Here are some quotes from Wikipedia about it Wiki link

"There is consensus among experts that the assumptions of the polyvagal theory are untenable. PVT is popular among some clinical practitioners and patients,[3] but it is not endorsed by current social neuroscience"


"In a 2023 review of the literature, Paul Grossman lists five premises of polyvagal theory and states that "there is broad consensus among experts [...] that each basic physiological assumption of the polyvagal theory is untenable. Much of the existing evidence, upon which these consensuses are grounded, strongly indicates that the underlying polyvagal hypotheses have been falsified.""

Here is a layperson's description of the bogus nature of it

[Jamie]

Thanks Harry - thats all really interesting.