present with the client (Bingle & Middleton, 2019), which may have to do with subjectivity surrounding assessment. This has the potential to produce play therapists who can provide rationales for their evidence- based practices and a strong ability to conceptualize cases but lack understanding of how to nurture the ability to return to regulation, which is the essence of resilience (Dana, 2020). This article will highlight the importance of underlying autonomic states translating to mood disorders, which allow play therapists to not only better understand clients, but also how to optimally manage themselves in the playroom.
A play therapist's guide to polyvagal theory Developed by Stephen Porges, polyvagal theory offers an explanation of the autonomic nervous system. At the most foundational level, autonomic states create stories to make sense of experience (Dana, 2022). Children often utilize behaviors such as withdrawal, avoidance of interaction with others, aggression and/or tantrums as strategies to communicate their story and orient their bodies to those around them. Since connection is a biological need for survival (Porges, 2015), adults and children utilize their brains and bodies to send signals into the world, searching for signals in return. Over time these signals can serve people well, create havoc, or lead to a state anywhere in between.
Making sense of polyvagal theory involves a thorough understanding of the autonomic hierarchy. Ventral vagal is considered a system of connection. It includes a functional parasympathetic nervous system which can openly receive connection and safety cues within the environment. Ventral vagal helps people to interact with life in healthy ways. Play is a state of mind supported by the autonomic state of ventral vagal regulation and a great way to exercise the vagal brake (Porges, 2015). The vagal brake helps to regulate heart rate, which has a calming effect for the body.
Through the linking of cranial nerves, the social engagement system is shaped. These nerves connect to our sense receptors and to our heart. There are many ways that play therapists can begin to understand the social engagement system. For example, recognize the ways that your eyes and eyelids form and hold an appropriate gaze. Bringing attention to social gaze plays a valuable role in the synchrony of attunement. Spend time in the present moment. Not only will your gaze follow, but so will your tone of voice. You will identify breathing patterns as you speak, and prosody of voice will also become more purposeful. You might also recognize when you swallow. Emotional expression is often observable through facial expressions. The social engagement system involves facial, sound, and other cues that signal welcome or warning, and that are present in playful interactions between the child and the play therapist.
In the playroom children and teens will connect with the play therapist by accessing and expressing the unconscious through play, and learn self-regulation strategies that will reinforce self-esteem building as well as foster emotional wellness (Schaefer & Drewes, 2014). The play therapist is well aware of the importance of the relationship in the play therapy process and continues to communicate “I am here, I hear you,
CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS:
Polyvagal theory can inform and support play therapists in nurturing emotional regulation.
I understand, and I care” (Landreth & Bratton, 2006). These positive interactions between the child and play therapist will regulate the brain’s stress response systems and engage the ventral vagal brake, which creates positive neurophysiological states, promoting health and healing (Ludy-Dobson & Perry, 2010).
As arousal increases due to threat detection, individuals move into a sympathetic response. The nervous system senses danger and there (flight). Fighting tends to elicit rage and anger while flight evokes panic and fear. Some optimism exists in the sympathetic response for moving back to ventral vagal once the threat subsides, otherwise we would not even try to move towards or away. In the playroom this sympathetic for a prolonged period of time, or engaging in aggressive or anxious play without respecting limits set by the play therapist. The energy of the sympathetic nervous system is vital to the play therapist’s ability to move through the session respecting the client’s need to express danger or threat while maintaining connection to their own vagal brake and anchoring the client’s dysregulation in safety. The function of the play therapist’s vagal brake is to allow the therapist to feel what the client is experiencing and use some of the mobilization energy of their own sympathetic nervous system without being pulled into the survival in the present provides an opportunity for the client to fully experience their own threat response and take action through play metaphors, while the therapist intentionally adjusts the balance toward calm and regulation with nonverbal signals of safety to activate the social engagement system.
Countertransference may show up not only with the words we speak but also through feelings and in our nervous systems. If unproductive feelings (e.g., contempt, disgust) involving countertransference are redirected back to the client by way of our facial expressions, then the therapist risks evoking shame rather than a shared sense of co- regulation. Play therapists who strive to be present and conscious with a willingness to regard every interaction as an opportunity to learn will create an environment that provides warm, positive emotions that contribute to ideal neural functioning and child development (Gaskill & Perry, 2017). When the play therapist focuses on his or her own regulation it allows the child or teen to fully experience their own threat response, take action and move between the states of connection and protection. The play therapist’s ability to enter into an attuned
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