The Science of Safety: Social Connectedness and the Polyvagal Theory

Our TREC team has written a previous blog on Cultivating Psychological Safety: A Foundation for Thriving Environments and now, we’d like to honor Dr. Stephen Porges, who developed the Polyvagal Theory which emphasizes the role of the vagus nerve with regulating health, behavior, and mental well-being

This paper reflects the science of safety. We know when humans feel safe, their nervous systems support the homeostatic functions of health, growth, and restoration, while they simultaneously become accessible to others without feeling or expressing threat and vulnerability.

What is Polyvagal Theory?

Polyvagal Theory provides an innovative scientific perspective to study feelings of safety that incorporates an understanding of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. This perspective identifies neural circuits that downregulate neural regulation of threat reactions and functionally neutralize defensive strategies via neural circuits communicating cues of safety that enable feelings of safety to support interpersonal accessibility and homeostatic functions.

With safety an elusive construct which has historically been dependent upon subjectivity, this paper focused on feelings of safety as an enduring lifelong quest. Acknowledging that feelings of safety are an emergent property of autonomic state would shift investigations of feelings of safety from a subjective to an objective science.

What did the researchers do?

Contemporary strategies for health and wellbeing fail our biological needs by not acknowledging that feelings of safety emerge from inside the body. It is proposed that feelings of safety have a measurable underlying neurophysiological substrate.

As social mammals, on an enduring lifelong quest to feel safe, this quest appears to be embedded in our DNA and serves as a profound motivator throughout our life. The need to feel safe is functionally our body speaking through our autonomic nervous system influencing our mental and physical health, social relationships, cognitive processes, behavioral repertoire, and serving as a neurophysiological substrate upon which societal institutions dependent on cooperation and trust function are based.

This paper reflects four levels with measurable results on the science of safety.

Results

• Level I: Neurophysiological processes characterized by bidirectional communication between the brainstem and peripheral organs to maintain physiological homeostasis.
• Level II: Physiological processes reflecting the input of higher nervous system influences on the brainstem regulation of homeostasis. These processes are associated with modulating metabolic output and energy resources to support adaptive responses to environmental demands.
• Level Ill: Measurable and often observable motor processes including body movements and facial expressions. These processes can be evaluated in terms of quantity, quality, and appropriateness.
• Level IV: Processes that reflect the coordination of motor behavior, emotional tone, and bodily state to successfully negotiate social interactions.  

The  Polyvagal Theory suggests that social connectedness is a core biological imperative for humans, since human survival is dependent on trusted others, is wired into our genetics and is expressed throughout the lifespan starting from the moment of birth.

What does this mean?

A biological imperative identifies a need that must be fulfilled for a living organism to perpetuate existence and survival.  

Polyvagal Theory proposes that social connectedness is tantamount to stating that our body feels safe in proximity with another.

A Polyvagal perspective shifts the discussion from the external features defining stress and threat to the nervous system’s ability to support or disrupt homeostatic functions (i.e., processes supporting health, growth, and restoration). This new conceptualization would redefine stress as a measurable state during which homeostatic functions are disrupted.

TREC’s Takeaways

One of the main pillars of TREC is relationships. Cultivating trusted relationships reflect the imperative needs of safe environments with caring teachers and staff. With safety, trust, and relationships at the core of the TREC Model, our Trauma-Resilient Professional (TRP) staff model vulnerability and nurture psychological safety.

TREC places a strong emphasis on fostering safe and supportive environments through relationships and understanding of the autonomic nervous system, as influenced by the Polyvagal Theory. By prioritizing safety, trust, and relationships, TREC aims to create an environment where both staff and students can thrive.

The focus on building trusted relationships not only supports the well-being of students but also empowers staff to work effectively and with agency. The TREC Model recognizes the interconnectedness of emotional safety, learning, and resilience within educational communities.

Citation:

Stephen W. Porges 1, 2* 1 Traumatic Stress Research Consortium, Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States, 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

(PDF) Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety (researchgate.net)

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