Polyvagal Theory and the Developing Child: Systems of Care for Strengthening Kids, Families, and Communities

by Marilyn R. Sanders, George S. Thompson

How sustained disruptions to children’s safety have physical, behavioral, and mental health impact that follow them into adulthood. At its heart, polyvagal theory describes how the brain’s unconscious sense of safety or danger impacts our emotions and behaviors. In this powerful book, pediatrician and neonatologist Marilyn R. Sanders and child psychiatrist George S. Thompson offer readers both a meditation on caregiving and a call to action for physicians, educators, and mental health providers. When children don’t have safe relationships, or emotional, medical, or physical traumas punctuate their lives, their ability to love, trust, and thrive is damaged. Children who have multiple relationship disruptions may have physical, behavioral, or mental health concerns that follow them into adulthood. By attending to the lessons of polyvagal theory―that adult caregivers must be aware of children’s unconscious processing of sensory information―the authors show how professionals can play a critical role in establishing a sense of safety even in the face of dangerous, and sometimes incomprehensibly scary, situations. 25 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: Psychology

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2021

Reviews

[Gina Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding. Sanders and Thompson describe the importance of attachment through a Polyvagal lens, relating neonatal through adolescent behaviors to dorsal caval, ventral caval, or sympathetic pathways. I highly recommend this book to anyone who interacts with children on a daily basis.

[Peter Carttar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a revelation for me. Practices which, in the past may have seemed somehow magically “emotionally intelligent” are given a unifying logic that has caused me to reframe how I view the world of human relations. As an interested layperson, I greatly appreciate that a polyvagal approach provides a sensible “north star” to help navigate and understand interactions with greater consistency as well as care. I finished the book, wanting to learn more.

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informative and relatively easy to follow- even without a previous knowledge of the content. I loved learning about this. I did skip around to find what would be applicable to me as a parent, but there is lots in here for teachers and professionals who work with kids or adults. Really great read!

[C A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This masterful and accessible book is an ideal resource for the trainee in the mental health professions. Throughout my 9 years of medical education and training (medical school, adult psychiatry residency, child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship), many of the ideas in this book have flitted across my radar (attachment theory, the biology of trauma, the causal connections between trauma and childhood anxiety, etc.), but they have never landed, come together, or made sense as a whole as much as while reading this book. This is the perfect book to take you to the next level of understanding, where disparate facts integrate into a coherent framework, speak to your heart, and become your own.

The big value-added in this book is that Doctors Sanders and Thompson are not mere theoreticians; we all know that the best teachers are the ones who have put their ideas into practice, refined them year after year, and finally arrived at the place where things just make sense--theoretically, practically, and in your heart--which is the stuff that sticks.

Most training, especially in Medicine, is notoriously bad at preparing us for child patients like Julia in Chapter 4, who has experienced a “caravan” of risk factors, one after another, including separation from her mother at birth, multiple foster placements, and the traumatic loss of a caregiver. We see these patients at the end of a long road of difficulties and our DSM-oriented training might cause us to attend predominantly or even exclusively to the presentation of immediate symptoms or the most recent crisis. We can grow frustrated and helpless when our explanations seem inadequate and our interventions ineffective, which can lead to compassion fatigue and burnout. This book blows the reductionist narrative wide open and makes room for the actual person to come through so that we can actually see, know, and treat her in her whole human reality and therefore with loads more of compassion, patience, and expertise.