The Power of Polyvagal Theory and Vagus Nerve in Somatic and EMDR Therapy
- 24 hours ago
- 5 min read
Your body knows things before your mind does.
You walk into a room and feel uneasy before you can name why. Someone's tone shifts and your chest tightens before you've processed what they said. You're meant to feel safe, but your heart races anyway.
This is your nervous system speaking. It's been reading the environment, assessing safety and threat, long before conscious thought catches up.
In somatic EMDR, we don't just talk about what happened. We work with what your body remembers and how it continues to respond. Because trauma isn't stored only in thoughts or narratives—it lives in the nervous system itself.
The Body's Surveillance System
Dr. Stephen Porges calls it neuroception—the body's ability to detect cues of safety or danger without your awareness. It's perception without consciousness. An internal surveillance system continuously scanning your environment, your relationships, the tone of a voice, the expression on a face.
And it makes decisions faster than thought.
Your nervous system responds to what it detects, shifting between states that each serve a purpose:
There's the state where you feel grounded, present, able to connect. Where your voice is steady and your capacity to engage with others feels available. This is the nervous system at rest, signaling safety.
There's the state where energy mobilizes—heart racing, muscles tensing, thoughts accelerating. Preparation for action. This is the nervous system responding to perceived threat, readying you to fight or flee.
And there's the state where everything slows or shuts down. Numbness. Disconnection. A sense of being outside yourself or unreachable. This is the nervous system's last resort when threat feels overwhelming or inescapable.
None of these states are wrong. They're adaptive responses shaped by experience.
When the Body Remembers
Trauma changes the nervous system's baseline. What once registered as safe may now trigger vigilance. What should feel neutral carries weight.
You might notice:
Your body responds to situations that logically shouldn't feel threatening, but something in the environment—a smell, a tone, the way light falls—registers as danger.
You feel disconnected or numb in moments when you want to be present.
Your system has shifted into shutdown before you consciously chose it.
You're exhausted from being on alert. The mobilized state—meant to be temporary—has become chronic.
This isn't weakness. It's the nervous system doing what it was trained to do by experience. It adapted. It kept you safe when safety wasn't guaranteed.
But those adaptations, once necessary, may no longer serve you.
The Role of the Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve—the longest nerve in your body—runs from your brainstem through your face, throat, heart, lungs, and digestive system. It's the primary pathway through which your nervous system communicates safety or threat.
When the vagus nerve signals safety, you can engage socially. Your facial expressions soften. Your voice has range. You can listen, connect, regulate.
When it signals danger, those capacities narrow or shut down.
Part of what makes somatic EMDR effective is that it works directly with the nervous system—not just the story of what happened, but how your body continues to hold and respond to it. The vagus nerve is central to this process.
Through bilateral stimulation and body-based awareness, EMDR helps the nervous system complete responses that were interrupted or frozen during trauma. It allows the body to process and release what it's been carrying, shifting the baseline back toward safety.
Why This Matters in Midlife
There's something about midlife that brings the nervous system into sharper focus.
For many people—particularly women navigating perimenopause and menopause—this is when the body begins releasing what it's held. Memories surface. Old responses intensify. What was managed or set aside earlier in life demands attention now.
The nervous system that adapted to survive early experiences may no longer be sustainable. The vigilance that once protected you now exhausts you. The disconnection that helped you cope now isolates you.
And at the same time, your body is changing in ways that feel unfamiliar or alarming, activating the nervous system further.
This convergence—the resurfacing of old material and the body's current transition—is why somatic EMDR can be particularly effective in midlife. It addresses both the historical imprints and the present nervous system distress.
What Somatic EMDR Offers
Somatic EMDR doesn't override the nervous system's responses. It works with them.
It helps your body recognize that what was once threatening is no longer present. It allows the nervous system to update its assessment of safety, not through logic or willpower, but through direct experience.
You might notice shifts like:
Your baseline state feels calmer. The chronic vigilance begins to ease. Your body can rest without feeling like it's letting its guard down dangerously.
You have more capacity to be present. The shutdown or disconnection that used to take over feels less automatic, less consuming.
Responses become proportional. A difficult conversation is difficult, but it doesn't send your entire system into crisis.
This isn't about eliminating all stress or discomfort. It's about your nervous system becoming more flexible, more discerning, more able to return to baseline after activation.
The Difference Between Knowing and Healing
You can understand trauma intellectually and still carry it in your body.
You can know, logically, that you're safe now—and your nervous system can still respond as if you're not.
This is why talk therapy alone often isn't enough for trauma. The story matters. Understanding matters. But healing requires engaging the body, the nervous system, the somatic memory that doesn't speak in words.
Somatic EMDR acknowledges that your body has been keeping score. And it offers a way to work with what's been recorded there—not by talking about it, but by allowing the nervous system itself to process and integrate.
What This Work Asks
Working with the nervous system in somatic EMDR requires patience. Your body moves at its own pace, and that pace may be slower than your mind wants.
There will be moments of discomfort. Accessing somatic memory can feel activating before it feels resolving. This is the nervous system doing the work it needs to do.
And there will be moments of surprising relief. When a chronic tension releases. When something that always felt threatening suddenly doesn't. When you notice you're present in a way you haven't been in years.
The work asks you to trust your body's intelligence. To honor its responses, even when they seem inconvenient or irrational. To recognize that what you've been carrying wasn't meant to be held forever.
If This Resonates
If you've been managing, coping, functioning—but something in your body feels unresolved, unsettled, unfinished—this might be the work you need.
If your nervous system feels stuck in patterns that no longer serve you, if your body responds to safety as if it's still under threat, if you're exhausted from being on alert—somatic EMDR offers a way to work with what's been held.
Not by forcing change, but by allowing your nervous system the conditions it needs to heal.
Your body has been trying to tell you something. Maybe it's time to listen.
If you'd like to learn more or link with tools, please check out the resources page.
About
Julie Cardoza, LMFT, is an EMDR practitioner working with individuals in midlife transitions through somatic, body-based therapy. Her practice is depth-oriented, relational, and intentionally paced.
Disclaimer
The content on this blog is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, medical advice, or establish a therapeutic relationship. Reading this blog does not make you a client.
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room. For professional support, consult with a licensed mental health provider in your area.
You are responsible for how you use the information shared here. This content reflects my professional perspective and lived experience but should not replace individualized care.
Land Acknowledgment
I acknowledge that I live and practice on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Yokut and Mono peoples.
