IBS, Trauma, and the Gut-Brain Connection: Therapy for Health Issues and Chronic Illness In Seattle
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On April 10th, 2024, I had the opportunity to speak at the 2024 IBS Warrior Summit about the vagus nerve, trauma and the gut-brain connection. This is a FREE yearly event held by IBS Dietician Erin Judge. You can sign up to watch the recordings through May. Check out Erin’s Instagram account @erinjudge.rd for more information. You can also check out her business page at Gutivate.
Here’s an overview of what I discussed in my presentation. I hope you find some helpful information that can help you on your journey!
Nervous System Review
Your nervous system consists of your brain, spinal cord and nerves. Your brain and spinal cord comprise your Central Nervous System (CNS) and the nerves that branch off of your spinal cord to other areas of your body make up your Peripheral Nervous System. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is part of the Peripheral Nervous System and can be further divided into two parts, the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic pathways. The Sympathetic deals with the activation of fight or flight when your body senses danger. This response inhibits gut function, decreases blood flow and digestive secretions. The Parasympathetic response helps calm you down when safe and is responsible for gut motility.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is the longest of twelve cranial nerves going from your head down to your tailbone. It’s part of the autonomic nervous system which regulates unconscious body processes such as breathing and digestion.
What Does the Vagus Nerve Do?
As part of the ANS, the vagus nerve is like a superhighway used to communicate sensory information from your body to your brain and your brain to your body. The communication is bi-directional.
Can the Vagus Nerve Be Damaged?
Yes. The vagus nerve can be damaged by injury or disease. It can also be damaged by trauma, chronic stress or threat. The ANS can get stuck in unhelpful response patterns and create havoc in your everyday life as it plays an important role in regulating your psychological and physiological states. This is why trauma, stress, and your overall mental health can impact your gut health.
What is Polyvagal Theory?
It was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, a neuroscientist and psychologist, in 1994. It’s a theory and approach that acknowledges experiences are shaped and re-shaped by habitual automatic nervous system responses and focuses on the vagus nerve as the main part of the ANS. Humans can influence these patterns and work to shape their responses more towards safety and connection. The theory describes the physiological and psychological mechanisms that underlie how humans respond to stress and trauma.
Trauma is Subjective
A trauma informed approach helps us acknowledge and understand the impact traumatic events have in both the short and long term on our bodies and minds. Trauma is subjective, what I find traumatic may not be what you find traumatic. This is why it’s important to stay curious about our own experiences and other peoples’ experiences.
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Three Key Principles of Polyvagal Theory
1. Hierarchy of the Autonomic Nervous System
2. Neuroception
3. Co-regulation
1. Hierarchy of the ANS
According to Polyvagal Theory, the ANS is divided into three parts, each having their own responses. Think about the hierarchy as a ladder, from the oldest to the newest. Stress and trauma can cause people to get stuck in the dorsal or sympathetic states, leaving their system stuck in a survival response.
Dorsal vagal state: shutdown, immobilization, freeze.
Symptathetic vagal state: fight or flight, engagement, activation.
Ventral vagal state: safety, connection, social engagement system.
2. Neuroception
Detection without awareness. Your nervous system is constantly taking in data and making assessments about the environment and relationships all under your level of conscious awareness. We can work on re-shaping the nervous system by starting to bring perception to neuroception and adding contextual understanding.
3. Co-regulation
As humans, we learn to auto-regulate ourselves through co-regulatory experiences. You can see this as adults interact with babies. Our social engagement system is tied to our faces, including facial expression, tone of voice, intonation, etc. When we interact with others in a rhythm of reciprocity, we can build safety.
What Does All This Mean for my IBS?
Through understanding that there are bi-directional pathways, we know psychological processes can impact body responses and body states can impact perceptions.
Body <—> Brain
This is why so often when we experience stress of trauma it’s stored and felt in the body. Somatic symptoms can be an expression of unprocessed stress/trauma. We can target our nervous system through ‘bottom-up’ or ‘top-down’ interventions.
How Do I Heal?
The great thing about this bi-directional pathway is that we can target interventions to build safety in the body and in the mind using targeted strategies. The goal is to be able to build safety within your own nervous system and have the flexibility to return to safety after dysregulation. It’s important to remember, your nervous system’s goal is to protect you, but sometimes it needs a little help because it’s hasn’t evolved to our modern times. Your nervous system doesn’t know if you just saw a lion around the corner, or if someone cut you off in traffic. It also doesn’t know if someone is hunting you down or if you’re being self-critical.
What I Do in Therapy with Clients
Model developed by Deb Dana: BASIC—Befriend, Attend, Shape, Integrate, Connect
Befriend:
Make the implicit explicit. I like to think about it as doing observational research on yourself. You move inward with curiosity and compassion.
Attend:
Practice your ability to name your autonomic states, notice when they shift and build a more thorough experiential knowledge of these shifts which will help later to shape your system.
Shape:
Retraining your autonomic nervous system responses requires practice. It takes being able to be mindful and practice re-anchoring yourself in safety (ventral vagal state).
Integrate:
Bring attention to new autonomic patterns to continue to build more resiliency which relates to the ability to naturally move through states without getting stuck.
Connect:
How we relate to ourselves, to others and to the world around us is directly correlated with our autonomic responses. With strong regulation skills, creating safe connections becomes more possible. It’s a recursive feedback loop.
Change is Not an Event, It’s a Process
One of the first things I do with clients in this process is identify safety anchors.
Who, what, where and when create autonomic cues of safety in your nervous system.
You can also think about your five senses, and with each sense, what cues safety. We have to learn about our systems before we can start re-shaping it.
Practicing regulating your nervous system can help regulate your digestion. A safe system functions more smoothly. Build safety on a visceral level.
Key Takeaways
Bi-directional influence of brain <—> body.
Explore your autonomic states and patterns in order to bring perception to neuroception.
Re-shaping autonomic responses takes time and practice.
The more ability you have to return to a sense of safety (ventral vagal state) the better you’ll be able to handle stress and trauma. Building safety happens on a deep, embodied level, not just cognitively/emotionally.
We can utilize ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ intervention techniques to build regulation skills and build safety. Bottom up interventions start in the body (breathing, massage, acupuncture, etc) and top down interventions start with the mind (focusing on thoughts, emotions, etc).
Want More Support Dealing with Chronic Health Issues?
If you’re struggling with IBS or other chronic health conditions and want to practice regulating your nervous system to create safety, reach out to me today. I offer free consultations and whether we work together or not I can point you in the right direction.
Read other blogs posts related to chronic illness and medical trauma:
Therapy for Health Issues and Chronic Illness in Seattle: My Health Story
A Comprehensive Guide to Therapy for Health Issues and Chronic Illness in Seattle
Seattle Grief Counseling: Validating Your Experience with Chronic Illness
Navigating Adversity: Grief Counseling in Seattle for Coping with Medical Gaslighting
Learn more about my specialties: infertility, pregnancy loss, grief, medical trauma, health issues and menopause.
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