I recently attended a brilliant series of workshops with Deb Dana, a clinician and expert on Polyvagal-informed practice.
One of our exercises was to watch a video of nature for five minutes.
The effect was deeper breathing, a decreased heart rate and a feeling of peace and relaxation, as well as connectedness with fellow workshop attendees.
Watching five minutes of nature has been proven to help activate our parasympathetic nervous system.
Despite the fact that screens of any kind are a big no-no while listening to the Safe and Sound Protocol, I think that watching a calming nature video, either as a way to co-regulate with clients before listening or after listening, would be a really lovely way to start/end our online sessions.
I wanted to become a provider for iLs Focus because I’ve seen such amazing transformations with the Safe and Sound Protocol, and have heard encouraging tales from Focus practitioners (who also use SSP) in the United States. iLs Focus is not commonly used in the UK, so I thought it would be a good idea to get hold of it to evaluate.
The iLs Focus programme is a very comprehensive programme of filtered music coupled with rhythmic movement and visual activities to integrate auditory, visual and vestibular input.
In February, I started supporting an iLs Focus Client, who had been a reflex integration and SSP client for almost a year: a nine year-old boy with sensory processing disorder, auditory processing disorder, attention difficulties, dyslexia and emotional dysregulation.
He has already made fantastic progress with SSP – especially in terms of vastly improved social engagement and emotional regulation. However, he still has catching up to do on the dyslexia/dyspraxia/visual and auditory processing front, which is why this seemed like such a suitable programme for him.
However, iLs Focus is not for the feint hearted. It is a programme that requires enormous dedication on the part of parents.
It involves 30 or 60 minutes of listening to filtered classical music at least 5 times per week for the best results, of which around 20 minutes must include prescribed movements that help develop body awareness and improve the vestibular system.
The programme consists of the following playlists:
10-hour Calming Program – for emotional regulation and as a preparation for the rest of the iLs Focus programme, or as a preparation for the Safe and Sound Protocol
60-hour Sensory & Motor Program – helps sensory processing and improves body awareness
40-hour Concentration & Attention Program – improves concentration and attention
40-hour Reading & Auditory Processing Program – helps with auditory and visual integration for reading and auditory processing
Within a month of starting iLs Focus, my little superstar client had made some very subtle “gains”, which were noticeable to his parents. Firstly, his coordination had improved, secondly, his handwriting had become a lot more fluid (although still a struggle), thirdly he began to really understand times tables and how they relate to division, and fourthly, his voice: he always spoke in a shout, and yet his parents noticed how his voice had started to quieten!
Sadly, we had to stop our weekly in-person sessions due to the situation with Covid19. We replaced weekly sessions with a weekly review by Zoom, which has been going well. The biggest superstars are his parents, who have been keeping the programme going! I suppose it’s easier to keep up with something like this when school is not happening as usual and you have all the time in the world, though.
So we are now in June, four months into the programme. He has completed a sixty-hour sensory and motor programme and is now working through an auditory processing and reading programme. His mother has recently sent me a video of him doing a standing cross crawl movement, and the difference between this movement now and when he first started is incredible: he is now coordinating the movement effortlessly, whereas just four months ago, he had no idea what was where.
The iLs Focus programme is well worth investigating. However, ONLY if you have the time to invest, because you don’t want to spend all that money on a system only to give up after a the initial excitement wears off. My reflex integration programmes take around five minutes per day. If you’ve tried that and haven’t been able to stick with it, please don’t waste your money on iLs Focus. However, if you have stuck with a programme and would like something to bring it all together, perhaps this is something you might like to look into.
One of the things I’m most frequently asked about is how to reduce generalised anxiety.
With the current situation continuing to unfold, we all need to look after ourselves and make sure we are not projecting our fears onto our children too.
Here is a brief explanation of how our nervous system works, and how it relates to anxiety:
In order for us not to be in a constant fight/flight/freeze cycle, we must activate our parasympathetic nervous system – or our social engagement system. In this state, we feel calm, able to think clearly, able to communicate clearly, able to listen clearly and able to see clearly. We do not falsely detect threat and are consequently far more engaging to others.
Here are a few simple things you can try, almost anywhere, which will activate your parasympathetic nervous system and help you to feel calmer:
Music – Find a recording of Mozart’s K448 – Sonata for two pianos and stop everything else. Sit in a chair and listen. This piece of music has been proven to reduce stress – and even the occurrence of seizures in kids with epilepsy!
Breathing – Try slowly breathing in through the nose to the count of 4, and out through the mouth to 8. Breathe from your belly rather than ribs!
Gargling – Try very vigorous gargling – to the point where tears start to form in your eyes. When you start getting tears, it means your vagus nerve is firing. Try and keep it up for a few seconds and then relax
Hum – this activates laryngeal muscles, which get signals directly from the superior and recurrent laryngeal branches of the vagus nerve. If done for long enough, this allows us to control our breath, slow down thoughts and enter deep relaxation
Chant – chanting “om” stimulates vagus activity to the digestive tract, and is said to improve digestion and inflammation levels in the body. Chanting “om” following stressful events is an excellent way to reduce stress levels
Laugh – laughter is extremely effective in improving mood and heart rate variability. This is because we use our diaphragms when we laugh – unless we are laughing nervously, in which laughter is shallow and comes from the ribs. Belly laughs are an easy vagus nerve workout! Personally, I have a couple of video clips that keep up my sleeve, which I can’t watch without crying with laughter.
Socialising – socialising and connecting with others is SO important. Being solitary, lonely and disconnected from others severely affects our mood and health. Being around others helps us laugh more, which, as we’ve just established, helps us keep our vagus nerve regulated… Obviously, this is rather difficult under the current circumstances, which is why Zoom is quite helpful to allow us to stay connected with others.
Yoga and Meditation – PROVEN to tone the vagus nerve and reduce stress. I was even discussing this with a respiratory doctor a few weeks ago. It is only your logical left brain telling you it doesn’t work!
All the above are excellent things to do WHILE doing or BEFORE the Safe and Sound Protocol, by the way. The SSP is a five day listening intervention designed to re-tune the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system and consequently has a calming effect on all the systems in your body.
If you want to dig a bit deeper and help reduce your anxiety permanently, you are welcome to contact me.
The work I do is based around Dr Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, and the concept of social engagement vs flight/fight/freeze.
My work is based on the concept of “neuroception” – the fact that some children (and adults) cannot distinguish safety from perceived threat, and so their bodies live in a stressful fight/flight state ALL the time.
Referrals to CAHMS take forever – if they happen – and intervention is patchy. Ask CAHMS about the Polyvagal Theory, and you’ll more than likely get a blank stare!
However, I strongly believe that the introduction of this work in schools would save our government SO much money in SEND terms. I’ve already seen it.
Take, for example, Sam. He is 8 years old and when I first met him, he was approximately 2.5 years behind in literacy and numeracy. He struggled to focus and had extreme difficulties relating to other children.
Through reflex integration work and the Safe and Sound Protocol, we have seen such incredible developmental growth across the board that it’s astounded parents and teachers alike. He is now approaching the expected range academically, has several friends and is able to focus much better in class.
His osteopath, with whom I work closely, reports how strong his midline is following a couple of rounds of the Safe and Sound Protocol.
I would like to emphasise that this was without an expensive private maths tutor and certainly without specialist help with specific learning difficulties.
How our physiological state affects sensory input
Before using the Safe and Sound Protocol, Sam had seen a variety of people for retained reflexes over a period of approximately four years. While, initially, this had made an enormous difference, it seems that progress had plateaued and halted. His mother reports that the SSP simply seemed to get things going again.
This is probably because of the way that the SSP works:
The freeze response (known as the Fear Paralysis Reflex) is a cellular response rather than a primitive reflex. It therefore stands to reason that an intervention that helps regulate the autonomic nervous system, bringing a person out of their dorsal vagal (freeze) and sympathetic (fight/flight) nervous states and into a parasympathetic (social engagement) state makes greater shift than reflex integration work. Primitive reflexes start patterning at a much later point in development, and reflex integration replicates pre-birth movement patterns rather than re-setting the nervous system like the Safe and Sound Protocol does.
If a child feels under threat, they will not be able to learn efficiently. Think how it feels to receive really shocking news and how difficult it is to take anything else in: that’s what it’s like for children who are permanently stuck in fight/flight/freeze.
Many children (and adults) who have learnt to compensate for the fact that they are stuck in a fight/flight/freeze cycle have very little connection between body and brain, meaning that although they *think* they have no coordination issues, when I test, I find that there is no concept of where different parts of the body are. Remember: intellect and neurological maturity are two completely different things.
One of the tests I like to do is to get a person to lie on the floor and tap the limbs once by one to see if a person can reflexively raise the limb I’ve tapped. Then I will tap an opposite arm and leg, or two legs or two arms. The result is sometimes very surprising.
So I work at a very basic, fight/flight/freeze level first, and gradually work on brain connections to produce better self-regulation and control in higher levels of the brain.
This work is scientific: no energy work, no supplements, no dietary changes, no mysticism. I have seen the biggest changes in those who don’t use a scattergun approach – but that’s not to say that people can’t try all the above if they feel the need.
By moving children into their social engagement system, allowing them to feel safe in the world, we are a very big step closer to supporting their learning.
SSP is now available digitally, and I provide remotely to certain profiles of children, subject to in-depth screening first. Optimum results require a) an experienced practitioner, b) a heavily customised programme, depending on your child and c) the FULL understanding and involvement of the parent/carer.
Please contact me if you’d like to arrange a free discovery call to find out whether the SSP might help your child.
