Read a Better Book about Trauma
Read a book by a Woman
March is Women’s History Month, so I decided to review books written by women.
Polyvagal Theory is popular. Women who write on this topic are not. The popular books on the topic have been written by men: van der Kolk, Mate, and Levine. I have read the frontline, well-placed books by these trained therapists. Gabor’s The Myth of Normal provides thorough coverage of the many ways psychological trauma produces patterns in someone’s life. And who wouldn’t want to read Levine’s book that begins, “Walking the Tiger…?”
These popular books have served humanity by allowing us to recognize trauma in ourselves and be empowered to resolve it.
As a life coach, I leave the trauma discovery and resolution work to therapists. Yet, because I can encounter traumatic triggers while working with clients, I want to know about trauma and when an encounter is best referred to a therapist.
As a licensed massage therapist and witnessing the calm produced when the parasympathetic nervous is activated, I want to understand the physiology of the vagal nerve. It is this tenth cranial nerve (CN X) that is at the root of all trauma talk that has arisen from the work of Stephen Porges, PhD since his making his Polyvagal Theory public in the mid-1990s.
Further, my practice integrates somatic modalities with coaching to move through stagnation and encode momentum. Hence, I want to be informed of how touch, movement, and sound interact with the whole nervous system, including the vagal nerve. Although trauma is stressful, not all stress is trauma or triggers reliving the instigating events.
In my practice, I want to be aware of when a trauma trigger has been touched, of the best practices to return the client to safety, and have the confidence to inquire whether the client should pursue trauma work in tandem with coaching.
This kind of information is found in books with dull titles and sometimes only marketed to the professional community. In this pool, I have found two authors who have written highly readable books: Deb Dana and Ann Baldwin. Their credentials should make them stalwarts in the arena of trauma topics.
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician and consultant specializing in helping people safely explore and resolve the consequences of trauma. She is the creator of the Rhythm Regulation training series and teaches internationally on the ways Polyvagal Theory informs clinical interactions with trauma survivors. Deb co-edited with Stephen Porges, Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018).
from the back jacket cover of Dana’s book, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, published by Norton in 2018 and “Forward” by Stephen Porges)
Ann Linda Baldwin, PhD, Professor Emerita, Educator Scholar Track
Dr. Baldwin quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of methods to reduce mental and emotional stress, focusing on heart-rate variability and peripheral blood flow as outcome parameters for autonomic function. Her studies include the use of horse-human interactions, Reiki, music laughter yoga, and heart focused breathing. She leads one of the few research teams in the world that studies synchronous changes in heart-rate variability of horse-human pairs to determine whether physiological information is being transferred between species. Dr Baldwin also serves as Research Coordinator for the Center of Reiki Research and maintains its curated webpage of peer-reviewed, published, scientific research studies involving Reiki.
From an excerpt of her CV as published by the College of Medicine in Tucson at the University of Arizona.
I am beginning with Baldwin’s The Vagus Nerve in Therapeutic Practice: Working with Clients to Manage Stress and Enhance Mind-Body Function, because I like to understand anatomy and physiology. When a somatic modality suggests things like, “press here on the ear” or “gargle” I am more secure when it makes scientific sense instead of coming across as magic.
Balwin’s book is not a textbook. It is aimed at laymen practitioners from various professions whose work is with clients. Having a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology is helpful, but there are enough images accompanied by simple language defining terms that explain the mechanisms at work that her book is illuminating for laymen.
Skillfully and usefully, Baldwin links the nervous system and another popular topic, heart rate variability. Within academia, the mutually of the vagal nerve and heart rate variability is recognized. Balwin is the first author to present this fact and how the linkage works for the rest of us.
Many of us know that the vagal nerve has been called the wandering nerve. When CN-X exits the skull it soon mingles with the autonomic nervous system and divides into 2 branches: ventral and dorsal. The ventral mingles with peripheral nervous system plexuses in the chest. The dorsal travels deep into the abdomen to mingle with the enteric nervous system.
What Baldwin adds is space and depth at various junctures along the vagal nerve journey. The chapter dedicated to the laryngeal branches, those in your throat, is a tapestry of showing the anatomy, revealing the physiology, and exploring the effects of chanting. Baldwin repeats the weave to the end of the journey for the vagal nerve in the digestive and elimination systems. What body parts are there? How are the body parts operating? How can the body parts be influenced for a therapeutic effect?
Following the journey of the vagal nerve is a discussion of somatic therapies. The final pages of the book present Baldwin’s work with horse-human interactions as therapy for trauma.
I found Dana’s book, Anchored: How to Befriend your Nervous System to be an excellent summation of Porges's findings in about 150 pages. My review is on Dana’s book which discusses what can be done after understanding polyvagal theory.
The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation by Dana has five sections. The first section explains the theory in layman's terms and as experiential encounters.
In the second section, Dana also introduces her ladder rubric as a measurement tool for vagal tone which she pairs with discussions of moving up and down from the freeze-collapse response of the dorsal vagal nerve, up to flee-or-fight response of the sympathetic nervous system, to the socially connected and safe state of the ventral vagal nerve. Taking measurements, Dana calls “mapping” and Dana walks the reader through doing a personal map.
In the third section, Dana focuses on identifying what a toned ventral vagal looks and feels like. The intention is for the reader to create a scenario so that this becomes an enduring go-to tool which is applied in the next section.
The fourth section is about traveling up and down the ladder and mapping along the way. Dana provides exercises so that the reader can explore their ladder and manipulate where they are on it using various vagal toning techniques presented.
The fifth section is the appendices which suggest meditations and have worksheet templates.
Polyvagal Practices: Anchoring the Self in Safety by Dana is a succinct pocket-sized version of her earlier book focused on taking measurements and mapping. Without understanding the theory either from reading Dana’s Anchored or The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, this small and handy book lacks depth. As a companion summarizing Dana’s process of Mapping, Listening, Connecting, Creating, Deeping, and Reflecting, her templates gains clarity.
Whether or not you have read any of the popular books about trauma, please deepen your understanding of trauma responses in March by reading books by Deb Dana and Ann Baldwin.
© 2025 Lisa Patrell
Life Coaching + Somatics & energetics.