The Polyvagal Theory Workbook for Trauma: Body-Based Activities to Regulate, Rebalance, and Rewire Your Nervous System Without Reliving the Trauma - Softcover

Schwartz PhD, Arielle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1648484166 ISBN 13: 9781648484162

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, 2025

Synopsis

Rewire your nervous system for lasting calm, connection, and resilience with cutting-edge, polyvagal theory-based activities.

Whether you’ve suffered a single traumatic experience or faced repeated difficult life events, you can be left feeling hypervigilant, irritable, and disconnected. Daily tasks like attending a work meeting or social gathering can feel overwhelming or even frightening. Most therapies for treating trauma require you to “revisit” your traumatic experience in potentially triggering ways. In this cutting-edge workbook, best-selling author and trauma expert Arielle Schwartz provides a practical, body-based method to help you treat your trauma symptoms—without reliving your trauma or being exposed to triggers.

The Polyvagal Theory Workbook for Trauma offers evidence-based activities to help you heal the effects of trauma, rewire your nervous system, and return to a state of balance and calm. You’ll begin by getting to know your nervous system, including an exploration of polyvagal theory and the vagus nerve. You’ll also learn soothing, body-based practices to help you rewire your nervous response, including rhythmic movements (EMDR and tapping), conscious breathing, mindful movement, and more. Self-reflection and journaling prompts will help you get the most out of every chapter, and a comprehensive collection of tools will help you stay on the path to trauma recovery.

You don’t have to relive your trauma in order to heal. With this powerful workbook, you can take charge of your mental health, build resilience, and feel safer and more connected.

About this title

About the Author

Arielle Schwartz, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified complex trauma professional, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) consultant, and Kripalu yoga teacher. She is an internationally sought-out speaker, leading voice in the field of trauma recovery, and award-winning author. As a faculty member at the Polyvagal Institute, she is a course instructor on mind-body approaches that apply polyvagal theory for trauma recovery. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at Fielding Graduate University, and holds a master’s degree in somatic psychology through Naropa University. She is author of seven books, including The Complex PTSD Workbook, EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, and The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook.

Foreword writer Linda Thai, LMSW, is a trauma therapist who specializes in complex developmental trauma. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, and now living in Alaska, she is a former child refugee who is passionate about breaking the cycle of historical and intergenerational trauma at individual and community levels.

Edition details

• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1648484166
• ISBN 13: 9781648484162
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184