Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

Up until page 163 I really loved this book and would have given it 5 stars. That was until the section on Autism and my only responce is complete shock, 1 star is being generous.I'm an autistic adult who is a parent to a wonderful autistic child and this book is downright insulting and completely out of date. The quote "people on the autism spectrum are a challenge in many ways to parents, teachers and other caregivers" was especially cruel.Heaven forbid thinking about what autistic people go through themselves, let's worry about everyone else. You would never find this sort of talk around any other disability, let alone talk on how to make them appear and act "more normal" to make things easier for everyone else in their lives.This sort of talk is hurtful, hateful and perpertuates the stigma and down right lies around autism.I'm so disappointed in this book and so fed up of reading total nonsense about autism.

The Polyvagal theory is perhaps the most important scientific discovery of the 21st century. I recommend the readers to watch some interviews with Stephen Porges who first formulated it. But Stanley Rosenberg's book is by far the most profound and useful text on the subjects. I have been trying the exercises and I think they work - I find myself more inclined to engage face to face with people.The book gives us a thorough understanding the role of our high mammalian autonomic nervous system and why our bodies crave real physical social interaction. The biggest irony of our modern information world is that the so called social media in fact deprives people from actively engaging with others face to face and therefore it reduces the ventral nerve activation. It's a form self-induced autism.In conclusion, my take from the book is that we have evolved to survive in groups and for that reason no man is an island!

This author does an excellent job of describing the Polyvagal Theory for manual therapists. If you are not a manual therapist, you may still see some benefit from reading this book. The author describes the polyvagal theory thoroughly and explains some ways of improving your autonomic state from stress or dorsal vagal to social engagement.I came across this book title while searching for info on Dr. Porges and the Polyvagal Theory. I am a doctor of physical therapy and own a physical therapy practice called Muscle IQ. I have been in practice for over twenty years and use manual therapy techniques during every patient visit. So, I was able to quickly implement his recommended techniques. The Basic Exercise is one he thought up one night before addressing a group that was not licensed to touch clients. It is similar to the muscle energy technique I use for relocating the Atlas, so he does have good insight regarding manual therapy.The author Mr. Rosenberg is a highly skilled and experienced massage therapist that started a "school" to teach other massage therapists in Denmark some osteopathic techniques. I did love his focus on using manual therapy to make changes in a person’s physiological state as using an anatomical perspective is obviously a perfect match for me as a manual therapist.In the book he introduced me to the potential of the esophagus tightening up being a cause of the sensation of tightening in the chest that we might call anxiety. Using the technique he described in the book for this condition helped a patient of mine with COPD reduce some of his symptoms. But it was not a cure like the case he mentions in the book.I have been trying his method to turn the Vagus Nerve on with most all of my patients (and with my son). After following his precise instructions to perform the Basic Exercise (over the last 4 weeks) I have to say that I am disappointed in the results. I have not seen a big change in the uvula lift in most all of my patients (maybe I didn’t get them to yawn enough times).I am skeptical regarding the validity Mr. Rosenberg's assumptions. In physical therapy school we learned that some tests are what my professor called subjectively objective. This means that even though the test seems to qualify as objective, there is a good probability of the introduction of experimenter bias.I have to admit that this is one of the difficulties inherent to manual therapy. Especially in craniosacral therapy where ESP (yes, extra-sensory perception) is professed to be the way many practitioners determine whether a patient has positive results. So, I applaud Mr. Rosenberg’s attempt to use different measurements of palpating asymmetry, observation of the uvula lift, and palpation of tension in soft tissues. But again, experimenter bias is easily introduced in these subjectively objective measures.What’s more, how do we know that being able to lift the uvula demonstrates validity (of being in a social engagement state)? Validity in data collection means that your findings truly represent the phenomenon you are claiming to measure.Validity in what the author suggests in the book would be the following: If an individual passes the uvula test, then he/she should not have any of the chronic problems the author lists (e.g., my son’s autism is therefore cured) because the ventral vagus is active.Furthermore, how do we know what Stanley Rosenberg means when he repeatedly states that the client improved after performing the Basic Exercise? He does not quantify the improvement beyond his observation of change. Can the vagus nerve test be quantified? Can the uvula lift be graded like other muscle tests: 0 to 5 out of 5)?Another issue that should be addressed is yawning (one of the steps in the Basic Exercise that is repeated). Yawning causes the uvula to lift and retract until it almost disappears. So, is that just a warm up exercise that makes it easier to perform the uvula lift during the retest?He also claims to be able to tell whether someone has low or high heart rate variability by palpating a pulse while observing breathing and breath out. This may be true (or not) but how does he quantify the change. He has a training school so why has he not employed proper equipment to do data collection and publish it.I am on a quest to find help for my son with autism. The book title includes the word “Autism” but then he transitions to telling about a case study of an autistic client who received more than what is offered in the book. He has an example on YouTube of a student of his (in his two year program) who used craniosacral therapy (taught in the book) on his autistic brother. In a video on YouTube the bother states (contrary to what is in the book) that the main benefits and the cure came after multiple treatments by Mr. Rosenberg.So, there may be a conflict of interest with his claims of cures.I am highly skeptical regarding the validity Mr. Rosenberg's assumptions. It is well know that there are experimenter biases in regards to comparing the before and after measurements with observation and palpation. Because of this practitioners and massage therapists are convinced that they always get positive results.I have found that it is common for manual therapy gurus who teach their methods to over-state the effects of their techniques. "All will be cured with my technique in one visit." It is sometimes called "cherry picking" as one guru recommended that we charge a lot for two or three visits with the marketing ploy that the novel method we were using was better than any other.My conclusion is that much more is needed (than what the author describes in this book, specifically the Basic Exercise) to "pump up" vagal tone. And, the autism spectrum is more complicated than just poor blood flow to the brain stem. I have found other methods that are helping to down regulate my sons "mobilize with fear" state. I think a combination of a variety of stimuli for the vagus nerve (Rezzimax tuning device for example provided greater observable changes in uvula lift), self-talk therapy (especially with guided imagery), manual therapy in the cranial field, diet changes (keto is helpful, search "keto Dr. Berg" in YouTube or avoiding toxic food and MSG, search Katherine Reid unblindmymind.com), yoga breathing (specifically Breathwalk--which is synchronizing steps with segmented breaths of 4 sniffs and 4 puffs), kundalini breath of fire, therapist or parent using a prosodic voice, creating safe environments, EFT meridian tapping, and smile rehab exercises. In other words, more work than most people will be willing to do on their own (especially those who are trapped in a defense states of fear).I hope this review helps those who are also on a similar quest to help those we love to live a happy, peaceful, untroubled life.

If you are interested in movement and the body, this book is a must. It is so fascinating. I chose it instead of the Steve Porges book because I thought it might be a bit too scientific for me to understand. Also there are some amazing and simple exercises in this version.

Effective self-help book on alleviating a number of health and mental disorders through the vagus nerve. Has lots of information on the nervous system and a number of exercises to work through. I am pleased with my purchase and would buy again.