Polyvagal Touch™ by Polyvagal Acupuncture®
Polyvagal Touch™ (PVAT) is a guided method that teaches individuals how to use intentional touch to engage their own neuroplasticity. Unlike a treatment that occurs only during a clinical visit, Polyvagal Touch™ is a practical skill that can be learned and applied throughout everyday life. PVAT is already incorporated as part of live clinic sessions for patients to do in-between sessions.
Neuroplasticity has no time limits, but meaningful change requires frequent, consistent application. Polyvagal Touch™ provides practical skills that individuals and families can integrate into daily life to help protect and restore healthy autonomic nervous system patterns while reinforcing neuroplastic change.
Polyvagal Touch™ may be learned:
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During Polyvagal Acupuncture® sessions.
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During Polyvagal Massage™ sessions.
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Through Neuroplasticity Coaching.
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Through individual or small-group practitioner instruction.
Once learned, Polyvagal Touch™ can be practiced independently, with a spouse or partner, with children, or with other family members as part of everyday life.
If you are interested in learning Polyvagal Touch™, or would like to determine the most appropriate way to begin, please contact me by email or phone.
IParent-Child Polyvagal Touch™
Polyvagal Touch™ may be introduced to a parent for use with their own child after the parent has completed a minimum of three individual Polyvagal Acupuncture® sessions.
This requirement is autonomic, not academic. Before I teach a parent to work with a child, I need to understand and treat the parent’s own reflex and autonomic patterns and observe their response to the work. A parent must be able to access, sustain, and recognize regulation in their own body before facilitating it with a child.
Additional individual treatment may be helpful when there is significant trauma history, dysautonomia, complex reflex patterns, or persistent freeze or shutdown responses. Timing is determined clinically.
Both parents or caregivers are encouraged to participate. The primary caregiver is especially important in early childhood because repeated daily contact, touch, soothing, transitions, and repair shape the child’s developing capacity for regulation. Any caregiver who will use the work with the child must first complete the individual treatment process.
When appropriate, a parent and child may schedule a shared Parent-Child Polyvagal Touch™ session. This is individualized work, not a standardized curriculum. Guidance is selected according to the needs and tolerance of the particular parent and child.
Sessions may be scheduled for 60 or 90 minutes, depending on the child’s capacity, the clinical complexity of the work, and the family’s available time and bandwidth. A 90-minute session is recommended when the family has the time and capacity for more complete assessment, guided practice, feedback, and adjustment. For many young children, one hour is sufficient and may be the more appropriate starting point.
Parent-Child Polyvagal Touch™ Session
60 minutes: $250
90 minutes: $325
Guidance is for the parent’s personal use with their own child. It is not practitioner training, certification, or permission to teach the work professionally.