Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, Yoga, and Savasana

savasana

In June, 2023, I served as an assistant in the first module of the Somatic Experiencing® Advanced Training. Throughout the training, knowledge flowed like a river—there were so many questions and answers. I’ll keep sharing the ones that left a mark on me in the days ahead.

Because the relationship between trauma therapy and yoga sits at the center of my life, two questions about this relationship felt especially important—almost like they cleared the air between these two disciplines. I’m glad they were asked.

The first question was addressed to our instructor, Sonia: whether Savasana—the deep relaxation/corpse pose at the end of a yoga practice—has a place within Polyvagal Theory.

The second was asked directly to me: What is trauma-sensitive (trauma-informed) yoga? If trauma is something we usually work with in individual sessions, is activation and trauma-sensitive regulation possible in a group setting?

Our instructor Sonia answered the first question like this: "In yoga practice, the kind of conscious awareness we cultivate in trauma work isn’t present in the same way; therefore, we can’t equate the experience of contacting and integrating the inner life force during a therapeutic session—especially in states of collapse or dissociation—with the deep relaxation experienced at the end of a yoga session."

To me, this was a truly excellent answer.

I’d like to respond by weaving Sonia’s answer together with the question I received.

“Yoga does you good” is a phrase that lives on the tongues of many practitioners. People use it to express how yoga—though it can be challenging at times—opens the door, in broad terms, to positive change in their lives, shaped by felt experience and inner processes. “Does you good” becomes a nameless label for an awakening of awareness toward feeling. The reason it often can’t be fully articulated is that the quality of conscious awareness we cultivate in a therapy room isn’t necessarily present here.

In yoga, the emphasis is on moving the body, entering forms, developing transitions between forms, noticing the breath through various breathing practices, and over time building skill and a sense of control with these.

The experience is lived through the body, with attention anchored in the body and breath.

At the end of some practices, a deep relaxation is felt. The body may be still; the mind may find calm.

Sometimes there’s a discharge afterward: laughter, joy, exuberance—or tears.

You might also see overflows like excessive talking, deep sadness, sudden spikes of anxiety, anger outbursts; or, on the other end, shutdown—needing social isolation, sensitivity to sound or light, fatigue, exhaustion.

And ideally, practice can bring inner stillness, a sense of harmony, life energy, focus, and a safe opening in social engagement.

In a therapy room, this wide range of experiences can be met moment by moment, one-to-one, holding space in ways that may prevent what we’d call “overflowing” and help avoid swinging to extremes like collapse or dissociation—so that the person isn’t retraumatized or pushed into another overwhelming experience. In this way, the person can begin to stay with the experience without being swallowed by it, developing the capacity to remain present.

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Stephen Porges, centers on the functions, reach, and strength of the vagus nerve, which arises from our 12th cranial nerve. Put simply, by stimulating or making contact with the vagus, we can reduce—and even resolve—the effects of trauma in the body, and through that doorway, in the whole system. Polyvagal Theory and its applications are used extensively in body-oriented Somatic Experiencing® trauma therapy.

Yoga contains many practices that stimulate or contact the vagus nerve. Pranayama (breathwork) and many kriya practices (combined breath-movement purification exercises) activate or influence the vagus.

Numerous yoga postures directly stimulate the vagus as well, appearing repeatedly within classical series. In other words, even when the practitioner isn’t consciously aware of it, yoga often includes multiple interventions that touch the vagal system.

This is why working with a skilled yoga teacher matters—especially in groups. When someone in the group’s affect regulation wobbles, teachers who can both support that person and hold a safe container for the group will help everyone leave feeling secure. The priority is always to attune to everyone in the room, safeguard those with sensitive self-regulation, and guide the whole group through a balanced experience.

However it unfolds, each practice is a unique experience for each participant.

Practitioners may notice different feeling states and the behaviors that arise from them immediately after practice—or develop awareness of these over time.

As this awareness grows, the practitioner accesses more than an uncertain, surprise ending at the close of practice.

By noticing how they felt at the start, they can track the shifts at each phase of practice. The awakening of awareness happens in small steps.

First, we move through the shallow waters of awareness.

We remember that practice is always a means toward our own wholeness.

As we observe the effects and awareness deepens, we begin to notice which parts of practice trigger or stimulate our system.

Without amplifying those triggers, we learn to witness them, to stay with our own experience, and—most importantly—to return to our inner balance by self-regulating, and to keep building the capacity to sustain that balance.

As awareness of our present state and our needs within that state grows, we learn to adapt the content and rhythm of practice to ourselves. In yoga, this is called developing your home practice.

As the practitioner awakens to their inner rhythm and order, they learn to adapt the practice. This is how yoga “does you good.”

Ultimately, as the word yoga implies, yoga practices are a journey of integration. They offer tools for moving from fragmentation toward wholeness. It’s said that the aim of all yoga practice is meditation.

Meditation is the set of practices through which, with conscious awareness, a person can be with themselves, form a harmonious relationship with their surroundings and the whole cosmos, and develop the capacity that safeguards an unshakable inner balance.

In some lineages, Savasana isn’t given to beginners right away; the student becomes ready for Savasana over time.

In beginner classes, if Savasana is included, you’ll often see people avoid it with “I have to go—I’m busy,” or, if they stay, they keep fidgeting and can’t settle into stillness. For such a student, forcing Savasana may lay the groundwork for anxiety, ruminative thoughts, anger outbursts, or emotional crashes after they leave the studio.

Savasana becomes possible only when, by the end of practice, the person has reached some inner quiet and is ready for meditation—when they’ve developed enough inner coherence to stay with their own experience.

If there is no conscious awareness in Savasana—if the mind keeps fleeing and can’t remain with the present-moment experience—then Savasana may inadvertently reinforce the student’s go-to defense (such as dissociation) that kicks in whenever staying with a challenging present-moment experience isn’t possible.

Savasana is the **awake, aware space** where the effects of everything done during practice—on muscles, skeleton, organs, and equally on the nervous system—can be processed while tracking one’s inner processes. It becomes the **integration field** before the person leaves the yoga room.

Afterword

In some yoga settings, multilayered mental, physical, emotional, and sensory bypassing happens. It’s a fact that you can “do” yoga—moving a lot—without truly "experiencing" the body, without holding awareness in the body and the present moment, in a kind of surrender that has no corresponding felt-sense basis and lacks a relationship of trust. In such rooms, activation can spread rapidly through the group and dysregulate everyone. And unfortunately, as much as yoga can help, it can also—via toxic positivity—feed illusion and unhealthy thought-behavior patterns, and even retraumatize.

Practicing yoga, in and of itself, does not guarantee access to—or the development of— the capacity to awaken to, include, and accompany the body’s records, incomplete responses, and reactions with awareness.