Coaching practices for The Ladder of Regulation Navigating Your Autonomic States with Friends
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Ladder of Regulation Navigating Your Autonomic States with Friends, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Whenever I let myself touch the hard feeling at all, I get pulled all the way under and flooded
- When I’m rattled I tend to isolate, but I’ve noticed even a few minutes near a certain calm person settles me in a way I can’t do alone
- I can tell something’s off in my body but I can’t name it — am I wound up or shut down?
- When I’m wound up, "everything is urgent and someone’s to blame" feels like the plain truth, and when I’m low, "nothing matters" feels just as true
- My heart’s going, my thoughts are racing, everything feels urgent and like a threat
Practices that may help
- The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States
The ladder of regulation, developed by Deb Dana from Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, is a map of three autonomic states — ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (mobilized), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) — arranged as rungs. Knowing which rung you’re on and which direction to move gives you a practical framework for state navigation rather than white-knuckling through dysregulation. - Pendulation: moving between states gently
Shift between a regulated and a less regulated state in small steps rather than forcing a leap.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Using social engagement to activate ventral vagal tone
Seek out or create interactions that deliver prosodic and facial safety cues to your nervous system.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Identify your current rung
Before trying to change your state, learn to read which of the three rungs you’re on right now.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Ladder narrative mapping: finding the story your state tells
Identify the specific beliefs and stories that your nervous system generates on each rung.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Sympathetic-to-ventral moves: downshifting mobilization
Use specific physiological levers to move from an activated (fight/flight) state toward the ventral vagal zone.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Use co-regulation — another settled nervous system — as a primary resource
Your nervous system can synchronize with a calmer one nearby; proximity to settled people is regulation, not weakness.
Neuroception: How Your Nervous System Reads Safety Before Your Mind Does - Build and use social safety signals
Establish cues in your relationships that communicate "you are safe here" — reducing anticipatory social stress.
Tend-and-Befriend, Made Practical - Dorsal vagal lift: moving out of shutdown
Use gentle movement and micro-connection to rise from a collapsed or numb state.
The Ladder of Regulation: Navigating Your Autonomic States - Relational glimmers — noticing co-regulation
Intentionally notice the moment another person’s tone, face, or presence shifts your state toward safety.
Glimmers: Micro-Moments That Cue Safety
Related concerns
- The Ladder Of Regulation Navigating Your Autonomic States As A Caregiver
The ladder of regulation, developed by Deb Dana from Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, is a map of three autonomic states — ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (mobilized), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) — arranged as rungs. Knowing which rung you’re on and which direction to move gives you a practical framework for state navigation rather than white-knuckling through dysregulation.
- Deb Dana Polyvagal Ladder
The ladder of regulation, developed by Deb Dana from Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, is a map of three autonomic states — ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (mobilized), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) — arranged as rungs. Knowing which rung you’re on and which direction to move gives you a practical framework for state navigation rather than white-knuckling through dysregulation.
- Movement Nervous System Regulation
Your nervous system can synchronize with a calmer one nearby; proximity to settled people is regulation, not weakness.
Use co-regulation — another settled nervous system — as a primary resource
- Nervous System States
Learn to notice which of three nervous-system states you are in before you try to change anything.
Map your state (ventral, sympathetic, dorsal)
- The Ladder Of Regulation Navigating Your Autonomic States At Work
The ladder of regulation, developed by Deb Dana from Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, is a map of three autonomic states — ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (mobilized), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) — arranged as rungs. Knowing which rung you’re on and which direction to move gives you a practical framework for state navigation rather than white-knuckling through dysregulation.
- The Ladder Of Regulation Navigating Your Autonomic States During Conflict
The ladder of regulation, developed by Deb Dana from Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, is a map of three autonomic states — ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (mobilized), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) — arranged as rungs. Knowing which rung you’re on and which direction to move gives you a practical framework for state navigation rather than white-knuckling through dysregulation.
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