Window of Tolerance
The “Window of Tolerance” is a model that I use very often in my work with clients, to provide an explanation for many common experiences such as, triggers, depression, anxiety, and the impacts of stress. The Window of Tolerance was originally developed by Dr. Dan Siegel (1999), and has been adapted many times by other trauma researchers and therapists since.
This model describes what happens when provides a way to understand how we organize and manage incoming information and what happens when it becomes unmanageable; another way to understand our nervous system responses to our environment and our lives.
Below is a 5 minute clip about my explanation about the Window of Tolerance, and how hyperaroused and hypoaroused states are felt in the body. This clip is from my 1-hour webinar, “Regulating Your Nervous System”, which provides:
Comprehensive psycho-education about the neurobiology and neurophysiology of the nervous system, using the frameworks of Polyvagal Theory, the Triune Brain, and Window of Tolerance
An understanding of neurobiology to explain how past trauma, ongoing stress and uncertainty, and oppression impacts the nervous system’s optimal functioning, resulting in the diminished ability to function and cope.
Psycho-education about the importance of supporting the nervous system through stimulating the Vagus Nerve and other body based practices, and through self-care and self-nurturing practices, ensuring the ‘Window’ is wide as possible – increasing our capacity, and helping our amygdala’s interpret incoming information accurately and without being overwhelmed by it, and,
Strategies to regulate hyperarousal (activated) and hypoarousal (shut down) states -- supporting the nervous system to reinstate balance.
In my experience as a trauma therapist, I have witnessed firsthand how essential and valuable psycho-education is to helping clients understand their experiences of stress, anxiety, depression, and their post-trauma responses in their lives. Over the last 9 years, I have come to realize that much of the “work” with clients is about helping them understand their day-to-day experiences and how they are shaped by trauma and/or chronic stress, and to help them access compassion for themselves. I have relied on neuroscience to provide explanations about what is happening in their nervous system, which is the manifestation of ‘symptoms’ that we come to therapy to resolve.
What I have learned is that, while there is A LOT of information available for people to gain this understanding on their own, the information is usually not written in a way that is easily understood, it is disjointed and complex, and it takes a lot of time and executive functioning – an area of that is significantly impacted when our Window of Tolerance is narrow. Which is why I wanted to create a webinar that was both comprehensive – so folks leave with a deepened understanding of their experience, more compassion for themselves, and with tangible strategies to utilize to support themselves – and easily understood.
This webinar will provide a better understanding of the neurobiology of the nervous system and the impacts of trauma on the nervous system, and provide you with psycho-education about the Window of Tolerance, Triune Brain and Polyvagal Theory’s understanding of the physiological responses to stress, as well as suggestions for helping you regulate their nervous system, and respond to activated and shut down states.
This webinar contains information that can be helpful to anyone, especially today, where we are continuing to live through a global pandemic, and experiencing increasing political unrest.
If you want to watch the full 1-hour webinar to learn more about regulating your nervous system, click on the link below!
This 5 minute video clip provides an introduction to the Window of Tolerance.
