Deb Dana

Dana is a clinical social worker who translates Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory into things a therapist can do in a room: mapping a client's nervous system states, noticing the shift, building what she calls glimmers. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy is the practitioner book and Polyvagal Exercises is the workbook, and both are widely used in trauma training. Polyvagal theory itself is contested: several neuroscientists have published detailed objections to its evolutionary claims, and the clinical exercises built on it have not been trialled separately.