How to map your nervous system.

Mapping our nervous systems

An extensive part of my training as a somatic and trauma therapist has been in Polyvagal Theory (Stephen Porges) a framework that has been helping people understand their nervous systems and how trauma plays out in their bodies for several decades. It’s more recently gained popularity and become the golden child theory for all kinds of practitioners. In January 2026 a paper was released, supported by 39 experts across various fields stating that Polyvagal Theory is untenable.

Now, I don’t feel that this is a bad this at all. Polyvagal Theory is exactly that… a THEORY. And when I have introduced it to my clients, I have made this very very clear. I also made it clear that these theories are maps we can use as tools but definitely not the terrain. The terrain is our direct experience and it’s entirely personal to each body. And the great news is that the paper doesn’t invalidate our experience but criticises the biology and evolution theories in PVT.

With that in mind, I wanted to offer something today that can support you in mapping YOUR nervous system and somatic responses.

What I am offering below is a tool to help you get to know your body better through your own direct experience. No science or biology, if you want that I have linked to some wider reading at the bottom of the post. This is about building your own personal map and I suggest you take it slowly and gently. Perhaps giving a few days for each prompt so you can explore it in real time.

Please remember that none of our various states of being are good or bad. We need all of them to be able to navigate life. Regulation is about being resourced and fluid NOT trying to control our bodies very valid responses to various experiences we meet in life.

Where do you feel most like yourself?

This prompt is about understanding where you feel most at ease, perhaps with a sense of vitality. It’s just as important for us to be to locate and track our baseline for safety, ease and aliveness as it is to understand our experiences of activation or freeze.

  • When do you feel resourced, steady, at ease and vital? (It’s ok if you haven’t had this experience before, you can use visualisation and active imagination here)

  • What is happening around you during these times?

  • Who are you with? Or are you alone?

  • Where and how do you experience this in your body?

  • What is happening through your senses?

  • Does ease, relaxation and softness feel safe in your body?

What does activation feel like in my body before it becomes overwhelming?

This supports us in becoming attuned around where and when we become activated. Catching this early on helps us to develop compassion and curiosity before we collapse into shame when we become to flooded.

  • Where and how does activation begin in my body?

  • Is there heat, pressure, buzzing or maybe a contraction & tension?

  • Does it rise, spread or collapse?

  • What thoughts and story tend to accompany it?

How does my body and nervous system then try to protect me?

This helps us to understand how our responses are actually intelligent adaptions that kept us safe, rather than flaws.

  • When I feel unsafe or activated, do I move toward freeze, please, avoid or control?

  • What are the stories and strategies that show up automatically?

  • What sensations come alive in my body?

  • How have these responses helped me to survive?

What signals tell me I am leaving myself?

This gently helps us build awareness of the ways we might dissociate or fawn without pathologising ourselves.

  • Do I hold my breath? Feel a sense of panic?

  • Is there a sinking or collapsing feeling in my body?

  • Do I disconnect from sensation?

  • Do I become hyper focused on others and their emotions/needs?

  • Do I override hunger, fatigue, emotions and other needs for others?

What genuinely helps me to resource myself?

This helps us build a bank of resource that we can turn to when we feel the activation/collapse rising or spreading in our bodies. These resources should be about support and not control (remember your responses are valid and deserve care). The resources we collect for ourselves can make become a foundation for helping us move through the experience as well as lowering our sense of shame and fear.

  • What resource brings even the smallest amount of softness or steadiness?

  • Is it movement, sound, touch, nature, rocking, shaking, pressure or something familiar like a person, book or TV show? It might be all of these things!

  • What has worked before that I sometimes forget to use?

  • Can we ask for help/reassurance? What do you need to feel safe enough to do that?

One last prompt…

What would my nervous system say if it could speak? What is it tired of carrying? And what does it NEED instead?

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ami robertson