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Free somatic tool

My Polyvagal Ladder

By Albert Wong, PhD, Clinical Psychologist · from The Healing Trauma Workbook

Your nervous system moves between three basic states: ventral vagal (safe, social, connected — the top of the ladder), sympathetic (fight-or-flight — the middle), and dorsal vagal (shutdown, collapse — the bottom). The ladder, a metaphor developed by Deb Dana, is a map: when you can recognize which rung you're on and what moves you between rungs, you stop being at the mercy of your own alarm system.

This exercise builds your personal ladder — how each state feels in your body, what pulls you down, and what lifts you back up. One deliberate design note: we'll visit the states in a specific order and end in ventral vagal, so you finish the exercise resourced rather than stuck in shutdown — the same order the workbook prescribes.

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About the ladder

Polyvagal theory (Stephen Porges) describes how the autonomic nervous system shifts between connection, mobilization, and shutdown. Deb Dana translated it into the ladder metaphor and the idea of triggers and glimmers — the cues that pull us down and the small signals of safety that lift us up. This worksheet appears as Practice 45 in The Healing Trauma Workbook (Wong, 2023). Knowing your own ladder is the foundation for nearly every other nervous-system skill.

This exercise is for reflection and psychoeducation; it is not a diagnosis or a substitute for professional care. If completing it stirs up more than you can settle, that is important information — bring it to a therapist rather than pushing through alone.

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