Bridges - Reframe your thinking around autism: how the polyvagal theory and brain plasticity help us make sense of autism

RE FRAME

your thinking

around

AUTISM

HOLLY BRIDGES

FOREWORD BY STEPHEN W. PORGES

RE FRAME

your thinking

around

AUTISM

How the Polyvagal Theory and Brain Plasticity
Help Us Make Sense of Autism

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

Quote on page 13 is reproduced from Collins 2004 with kind permission from Tessler Literary Agency.

Quote on page 18 is reproduced from Feldenkrais 1981 with kind permission from Meta Publications.

Quote on page 52 is reproduced from How the Brain Represents the Body: Insights from Neurophysiology and Psychology with kind permission from Michael Graziano.

Quote on page 47 is reproduced from Dispenza 2013 with kind permission from Hay House.

First published in 2015

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.jkp.com

Copyright Holly Bridges 2015

Front cover image source: Frui | Dreamstime.com - Creative Zebra Photo.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Bridges, Holly.

Reframe your thinking around autism: how the polyvagal theory and brain plasticity help us make

sense of autism / Holly Bridges.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84905-672-4 (alk. paper)

1. Autism in children--Treatment. 2. Affect (Psychology) 3. Social interaction. I. Title.

RJ506.A9B745 2015

618.9285882--dc23

2015008375

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 672 4

eISBN 978 1 78450 177 8

Contents

Disclaimer

The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided as is, and without warranties.

As always, the advice of a competent legal, medical, or other health professional should be sought. The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any sites listed or linked to in this book. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose.

The author takes full responsibility for representing and interpreting the ideas related to the Polyvagal Theory. The authors interpretations and representations of the Polyvagal Theory may vary in intent and accuracy from the writings and presentations by Dr Stephen W. Porges.

The author takes full responsibility for representing and interpreting the ideas related to the Nine Essentials of the Anat Baniel Method. The authors interpretations and representations of the Nine Essentials of the Anat Baniel Method may vary in intent and accuracy from the writings and presentations by Anat Baniel.

Foreword

by Stephen W. Porges

In the academic research community, autism is discussed as a brain disorder with a genetic basis. Yet no specific biomarker can diagnose autism. While the research community is focused on identifying specific mechanisms underlying autism, families are searching for an understanding of the disorder that will enable them to manage their child and to develop a strategy to optimize their childs potential. In response to this disparate agenda, Holly Bridges has written Reframe Your Thinking Around Autism.

This is a succinctly written book with engaging graphics that provides a new optimistic approach to conceptualize autism. Rather than focusing on the clinical diagnostic tools that have been used to define autism, Holly Bridges focuses on linking many of the compromised functions that are experienced by autistics to features of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory I developed. She accurately notes that the features of the social engagement system described in the theory are depressed in autistics. A depressed social engagement system results in poor facial affect, auditory hypersensitivities, lack of prosody in voice, and an autonomic state that under challenge will shift to support Fight/Flight behaviours or shutdown. This disruption in autonomic state would interfere both with ingestive and digestive processes, symptoms frequently observed in autism. Using the Polyvagal Theory as an organizing principle she introduces a variety of intervention models that potentially could function as neural exercises (i.e. brain plasticity) to rehabilitate the social engagement system and to optimize autonomic regulation.

Unlike most books on autism that are targeted to professionals who evaluate and treat, this unique and readable book effectively connects to the families and the people who directly interact with individuals with autism.

Stephen W. Porges, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, and author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation

Preface

Reframe Your Thinking Around Autism is a smart, easy-to-grasp book that offers a whole new paradigm for understanding and working with autism.

It explains in simple language the work of American neuroscientist Dr Stephen Porges, and his Polyvagal Theory. The Polyvagal Theory suggests that autism may not be a neurological disorder, but a learnt response of the body to early stressors. It supplies not only a plausible answer to the question What is autism?, but it also explains why there is a spectrum. This theory is beautiful and allows for the possibility of real change.

So many people do change on the autism spectrum. Some people are non-verbal, only to find that they later find their voice. Others can become much more proficient and comfortable in company as they mature. Some parents have described their child as neurotypical only to find after some event that they were not, and some document that the symptoms of autism in their child have been completely reversed.

The Polyvagal Theory makes sense of this change. It allows us to see past the diagnosis of autism and opens new doors to therapy and healing.

Where We Are

Think of it: a disability is usually defined in terms of what is missingbut autismis as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.

Paul Collins (2004)

Autism is a part of a life. The people who experience it have a life, and autism is a part of it. A lot of people with autism find that it gives them heightened intuition; they feel it can inform their life beautifully, as much as it can be a disruption. Autists dont necessarily want to become normal, but they do want to engage with the world better.