06/11/2025
Oftentimes in counseling appointments, we talk about “bottom-up-regulation”.
"Bottom-up regulation" in refers to using activities that engage the brainstem and vagus nerve to calm and organize the nervous system, particularly for trauma recovery.
This approach uses the rhythmic, repetitive, and bilateral movements of horses; breath work; or other tools like rhythmic bells, to bypass the upper brain's thinking process and directly regulate the body's survival-focused responses and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Once the lower brain regions are stabilized, the person can better access their capacity for emotional and rational thought.
Not only is this work beneficial for individuals who have experienced trauma, it is also beneficial for those who have anxiety, ADHD, and difficulty controlling their emotions or outbursts.
Once we get someone’s fight-or-flight response turned off and their nervous system is more regulated, THEN we can start the cognitive work involved with processing what they need to work through and meeting therapeutic goals.
💙How it works….
* Engages the brainstem: The process focuses on activities that provide rhythmic and patterned sensory input, like the movement of a horse, which activates the brainstem.
* Calms the nervous system: This type of sensory input helps regulate the nervous system by calming the "fight-or-flight" response that can get stuck after trauma.
* Integrates lower and upper brain functions: By first regulating the lower, more reactive parts of the brain, this approach helps rebuild the neural connections to the upper brain regions where thinking and emotional processing occur.
* Reduces overwhelm: This bottom-up approach helps reduce hypervigilance and emotional overwhelm, allowing a person to move from feeling reactive to feeling more in control.
