SYNOPSIS:
What if the autonomic nervous system is more than a mechanism to regulate – and part of the extraordinary way our bodies are in relationship with one another?
In this expansive conversation, dance/movement therapist, human rights psychotherapist and author Dr. Amber Elizabeth Gray joins Ali Mezey to explore the autonomic nervous system through the lenses of Polyvagal Theory, movement, trauma, relationship and the lived intelligence of the body. Drawing on nearly three decades of work with survivors of torture, war and human rights abuses – as well as her long collaboration and exchange of ideas with Stephen Porges – Amber takes the conversation beyond simplified notions of sympathetic “bad,” parasympathetic “good,” and regulation as the goal. Instead, she invites listeners into a nervous system that protects, mobilizes, settles, connects, plays, dances, loves – and continually responds to the bodies and world around it.
Ali and Amber explore the vagus nerve and the promises and controversies of Polyvagal Theory; why “safety” isn’t equally available to every body; the danger of privileging particular nervous-system states; and what changes when survival responses are understood not as failures, but as expressions of an organism doing its best to remain whole. Amber also shares how movement became central to her work with profoundly traumatized people, and how her own embodied inquiry has led her toward a practice of restoration, reclamation and resistance. Along the way, the conversation wanders – as bodies do – through whales and dolphins, evolution, intuition, pattern recognition, the natural world, and the possibility that our nervous systems may be far less individual than we imagine.
Ultimately, this is a conversation about
relationship: within our bodies, between bodies, and between ourselves and the larger living world. What becomes possible when we stop trying simply to “regulate” the nervous system and begin listening to the complexity, creativity and intelligence of what it is already doing?
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BIO: Dr. Amber Elizabeth Gray is an award-winning dance movement therapist, human rights psychotherapist, and Continuum teacher. She has worked for 29 years with survivors of human rights abuses, war, torture, natural disasters, and historical and intergenerational trauma. Equally artist, advocate, author, educator, poet, mystic and therapist, she, her clients, Ancestors and mentors co-create, ongoing, survivor- & Spirit-centered, Polyvagal-informed approaches to DMT for trauma and resilience that are holistic and emergent. A lover of all things wild, Amber regularly facilitates eco-somatic and movement retreats for survivors and caregivers. She brings her RightToEmbody human rights and BodyOfChange planetary rights work to survivors, therapists, educators, change agents and advocates worldwide.
Her book, Polyvagal-Informed Restorative Movement Psychotherapy: Roots, Rhythm, and Reciprocity will be released August 11, 2026.
- Autonomic nervous system (ANS): The part of the nervous system that largely regulates involuntary bodily functions – including heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, breathing patterns, temperature regulation and sexual arousal. It continually responds to conditions inside and outside the body, helping us mobilize, rest, protect ourselves, connect and adapt.
- Somatic nervous system: The part of the peripheral nervous system primarily involved in voluntary movement and in carrying sensory information between the body and central nervous system. It allows us to consciously move skeletal muscles and perceive sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature, pain and body position.
- Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems: Two major divisions of the autonomic nervous system that work together to continually adjust bodily functions. The sympathetic nervous system is often associated with mobilization and action, while the parasympathetic is often associated with rest, digestion and restoration. These are not simple opposites or “on/off” systems; both participate dynamically in healthy functioning, movement, relationship and responses to our environment.
- Ventral vagal: Within Polyvagal Theory, a term for vagal pathways associated with the nucleus ambiguus in the brainstem and with social engagement, connection, physiological flexibility and the capacity to remain engaged with others in conditions of relative safety.
- Dorsal vagal: Within Polyvagal Theory, a term for vagal pathways associated with the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus in the brainstem. The theory associates these pathways with visceral regulation and, under extreme threat, immobilization, withdrawal or shutdown.
- Polyvagal Theory: A theory proposed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges in 1994 linking autonomic physiology with social behavior and emphasizing how physiological state influences connection, emotion and behavior. It has become particularly influential in trauma therapy, somatic psychology and other body-based therapeutic approaches.
- Current controversy around Polyvagal Theory: While Polyvagal Theory has been highly influential clinically, some of its neurophysiological and evolutionary claims remain scientifically disputed. Critics have challenged aspects of its evolutionary account and the functions attributed to particular vagal pathways; Porges and colleagues have responded that some critiques mischaracterize the theory and its claims. The scientific debate continues alongside widespread clinical use of Polyvagal-informed approaches.
Trauma, Relationship & Therapeutic Approaches
- Attachment Theory: A psychological theory originating in the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth exploring how early relationships with caregivers shape patterns of attachment, emotional regulation and expectations of relationships. Attachment patterns may continue to influence how people seek closeness, respond to separation and navigate intimacy throughout life.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A condition that can develop following exposure to traumatic events and may involve intrusive memories or flashbacks, avoidance, changes in mood and thinking, and heightened arousal or reactivity.
- Complex trauma: The psychological, emotional, relational and bodily effects that can develop from prolonged, repeated or multiple traumatic experiences, particularly in circumstances from which escape is difficult or impossible. It can affect emotional regulation, relationships, identity, attention and bodily responses to safety and threat.
- Vicarious trauma: The cumulative impact that repeated empathic engagement with other people’s traumatic experiences can have on therapists, caregivers, humanitarian workers and others who regularly witness or hear about trauma. It may affect emotional responses, beliefs about safety and trust, relationships and worldview.
- Psychoeducation / psychosocial education: Providing people with understandable information about psychological, emotional, social and physiological experiences affecting them. In trauma work, understanding why the body responds to threat in particular ways can help make previously confusing responses more comprehensible.
- Somatic Experiencing® (SE): A body-oriented approach to trauma developed by Peter A. Levine. Rather than focusing primarily on retelling or analyzing traumatic events, SE works with bodily sensations, movement and patterns of physiological activation and settling as part of processing trauma and stress.
People & Organizations
- Stephen Porges, PhD: American psychologist and neuroscientist who proposed Polyvagal Theory in 1994. His research has focused on autonomic regulation, the vagus nerve, physiological state, social engagement and behavior. He is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University and founding director of its Traumatic Stress Research Consortium.
- Dr. Anngwyn St. Just: A social traumatologist, somatic educator and psychotherapist whose work explores individual, family, collective and historical trauma. Her work has included systemic and cross-cultural approaches to trauma and a longstanding professional association with Peter Levine and Somatic Experiencing.
- Cathy Malchiodi, PhD: A psychologist, expressive arts therapist and art therapist known for integrating expressive, sensory, nonverbal and body-based approaches into trauma treatment. She has written extensively on expressive arts therapy and work with traumatized children. Co-writer with Amber of chapter two in: What To Do When Kids Shut Down
- Emilie Conrad (1934–2014) / Continuum Movement: A dancer and movement pioneer who founded Continuum, a somatic movement practice exploring breath, sound, sensation, fluidity and internally arising movement. Conrad’s years living and dancing in Haiti profoundly influenced her exploration of the body as fluid, responsive and continuous with larger biological processes.
- Mind & Life Institute: An organization that brings scientific inquiry into dialogue with contemplative wisdom to explore the mind, human flourishing and interconnectedness. It emerged from conversations among the Dalai Lama, neuroscientist and philosopher Francisco Varela, and others, and helped foster the developing field of contemplative science.
Books, Cultural References & Metaphors
- Kintsugi: A traditional Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery while highlighting rather than concealing its cracks, often using lacquer dusted with powdered gold or another metal. Kintsugi has become a metaphor for a form of wholeness that incorporates rather than erases the history of breakage and repair.
- Connaissance Créole: From Haitian culture to which Amber is deeply bonded; the phrase translates approximately as “Creole knowledge” or “Creole knowing”
- “Seat of our beings”: A phrase Embodiment Leader, author & philosopher, Philip Shepherd, often uses to describe the power of our pelvic bowl
- Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance and other books
[Apologies for the occasionally wobbly wifi]
What is The Brilliant Body Podcast with Ali Mezey?
The Brilliant Body Podcast with Ali Mezey is a forum to learn about and liberate the brilliance of your body. Join me, Ali Mezey, and other body masters to explore pioneering perspectives on what it actually means – and feels like – to be embodied.
Whether you feel disconnected from your body due to trauma, shame, pain, cultural conditioning or lack of education or you already feel at home in your body but want to learn to have more pleasure, awareness and access to your body’s guidance – this is the podcast for you.
Each one of my trailblazing guests will share their expertise and unique mission to thrive, as a body.
Together, we’ll explore how to access and engage the vast, detailed and useful intelligence contained within our flesh.
So join us and reclaim your body’s brilliance!