A Preliminary Synthesis in Polyvagal Acupuncture® and Polyvagal Massage™ Dr. Jennifer Moffitt, DTCM, DNCCAOM, L.Ac. Certified Primitive Reflex Clinical Specialist (CPRCS) This document is a preliminary clinical synthesis. It draws on established neuroscience, clinical observation, and integrative reasoning across multiple disciplines. The mechanistic reasoning is grounded in established neuroanatomy, autonomic physiology, mitochondrial bioenergetics, and developmental Read More

As we expand the neurological applications of TCM to include the brain and reflexes, we’ve been describing the sinew channels in relation to the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. Now we expand that to include neurological behavior above T3. The channel system, especially the meridians on the head, maps directly onto the most important breathing centers, plexuses,

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels occupy a unique position in classical Chinese medicine. Unlike the primary channels, they are understood as reservoirs and regulators of the body’s most fundamental energies, governing development, constitution, and the deepest layers of physiological organization. What the classical texts did not articulate, and what this framework proposes, is that each of

A Preliminary Synthesis in Polyvagal Acupuncture® and Polyvagal Massage™ Dr. Jennifer Moffitt, DTCM, DNCCAOM, L.Ac., Certified Primitive Reflex Clinical Specialist (CPRCS)   This article is part of a series addressing the neurochemical and autonomic substrate of Developmental Trauma Disorder. The mechanistic reasoning is grounded in established neuroanatomy and autonomic physiology. Practitioners are encouraged to evaluate

Polyvagal Theory is in the spotlight again. Same argument, same researcher, roughly every four or five years. Lather, rinse, repeat. Porges rebuts it each time, most recently in the same journal issue. The version of this debate that spread across social media was not the peer reviewed paper. It was a Substack post written by

We walk through the world and assume we know who we are. We trust our memories, our perceptions. We trust the internal sense that tells us something happened, that something is true, that an experience belongs to us. Most of us never stop to ask what makes that possible. We usually notice those systems only

On a flight home a few years ago, I was seated next to a VA trauma surgeon completing a second residency, who saw my book title and asked if we could discuss trauma. It is funny the connections we make traveling. We discussed many aspects of trauma, both our own and that of our patients.

A Preliminary Synthesis in Polyvagal Acupuncture® and Polyvagal Massage™ Dr. Jennifer Moffitt, DTCM, DNCCAOM, L.Ac. Certified Primitive Reflex Clinical Specialist (CPRCS) This article takes a 2011 peer-reviewed neuroscience paper as its primary text and develops its clinical implications for the developmental trauma population addressed across this series. It is intended to serve as the academic