Book Summary: 20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction
- Christine Knight
- Nov 28
- 2 min read
Book Summary: 20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction
Jan Winhall's book, 20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction: Using the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, presents a paradigm-shifting approach to healing trauma, dissociation, and addiction by reframing them as adaptive methods for regulating the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
The book's framework, the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (FSPM), integrates two key therapeutic approaches to center the body's intelligence for deep healing.
The Core Integrated Model (FSPM)
The FSPM is built on the integration of two major somatic and neurological concepts:
* Polyvagal Theory (Stephen Porges): This neuroscience theory explains how the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) operates and how its different states (safe/social engagement, fight/flight, and freeze/shutdown) are protective responses to perceived danger. Winhall uses this lens to view addictive behaviors not as moral failings or diseases, but as attempts to achieve a regulated nervous system state.
* The Felt Sense (Eugene Gendlin's Focusing): The "Felt Sense" is an embodied, holistic, often fuzzy, and pre-verbal bodily awareness that holds the meaning of a situation. The FSPM uses this concept to guide individuals toward their "somatic wisdom."
By combining these two ideas, Winhall provides a map (Polyvagal Theory) and a key (Felt Sense) for navigating the body's internal landscape.
The 20 Embodied Practices:
The twenty practices in the book are structured as step-by-step exercises designed to help users recognize and gradually "rewire" their autonomic state toward safety and connection.
* Goal: To help clients and clinicians shift out of the cycles of trauma and addiction by cultivating a sense of embodied safety and inner wisdom.
* Focus on Autonomic State: The exercises teach the skill of neuroception—the body's non-conscious process of evaluating risk—and how to track which branch of the ANS is active (e.g., fight/flight, freeze, or social engagement).
* Body-Centered Approach: Unlike traditional talk therapy or cognitive-behavioral approaches, the practices are fundamentally somatic. They guide the user to engage with physical sensations, feelings, thoughts, and memories as components of the felt sense.
* Accessibility: The step-by-step exercises are designed for wide accessibility, suitable for self-help, use with a mental health professional, or practice with a "felt sense partner."
* Harm Reduction: The book incorporates a Four Circle Harm Reduction Plan, which helps individuals map their addictive behaviors and develop practical, compassionate strategies for managing their dysregulated nervous system responses.
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