Norton Mental Health Media

Pendulation: A Clinical Skills Guide by Ruby Jo Walker

Excerpted from her book, Applied Polyvagal Theory for Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth

When a client becomes trapped in traumatic activation, their nervous system can swing between overwhelming intensity and emotional shutdown, making it difficult for them to feel safe, grounded, or connected to the present moment.

Without careful pacing, trauma work can push clients beyond their capacity, reinforcing fear, helplessness, and dysregulation.

That’s why pendulation, the body's capacity to rhythmically shift between contrasting physiological states, is such a powerful trauma treatment strategy.

Once you understand how to guide a client’s nervous system, you have a precise, moment-by-moment way to move clients toward regulation, resilience, and real change.

Pendulation: A Clinical Skills Guide gives clinicians the tools to work with the body’s rhythms and guide your client’s attention to facilitate integration of more desirable physiological states and embodied trauma recovery.

Written by trauma expert Ruby Jo Walker, this guide walks through the process of pendulation step by step, with examples, scripts, and alternate approaches to help you apply these skills in session today.

Suitable for a wide range of modalities, from somatic and polyvagal-informed methods to EMDR and trauma work, this guide offers clinicians a precise way to move clients toward more desirable patterns and into transformative healing.

What this guide does for you:

Equips you with interventions to use in the moment when clients struggle with challenging feelings and thoughts in session
Deepens your understanding of the body’s rhythms and the nervous system to actively build access to safety and regulation
Expands your toolkit with alternate versions of pendulation, allowing for customization of the process to suit the client’s needs
Applies pendulation to a range of less desirable experiences, including sensations, images, beliefs, and emotions, with specific examples and scripts

Whether you need a new intervention for today’s client or want to achieve deeper integration in session, Pendulation: A Clinical Guide offers clear tools and scripts you’ll refer to again and again.

A game-changing approach to working with the body—all in one easy guide.

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Ruby Jo Walker, LCSW, CHT, SEP, of Southwest Trauma Training, is an expert in trauma and an early pioneer of applied Polyvagal Theory in therapy. With over 30 years in the field, she provides polyvagal-informed trainings nationally, as well as consultation for practitioners. She resides in Durango, CO.