Dee discovered scientist Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory of nervous system functioning. Polyvagal Theory helps us identify an active state that is not fueled by Fight/Flight. Porges calls this state Play/Dance.

As a massage therapist, Mary Lou began picturing how to bring this important information to bodyworkers. She began to recognize how polyvagal theory could help bridge the work of psychotherapists and bodyworkers, brainstorming with Dee about possibilities.

• From a dance/movement therapy perspective, Dee began to sense that clients lying on tables seeking a therapeutic experience—change—might stir distant body memories of infant/parent interactions that occurred during diapering and dressing on changing tables. 

• Mary Lou began to envision helping bodyworkers become mindful of these powerful possibilities within the client/therapist relationship. She felt a wish to offer bodyworkers a deeper understanding of what psychotherapists refer to as transference and countertransference—ways the client/therapist relationship mirrors the infant/parent relationship.

Out of these explorations, Mary Lou and Dee created training for bodyworkers and all helping professionals working with clients’ psychosomatic pain. The training is called Who’s on the Table? Using nervous system science and attachment theory to recognize trauma and mindfully manage transference and countertransference.