197 Trusting Your Nervous System Through Grief: Loss and Polyvagal Theory | Deb Dana Artwork

How To Deal With Grief and Trauma

You can't go through life without experiencing loss and trauma the question is how do we deal and live with the grief and pain? Join Nathalie Himmelrich, grief expert and author, talking to people who have experienced grief and trauma first-hand. If you want to be inspired by others who traveled through their grief and trauma, found that healing is possible, and came out the other end knowing they can survive and thrive in life after loss. For more info: www.nathaliehimmelrich.com

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How To Deal With Grief and Trauma

197 Trusting Your Nervous System Through Grief: Loss and Polyvagal Theory | Deb Dana

June 14, 2026 • Nathalie Himmelrich • Season 19 • Episode 197

0:00 | 10:06

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In this mini-series episode, I revisit number three in the top ten most listened-to episodes: my conversation with Deb Dana, clinician, consultant, author, and the world’s leading translator of Polyvagal Theory — on loss, the nervous system, and what it means to trust your body through grief.

Deb brings both her professional expertise and something deeply personal to this conversation: the recent death of her husband Bob, and her own experience of navigating grief through the Polyvagal lens she has spent years teaching. We explore what the autonomic nervous system actually does in grief, why grief is a physiological experience and not only a psychological one, and how glimmers — micro-moments of safety and connection — can serve as anchors even in the heaviest loss.

This is one of the most honest and grounded conversations in the podcast’s history.

Listen to the original episode: Episode 85 — Deb Dana | Loss Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory

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Chapters:

00:00 Welcome
00:49 Today's episode
01:27 Welcome to the Mini Series
02:50 Top 10 - Number 3
03:24 About Deb Dana
04:58 Polyvagal Theory and grief
06:16 Glimmers and grief
06:57 What resonated with me
07:55 Why it resonated with listeners

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