Habitats — Anya Pearse

Navigate your experience with more ease and grace

The Pearse Polyvagal Habitats Model is intuitive, easy and accessible way of exploring our nervous system states.

It combines Dr Stephen Porges's Polyvagal Theory and Dr Paul Gilbert's model of emotional regulation from Compassion Focused Therapy.

Our state influence our ability to be present, well-resourced, and creative. Knowing our state allows us to be at our best more often - and to do less damage when we’re not.

Forest

Safeness and kindness. Soothing, calming, content, non-wanting. Focused on social and emotional bonds. Relaxed, connected, nourished by connection
Sand

Driven, excited, vital. Hot, driven to DO things and/or to reach goals. Doing to avoid feeling. Wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming. Incentive and resource-focused
Lava

Anger, anxiety, disgust. Fight or flight, heat as anger. Threat-focused, vigilant, safety and protection-seeking. Activating and resource-depleting
Concrete

Shut down, numb, collapsed, frozen, apathy, immobilised. Conserving resources. Lack of vitality, depression, defeat, despair. Dissociation can be complete or a "dimmer switch"

Finding your way

Thinking of our states as “habitats” means we can explore how each one feels for us, share new and accessible language to describe it, and embrace our uncomfortable experiences with more kindness, choice, and compassion.

This model centres our soothed “Forest” state at its core because this state is always within us.

No matter what state we’re currently or most regularly in, being soothed and connected is our "core/ true" nature.

Offering regulation to others

Self-care and self-compassion practices create spaces of 'greenery' in our lives, inviting more aliveness, awareness, and connection to self, others, and our innate deeper intelligence.

In this more regulated state, we are able to be the 'trees in our environments', mimicking trees and vegetation in urban environments, offering safety, calm and peace through co-regulation.