I thought this was decent. There is a lot you can learn in here for sure. I thought the different things were pretty good but I just didn't feel it effected me as much as I hoped.

The Nervous System Workbook by Deb Dana, LCSW, is an incredibly insightful and practical guide that I found to be both enlightening and empowering. As someone who's always interested in mental health and wellness, this workbook provided me with a wealth of knowledge on how our nervous system influences our emotions, behavior, and overall well-being.

What I really appreciated about this book is its accessibility. Deb Dana does a fantastic job of explaining complex scientific concepts about the nervous system in a way that's easy to understand. The exercises and prompts throughout the book are incredibly practical, allowing me to apply what I was learning in a real, tangible way. I found myself actively engaging with the content, reflecting on my own nervous system responses and how I can better manage stress and anxiety.

The workbook is structured in a way that makes it easy to follow along, with a nice balance of theory and practice. Each chapter provides a deep dive into a specific aspect of the nervous system, followed by exercises that help you better understand and regulate your own reactions. I found the exercises to be thought-provoking and beneficial for increasing self-awareness, which is something I really value in a self-help book.

I also loved how the book emphasizes compassion and understanding toward yourself. It’s not just about managing stress or anxiety but about developing a deeper relationship with your body and mind. The strategies Deb Dana outlines are grounded in self-care, and it’s clear she’s passionate about helping readers build resilience and improve their overall mental health.

Overall, The Nervous System Workbook is a must-read for anyone looking to better understand how their nervous system affects their daily life and how to take proactive steps to improve mental and emotional well-being. It’s a practical, informative, and transformative book that I highly recommend.

I've been looking at a lot of workbooks around mental health lately, and there have been some good ones and some bad ones. This one is definitely on the side of great! Deb Dana does a wonderful job of making a usable workbook that is accessible to many types of people.

Important note: I am familiar with polyvagal theory, but have not delved into it heavily. I have multiple mental health diagnoses and have utilized multiple modalities. I'm reviewing it from that stand point.

A few things I loved:
- The use of multiple forms of "work." This is not just a think and write type of workbook (refreshing!). This one has opportunities to listen to tracks online, feel, draw, move, and more.
- It is easily digestible without feeling overwhelming
- It is usable by both those new and with experience in mental health treatments/modalities
- It is understandable without the use of overcomplicated medical jargon, but is not dumb down to make it feel like the author is talking down to me

I can't speak to any results because it takes time to truly work through the different activities, but it meets all of the important things to at least provide some skills in the tool box.

This is a great introduction to polyvagal theory and the nervous system. Includes exercises/prompts and guides to help. Definitely not a book to read all at once but more to read parts of and come back to it.

I do think this book works better as a physical copy rather than digital, since a lot of the exercises included drawing or writing, with included space to do so. Also I was a little disappointed that the QR codes to audio files weren't available in the advanced copy, as I think that would have heightened the experience.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Perfect for those looking for balance in their life. Full of easy to use tools to help you during those difficult times in your life.

Great book to understand our inner world and our re-actions
I expected to get a book with sets of exercises. What I got was a whole new worldview and it totally made sense to me.
It is the autonomous nervous system which governs life itself.
The autonomous nervous system is built to keep me safe and helps to survive moments of danger.
The book helps (here come the exercises!) with very simple exercises to explore your own „landscape“ of your individual nervous system.
The individual landscape explains how we perceive the world and how we react.
The author gives gentle ways to regulate and even stretch and gradually alter the existing landscape of our nervous system.

Highly recommended. Perceptive, easy to read, and a key to understand our nervous system „an embodied, biological resource that is always present and ready to guide us.“

I received an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

This very practical step by step guide has loads of great advice for bringing your nervous system back into regulation. This resource can be used when you are already elevated to help you exit that fight/flight/freeze response, but it is an especially helpful workbook to go through when you are relatively regulated and can best absorb the material. I highly recommend getting this book in a physical format so that you can annotate and interact with the material fully. This book has the potential to be life changing to those of us who regularly experience a disregulated nervous system.

This book had a lot of great exercises. From journal prompts to physical activities. I really learned a lot from this workbook, and I know you will as well.

In this book the author argues that our experience of our lives are not defined by our brains. Most of our experiences are actually defined by our nervous systems, and the point is not to be perfectly regulated all the time but to become aware of what state we are in (regulated/safety, fight/flight, or disconnection/shutdown), and to learn how to bring ourselves back to regulation. This ability to come back to safety is the skill that this workbook teaches.

I appreciated the word list that the author provides that describes all the various ways we can be in the three states. It helped bring home the various ways we can experience the states throughout the day and in our real lives.

Overall, I found this book helpful and insightful. This book helped me to become more aware of what state I am in, and what makes me move from one state to another. It motivated me to make conscious choices, to increase certain activities that help me feel regulated, and have compassion for the times in my life when I shutdown. I particularly enjoyed the section of the book on remembering moments of awe where the author encourages us to feel the richness of moments that fill us with wonder. I found those awe-inspiring moments to be particularly effective in creating feelings of deep appreciation, reverence, and well-being.

Thanks to Sounds True Publishing for the review copy via Netgalley. I am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions are mine.

Bottom line: this book is both accessible and actionable. As a trauma survivor with many years of healing work, research, and reading about trauma under my belt (and a gazillion years of therapy and a thesis project about trauma 😅), this book is a breath of fresh air. I have a lot of intellectual understanding about trauma (neurobiological effects, socio-cultural underpinnings, clinical approaches, artistic interventions and thematic explorations, etc.) but that can feel pretty disconnected from the realities of living and struggling with the aftermath of trauma. Thankfully, this book brings things into the present moment, into the body, and helps you to build a relationship with your nervous system in a way that can inform every day living and healing.

Author Deb Dana has written other books on polyvagal theory and coined the term "glimmers" (instead of triggers, glimmers are things that bring a sense of safety, awe, wonder, beauty, expansiveness, etc.). Here she presents the reader with several approaches: reflective writing and drawing prompts; exercises to tune into the subtle states in the body; prompts to access positive memories and experiences; ways to self resource and create safety through the senses and things like comfort objects; and building supports and connections that foster feelings of safety and joy.

Overall the point is to help the reader approach their nervous system responses (fight and flight, shutdown, and connection or regulation) with kindness and gentleness. The author encourages the reader to approach all of these states with compassion - after all, our nervous system is really still just trying to keep us safe 🙏 ❤

I would highly recommend this workbook to anyone on a PTSD recovery journey, especially if you have hit that wall of "I've done all the work, I've read all the books, I've been in therapy forever  - why won't my nervous system just chill the f* out?!?!" These prompts help you approach your body and nervous system with gentleness and compassion, and help dial in a greater level of understanding and nuanced perception. I would 💯 recommend to somatic healing practitioners or anyone using somatic healing practices as complementary piece of the trauma healing puzzle. Also would highly recommend to trauma-informed therapists. The exercises in this workbook would be good for individuals or group therapy settings. This approach would be a good follow up to DBT skills, actually.

Again, to sum up, this book is super accessible, free from medical, clinical, and academic jargon and something that trauma survivors can actually put into use (instead of just thinking about it or talking about it).

Digital ARC from NetGalley

Thank you Sounds True Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC in return of my honest review.

This workbook is a fabulous resource and is suitable for a wide audience. It is great as an introduction to polyvagal theory and also those who already have some understanding and want to dig a little deeper into their personal responses.
This book is written in an easily understandable way and has fantastic accompanying exercises. I also loved the QR code to be able to get audio accompaniments to the exercises.

Deb Dana has provided a valuable resource, which is easily understandable and not bogged down in heavy theory.
I really appreciate this ARC and will be buying my own physical copy of this book to explore the exercises deeper.

I love these sorts of workbooks - the activities along with the explanations behind why they're relevant to the nervous system helps you to understand why the practices are in place. I intend on purchasing the full copy on Kindle so that I can work through the entirety on my own time. Thank you for introducing me to what will be an amazing tool for my mental health!

I've been on a journey to better understand my anxiety so I can manage it better, and this workbook feels like an incredible tool for that. Take your time with the exercises and the book in general -- don't rush through it. Be gentle with yourself as you work through the practices :)

The flawless Deb Dana has created another relatable and easy to understand practical workbook focusing on polyvagal theory. I think that she is the best at relating information on this topic in a manner that is easily accessible to a larger audience.
This workbook has 50+ different exercises that are meant to appeal to different types of humans. If some don’t feel relatable to you, others will feel better suited, and still more will feel worth pursuing. I’m excited to practice many of these ideas. I’ll return back to this workbook again and again.

This workbook is a well-presented and engaging text surrounding Polyvagal Theory. Ideally, these exercises will help the reader to slow down, pay kind, loving attention to their nervous system, and hopefully be able to reset a bit. I've previously skimmed through Anchored by Deb Dana as well (during an anxiety flare-up of my own) and found it super helpful! She knows what she's talking about, and that's the best thing to rely on when you're struggling and need a workbook like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great, shirt workbook about the nervous system. I'm not getting any younger, and I like learning about my body, and how I can improve my daily healthy habits. Going through this workbook really gives you some perspective. Dealing with daily anxiety is tough, setting down your feelings after answering the different questions really is therapeutic.

I think the workbook is interesting and I learned quite a few things about the nervous system. Most of the activities were simple and I'm okay with that. Something doesn't have to be difficult to teach us about ourselves.

The only thing I would have liked was there to be more information about her line of study. She glosses over it in the beginning but I think it deserves more explanation.

I knew of the importance of our nervous system but have never actually "studied" it. That's why this title cough my eye. And it did turn out to be a really helpful guide. It made me understand myself better and introduced new perspectives. That said, I thought it got a bit repetitive in places. Instead, it could have gotten more in depth with certain approaches.

Overall, a valuable guide with exercises to help you understand yourself better.

I love a good workbook, and this one is pretty solid. Deb Dana, an expert in this field puts together the information on polyvagal theory in a very informational and helpful way. Through pictures, graphs and personal narrative the reader will be able to understand the theory and come away with some great tools to use overtime.

Thanks to NetGalley and Soundstrue publishing for the ARC!

In this polyvagal theory workbook, clinician and author Deb Dana presents the different elements of the nervous system alongside practical exercices. By understanding the elements of hierarchy, neuroception and go-regulation and bringing the unconscious into our awareness, we are then able to better control our actions (reflecting rather than reacting).

Some of the activities felt slightly repetitive but, as the author explains, they are not meant to be undertaken at the same time. The idea is instead to dip in and out of the book as needed. I've already picked up some ideas to use with my kids!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sounds True Publishing for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.