Triple Vagal Method Therapy
What is TVM™
TVM is a specialized, hands-on somatic therapy that works directly through the physical body to heal stress and trauma, without requiring you to talk through or relive past experiences.
Instead of trying to calm your mind with thoughts or willpower (a “top-down” mental approach), TVM works from the “bottom-up.” It uses precise, gentle physical touch along key nerve pathways and fascial tissue to physically communicate safety to your brainstem and autonomic nervous system hence allowing the nervous system to safely release action potentials stored within the body from previous, dysregulated events.
Developed by Dr. Maj Zakari of the Integrated Somatic Institute, TVM acts as a direct physical complement to integrative care.
Dr. Stephen Porges
1
Map the Autonomic Baseline
We assess where your nervous system is biologically anchored – whether trapped in sympathetic hyperarousal (anxiety, chronic fight-or-flight) or dorsal vagal shutdown (freeze, exhaustion, numbness). By identifying your primary somatic stress holding patterns, we build a customized rehabilitation plan.
2
Hands-On Vagal Release
Using precise Triple Vagal Method protocols, we apply gentle touch, fascial unwinding, and neuromuscular stimulation along key vagal pathways. This bottom-up approach triggers anti-inflammatory response, discharging trapped survival energy from physical tissue without requiring you to re-live traumatic memories.
3
Integrate Safety & Vitality
As vagal tone increases, your autonomic nervous system naturally restores its baseline of safety, resilience, and heart-rate variability. With survival responses down-regulated, your body recovers its capacity for deep restorative sleep, clear cognition, emotional balance, and the physical energy to fully activate your life.
Initial TVM Prep Session
A 60-Minute Clinical preparation for Autonomic Recovery.
This 60-minute prep session decodes your intake form, the body’s stress patterns, establishes trauma-informed safety, and creates a clear physiological roadmap for hands-on regulation.
What We Cover in Your 60-Minute Prep Session
Autonomic Assessment & Session Orientation
Map whether your system is in sympathetic fight/flight (hypervigilance, insomnia) or dorsal freeze (burnout, fatigue), while reviewing what to expect during hands-on TVM sessions—including our unhurried clinical format and how gentle vagal stimulation completes stored stress cycles.
Empowering Consent & Somatic Safety
Establish your personal touch boundaries and empowering consent protocol, while outlining the safe physiological process of reassociation—helping your nervous system reconnect with internal body awareness and physical sensations without cognitive overwhelm.
Clinical Recommendations & Trajectory
Discuss your health goals, receive tailored clinical recommendations and select your ideal path—whether The Somatic Reset (3 sessions), The Rehabilitative Bridge (6 sessions), or The Complete Somatic Reclamation (9 sessions).
Immediate Somatic Anchors & Strategic Clarity
Walk away with practical tools to stabilize your nervous system between sessions, along with total clarity on your treatment paths so you can make a solid, conscious investment in your body’s future.
TVM Session
Personalized TVM session to your needs and preferences
~ 3 Hours
Delivered within an unhurried, deliberate container, each appointment gives your physiology the time it needs to fully complete interrupted stress cycles without being rushed.
Through gentle, sustained manual pressure on specific physiological points, your practitioner directly stimulates the vagus nerve to facilitate deep fascial release and physically discharge stored trauma. To protect your system from cognitive overwhelm during physical or emotional releases, every session begins by establishing clear touch boundaries and a non-verbal safety protocol.
Ultimately, this hands-on neurosomatic protocol shifts your body out of chronic survival states (fight, flight, freeze, or functional freeze) and anchors your system in authentic biological safety, profound physical ease, deep restorative sleep, and lasting somatic recovery.
Aftercare
Guides and follow-up
3 Session Series
~10 Hours
The Somatic Reset
Acute De-Escalation &
Autonomic Circuit-Breaking
Designed for high-demand lives and high-performing individuals, this series provides the foundational benchmark for nervous system recovery.
Interrupt Fight-or-Flight Loops Immediately halts chronic sympathetic arousal and clears sensory overload.
Establish Biological Safety
Gives your physiology its first complete experience of physical relief and down-regulation.
Free Immediate Energy
Stops the drain of surviving your schedule, freeing up physical and mental bandwidth so you can show up for your work, life, and future with clarity.
6 Session Series
~19 Hours
The Rehabilitative Bridge
Fascial Unbinding & Vagal Strengthening
This targeted clinical arc builds directly on the foundation of The Somatic Reset, moving beyond acute relief into structural autonomic recovery.
Fascial Unbinding
Systematically releases chronic fascial holding patterns—the physical armor and tissue tightness built up over years of stress.
Strengthening Vagal Tone
Directly tones the vagus nerve, giving your body a stronger physiological brake to down-regulate stress rapidly.
Inner Landscape Optimization
Establishes deep internal safety, sharpens interoceptive and cognitive awareness, and anchors a recalibrated autonomic baseline so your body operates from composure rather than constant bracing.
9 Session Series
~28 Hours
Complete Somatic Reclamation
Deep Structural Unspooling &
Permanent Baseline Resilience
Our most comprehensive clinical immersion for full-system restoration. Over 28+ hours of unhurried somatic care, this series combines the full therapeutic arcs of The Somatic Reset and The Rehabilitative Bridge, taking your recovery to its ultimate optimization.
Deep Structural Unspooling
Layer-by-layer unravels long-held somatic trauma patterning stored deep within your body’s fascial web and neural pathways.
Permanent Baseline Resilience
Resolves chronic autonomic dysregulation at its biological root, anchoring an unshakeable baseline of biological safety, restorative sleep, and physical ease.
Restoring Optimal Energy & Function
Reclaims the deep physiological energy previously lost to subconscious fight-or-flight loops, allowing your body and mind to operate from a place of unconstrained vitality.
All three care series qualify as eligible medical expenses payable or reimbursable through your HSA or FSA under IRC § 213(d) when accompanied by a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) from a licensed healthcare provider. Pacing is titrated dynamically around your body’s individual physiological integration rate.
More about HSA / FSA in the FAQ page.