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Mesmeric Polyvagal Therapy (MPT) is an original approach developed by Dr. Marco Paret, which pioneered this field.
Dr. Paret was practicing somatic liberation through hypnosis, with a scientific approach, even before the Polyvagal Theory codified this kind of intervention, and he was among the first to integrate its explanation into his method. It is precisely because of this experience that he has been invited to several psychiatry and psychology congresses as a lecturer on polyvagal theory and hypnosis.
Today MPT is applied to trauma resolution, autonomic rebalancing (restoring balance in the involuntary nervous system), endocrine optimization, rejuvenation and many other areas of psychophysical well-being.
It has been presented at numerous psychiatric and psychological conferences in Romania and is practiced and taught by Dr. Paret's students and certified practitioners worldwide.
The Freeze Response
The Freeze Response
One of the most interesting models of the physiology of trauma was developed by Peter Levine, PhD, a pioneer in this field. It is based on the ethological model of the fight/flight/freeze response that animals show when their life is threatened. In the wild, a hunted animal flees or tries to fight; if trapped, it freezes: it becomes immobile, while its body still shows high activity in both the parasympathetic (calming) and sympathetic (activating) nervous systems...
The Release
The Release
When an animal survives a predator's attack, it usually goes through a phase in which it instinctively discharges the nervous energy that has built up: it shivers, runs in short bursts, trembles, sweats and breathes deeply and rhythmically. Once this release is complete, it returns to a state of alert calm. Levine reports that wildlife handlers in Africa consistently observe that animals which do not show this trembling and breathing after being freed rarely survive once back in the wild, possibly because they can no longer carry out essential defensive behaviors.
The Mesmeric Approach
The Mesmeric Approach
Humans react to trauma in their own way, shaped by upbringing and by the complexity of the human brain. Animals shake off the stress of a narrow escape naturally; we tend to hold it in. The state of alarm stays active, held in the deeper layers of the mind, and keeps repeating itself. Have you ever felt your body react to a memory before you could think about it?
Trauma memories include what we can put into words, and also what lives in automatic actions, such as riding a bike or playing the piano. These memories settle in many areas of the brain, from those involved in decision-making to those that manage balance and rhythm.
Research suggests that traumatic memories are stored in both explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memory systems. Procedural memory, an implicit form that records how to perform actions, holds coordinated motor sequences such as those used in sport or the arts. Once learned, these sequences are easily recalled and are thought to be stored in the orbitofrontal cortex (the front of the brain, above the eyes, involved in evaluating and deciding), the limbic structures (emotions), the cerebellum, the vestibular system (balance) and the basal ganglia (deep structures that regulate movement).
Evidence suggests that traumatic experiences are encoded in these procedural memories. Through practices based on the "felt sense" (the inner, bodily perception of a situation), a person can reactivate the movement patterns linked to past trauma. This activation of the sympathetic nervous system can allow the discharge of held autonomic energy, as happens in animals. Such work may help desensitize the autonomic nervous system and relieve the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The method
MPT gives access to these memories through a process that guides the body to re-experience and release the stored patterns. The body retraces the path of past traumas and completes the movements that had been interrupted. The nervous system can then reset itself, as animals do when they shake after a threat.
Franz Mesmer, a pioneer much criticized over the centuries, was observing something real. His method combined a fixed gaze, hand passes over the body and locating the point of pain, in order to stimulate the person's own healing force. He did not need to touch: his "mesmeric rods" served to direct what he called a healing fluid. These techniques prepared the ground for modern hypnosis, and science now confirms that they contain more than first appears. In our practice we read them physiologically: gaze, micromovements and the tone of the nervous system.
Dr. Paret's research into Mesmer's forgotten work shows that these techniques are more than a footnote in history. They offer a map of the pathways of our nervous system and new ways to resolve the effects of trauma. Mesmer's passes were ahead of their time: they engage the body's own capacity for self-regulation, which research is only now beginning to describe.
REJUVENATION AND MESMERIC POLYVAGAL THERAPY
The mitochondrial theory of aging and Mesmeric Polyvagal Therapy
Hypnosis and three systems at the core of our practice
In more than thirty years of work with the body and the nervous system, Dr. Paret's School has developed specific expertise in three systems. Each acts on a different branch of the autonomic nervous system, and each is taught step by step in our courses.
1. Trembling. When the body has accumulated activation – fear, alarm, effort – it discharges it through spontaneous tremors, just as an animal shakes after escaping a predator. In our sessions these tremors appear naturally, often during the mesmeric crisis, and we know how to welcome and guide them. The polyvagal reading: the charge of the sympathetic system (the fight-or-flight branch) is released, and the ventral vagus – the branch of safety and calm – can take the lead again.
2. Completion of the response. A defensive movement that could not be carried out – pushing away, running, turning the head – stays in the body as tension, posture and alarm. We guide the body, mostly without words, to complete that movement in a safe setting. Peter Levine was a pioneer of this principle; in our practice it becomes concrete through magnetic passes and non-verbal guidance. The polyvagal reading: the body leaves the freeze of the dorsal vagus, finishes its defence, and the nervous system registers that the danger is over.
3. Ventral vagal stimulation. Gaze, the tone and rhythm of the voice, posture, presence, touch and magnetic passes are signals of safety that the nervous system reads before any thought – Stephen Porges calls this neuroception. When these signals are strong and consistent, the heart slows, breathing deepens and the person opens to contact again. This is the physiological basis of what we call fascination: the co-regulation of two nervous systems.
Polyvagal hypnosis. Hypnosis is the field from which all of this comes. Dr. Paret teaches non-verbal hypnosis – with the gaze, presence and magnetic passes – together with verbal and instant hypnosis, read through the polyvagal model: the induction first builds safety, then gathers attention, and the deep states – catalepsy, somnambulism, ecstasy – are guided with respect for the person's nervous system. Hypnosis is used to overcome fears and phobias, become comfortable speaking in public, stop smoking, reduce pain and regain self-confidence.
→ Polyvagal Hypnosis: the dedicated site
Other strengths of the School. Catalepsy, the stillness that marks the entry into deep hypnosis and that, in polyvagal terms, is the controlled meeting point between immobility and safety. Hypnotic analgesia, the reduction of pain through attention, gaze and magnetic passes. Embodied presence – gravity, verticality, breath – which gives the operator the calm that the other person's nervous system tunes into. Peripheral vision and the widening of the gaze, which switch off the alarm of tunnel vision. Breathing practices such as the 7-3-7 rhythm and the body scan. Ecstasy, a state of global activation of the nervous system that follows the release of catalepsy.
To see these phenomena in real sessions, visit Dr. Paret's international site:
What the polyvagal lens explains
Many of the questions that practitioners and the public ask today find a clear reading in the polyvagal model. Here are the most frequent, with the way we work on each of them.
Trauma and shutdown. When a danger feels too great, the dorsal vagus switches the person off: absent gaze, heavy body, distant emotions. We bring the person back gradually through the body and the gaze, with trembling and the completion of the response.
Chronic pain with no clear explanation. Pain can be the trace of a defence that was never completed: the body keeps protecting itself. When the movement is completed and the tension discharges, the body can let go of that protection.
Why rejection hurts in the body. For the nervous system, exclusion from the group signals danger: the body reacts with alarm or withdrawal even when the mind knows there is no real threat. Signals of safety in the relationship restore the sense of belonging.
Old reactions in relationships. Implicit memories – stored in the body rather than in words – are reactivated by a tone of voice or a gesture, and the body reacts before thought. Through discharge and completion these reactions lose their charge.
Chronic stress, inflammation and metabolism. Prolonged alarm keeps the body in emergency mode: energy is mobilised, digestion and repair are put aside. Research on the vagus nerve describes a reflex through which the vagus helps regulate inflammation; restoring ventral tone supports the body's own repair.
The gut and the mind. Most fibres of the vagus nerve carry information from the body to the brain, a large part of it from the gut. This is why digestion, mood and the sense of safety influence one another.
Depression. In many people depression shows the signs of a dorsal state – low energy, slow movements, a gaze that avoids contact. Ventral stimulation and the reawakening of the body bring energy and interest back.
Anxiety in teenagers. Reassurance and avoiding difficulties calm the moment but keep the alarm active. Young people regain confidence when they experience, in their body, that they can stay with a challenge while feeling safe.
Perfectionism and fear of making mistakes. A nervous system on constant alert reads every mistake as a threat. When the body feels safe, the mind regains flexibility.
Obsessive loops. Intrusive thoughts and repeated checking keep the nervous system in a state of vigilance. We work on the body's alarm, so that the loop loses the energy that feeds it.
ADHD in women and girls. Restlessness, scattered attention and emotional overload often hide a nervous system that struggles to find calm. Breathing, presence and ventral signals give the body a stable centre.
Guilt, shame and moral wounds. Shame lowers the gaze and curves the body: it is the posture of withdrawal. Through work on the gaze, verticality and presence, the person regains dignity in the body even before in thought.
Ageing and memory loss. Agitation and confusion in older people often grow when the nervous system feels unsafe. A calm presence, the voice and touch lower the alarm – for the person and for those who care for them.
Feeling cared for calms the body. Attentive presence lowers the stress response: the person's nervous system tunes to that of someone calm and steady. This co-regulation is at the heart of our non-verbal work.
Learn the method
Mesmeric Polyvagal Therapy is taught in the courses of Dr. Paret's School (ISI-CNV – Université Européenne): live seminars and online lessons, from the first-level Master to advanced training, with specific expertise in polyvagal hypnosis, trembling, completion of the response and ventral vagal stimulation. Request the programme and the next dates: our first contact is always a WhatsApp message, never a call.
→ Request information on the courses
→ Videos and international activity of Dr. Paret
→ marcoparet.com: the School of Dr. Paret
This site is available in: English · Italiano · Français · Русский · 中文
Research notes
A selection of peer-reviewed studies on polyvagal theory and vagal function that offer a scientific reading of the topics discussed in this article.
Porges SW (2001). The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42(2), 123-146. A foundational statement of polyvagal theory, describing three evolutionary stages of autonomic regulation (immobilisation via the unmyelinated vagus, sympathetic mobilisation, and the myelinated vagus supporting social engagement); it provides the conceptual vocabulary used in this article. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8760(01)00162-3
Porges SW (2025). Polyvagal theory: current status, clinical applications, and future directions. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 22(3), 169-184. A recent review of the empirical basis of polyvagal theory that also addresses methodological critiques and discusses clinical implications for trauma, chronic pain and mood disorders; it situates the theory within the current scientific debate. https://doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20250301
Kozlowska K, Walker P, et al. (2015). Fear and the defense cascade: clinical implications and management. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 23(4), 263-287. This review describes the defence cascade (arousal, fight or flight, freezing, tonic and collapsed immobility, quiescence) and notes that humans, unlike most animals, may remain locked in these patterns after the threat has passed; it frames freeze responses and their resolution. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000065
Payne P, Levine PA, Crane-Godreau MA (2015). Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 93. This theoretical paper describes Somatic Experiencing, which guides attention to bodily sensation to complete thwarted defensive responses and discharge excess autonomic arousal; it offers a neurophysiological account of discharge and release, not an outcome trial. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093
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