How Polyvagal Theory Sshapes Disability Ministry

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Your nervous system makes decisions about safety before your conscious mind even catches up. This fascinating reality explains why creating genuinely inclusive environments for people with disabilities requires much more than good intentions—it demands understanding the science behind how we process new experiences.

Tracie Corll takes us deep into polyvagal theory, illuminating how our autonomic nervous system scans environments and triggers responses of social engagement, fight/flight, or shutdown. This unconscious threat detection explains why first encounters can be so challenging for individuals with disabilities in church settings. When someone enters an unfamiliar space with unknown people and unclear expectations, their nervous system immediately goes on high alert, making it difficult to engage, focus, or regulate emotions.

Drawing from her hands-on experiences coordinating disability ministries and special needs camps, Tracie shares powerful real-world examples that demonstrate how patience transforms outcomes. She describes watching the same individuals who initially needed significant sensory supports gradually become comfortable in environments that once overwhelmed them—not because they were trying harder, but because their nervous systems had recategorized the space as safe through consistent, positive experiences.

This episode offers practical wisdom for anyone involved in disability ministry, from the vital importance of sensory tools and visual schedules to the transformative power of consistent relationships. Rather than making quick judgments based on first impressions, Tracie encourages ministry leaders to create pathways for nervous systems to reset, allowing everyone to experience the peace and belonging that church should provide. After all, every person deserves the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him, and serve with their unique gifts—regardless of ability. Ready to transform your approach to disability ministry? Listen now and discover how understanding nervous system responses can make your church truly accessible to all.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll and welcome to
Indispensable People.
I'm a wife, mom, teacher,pastor and missionary and I
believe that every person shouldhave the opportunity to know
Christ, grow in Him and serveHim with the gifts that he has
given, no matter their ability.
Over 65 million Americans havea disability.
That's 25% of the population.

(00:26):
However, over 80% of them arenot inside the walls of our
church.
Let's dive into those hardtopics biblical foundations,
perceptions and world-changingideas.
Hey, hey, and welcome to thisepisode of Indispensable People.

(00:53):
I'm so glad that you havejoined me and I am ready to talk
about polyvagal theory, howthat impacts our nervous system
and how that impacts theinteractions that we have with
individuals that we might comein contact with, especially on
our first meet.
So what in the world ispolyvagal theory?

(01:17):
Well, it was developed byStephen Porges, if I said that
correctly, and it explains howthe autonomic nervous system,
especially the vagus nerve,regulates our responses to
safety and threat through threehierarchical states social
engagement, fight or flight andshutdown.

(01:37):
The theory highlights theconcept of neuroception, the
brain's automatic evaluationsystem.
Okay, so basically all of ourbrains have this kind of.
It makes me think of like a spyshow and like the laser going.

(01:59):
Basically, your brain isconsistently scanning for
situations and that is decidinghow you then react, like your
body's internal reaction to thestress or trauma or social
connection, providing insightsfor and this helps us to

(02:23):
understand, like, how do werespond?
How do we help to understand,how do we gain insight to this?
And so first let's explain alittle bit more into the three
states that this is talkingabout.
First is social engagement, andthis is like the most evolved

(02:44):
state, representing safety andconnection and social engagement
.
In this state, the vagus nervesupports healthy physiological
functions and allows foraccessibility and co-regulation
with others.
Fight or flight, and this islike mobilizing the defenses.

(03:09):
The response is triggered,there's a perceived danger,
leading to heightened alertnessfor energy for fight or flight.
And the last one is shutdown,and this is the most primitive
defense.
It represents like immobilizing, response to an overwhelming
threat, leading to the state ofshutting down or freezing.
So here's a couple of otherthings that we need to

(03:33):
understand.
Neuroception is the process bywhich the brain interprets
signals from the body and theenvironment to determine if a
situation is safe or dangerous.
To determine if a situation issafe or dangerous, and this is
done without conscious thought,okay.
So understanding that is reallyimportant, knowing how people,

(03:57):
like their body, has alreadymade the decision before they
are trying to think through theprocess of is this a big deal?
Is this not a big deal?
How can I deal with this?
What do I do with it?
All that kind of stuff.
It's like an automatic decisionbased on what your nervous
system has scanned andunderstood your experience to be

(04:17):
.
So then, the hierarchy is theautonomic nervous system
operates in a hierarchy and ithas those three stages, you know
, one kind of being the normal.
The second kind of I identifythe risk, now I have to make a
decision.
And the last one is I'vealready made a decision and I'm

(04:38):
terrified and this is not goingto be a thing.
So another word to understandis co-regulation, and this is

(05:05):
the understanding that it's atheory that emphasizes the
importance of feeling safe andconnected through social
engagement to co-regulate one'sown physiological and emotional
state, especially throughinteractions with others.
So how does this play intoworking with people with
disabilities, ministering topeople with disabilities?
It was about a month ago now.
I was participating in thedenomination that I'm a part of,

(05:31):
which is the Assemblies of God.
We were participating in, likeour biannual meeting, and it's
thousands upon thousands, uponthousands of people and within
that they have what's calledCamp GC and that's for kids of a

(05:51):
certain age to participate in aprogram while their parents are
in meetings and other thingsgoing on.
So I was asked to head up thespecial needs portion of Camp GC
.
So there are some kids who areidentified that have some needs,
where we had to provideone-on-one support, also

(06:14):
providing a space within oursensory space for kids who would
not be able to participate inthe rest of the regular of the
typical program and also justbeing able to step in and help
out kids who need it.
And so day one was absolute Busy, crazy kids needing,

(06:40):
overwhelmed by spaces and soundsand, you know, just having
trouble transitioning from spaceto space with people, all of
those kinds of things.
And then by the third day inlike everything had started to
calm down.

(07:00):
And here's what I can tell you.
Also, second experience thesummer camp that I coordinate
through the ministry that Iserve under is day one is very
similar.
You know it's a little bitchaotic, people are having all

(07:22):
the feelings you know we'rehaving to put out, you know
little fires here and there tohelp people in the process of
being there and feelingcomfortable and feeling safe.
And it was the same thing Two,three days in everything's
calmer, people are feeling good.

(07:43):
You know all of that kind ofstuff.
So how does that relate to thispolyvagal theory and the
experiences that our bodies?
Well, first of all, weunderstand that this experience,
it's perceived and processedthrough the body before we can

(08:07):
even reason it.
Okay, so we have asked in thissetting for people to come into
situations that they areunfamiliar with, with people
that they're unfamiliar with andschedules that they're not
familiar with and unknownexpectations.

(08:27):
Okay, so, just those thingsthat I've listed.
And that is an experience alsoon a Sunday at church, when
coming for the first time, neverhaving been in that environment
before, you're meeting newpeople in new spaces, with
schedules that you don't know orunderstand and expectations you
have not been given.

(08:49):
Okay, so those are allperceived threats, especially
for individuals who do notregulate well and or someone
with autism who has a very rigidschedule and a specific
understanding of certain people,places and events, and so we

(09:11):
are triggering these layers andthese hierarchical states,
layers and these hierarchicalstates and we're somewhat having
expectations that well, firstof all, those who are incurring
our expectations.
They don't know what they are.
Number one and number two.

(09:31):
We just want them to behappy-go-lucky and enjoy what
we're doing, because we've setup these lessons and we've set
up these lessons and we've setup spaces and we've created ways
for people to be ministered to.
However, we need to have alittle bit of patience,
especially on our first meetsand our first layers of

(09:54):
experience.
I also have a friend who helpsto run a daycare and the influx
of children with disabilities ishuge and the preschool is not
prepared or trained or havespecific resources available for

(10:20):
the kids with disabilities.
But parents are just I don'tknow if they don't have anywhere
else to go, if they're not surewhere else to go, if you know,
whatever is happening, eventhough the preschool is very
upfront in saying, listen, wedon't have these resources and
we don't have these things, theyare enrolling their children as

(10:41):
a part of this and so all ofthat goes on, kind of like a
trial basis.
But the problem is, is day one,a child that is diagnosed with
autism struggled to participate,to follow instructions, to

(11:04):
comply, and that's like day oneand the consideration is on day
one?
I don't know that we can dothis.
This isn't probably the rightplace for this child.
However, does that child knowthe people that are there?
Do they feel comfortable?
Do they understand and haveschedules that they can follow,

(11:28):
can look at?
Do they know what theexpectations are?
And we're going to have thatsame experience, whether it's in
a preschool, in a school, in achurch, at a ministry event
outside of the church, insidethe church, whatever it is.
Um, we're asking people, firstof all, that struggle to

(11:57):
regulate emotions in a familiarsetting.
We're placing them in anunfamiliar setting, asking like
we would like immediate enteringinto the situation, like we

(12:18):
want them to be comfortableright off the bat.
It was.
It's so very funny because youknow the summer camp that I do
during, we have sensory bags, wehave fidget tools, we have
noise canceling headphones, wehave earplugs, we have the whole
, the whole nine, to make surethat you know whatever sensory

(12:38):
need might pop up we canaccommodate.
And so it was so very funnybecause day one we have we had
people not only need to usenoise canceling headphones, but
they wanted to sit in a separatespace From where it was, so
they were like in the hallwayinstead of in the service room

(13:00):
when we were doing worship andso on.
And this is day one and we'vegot three, four or five people,
you know, wanting to be in thatseparate space.
And it was like day I don'tknow, it was like the third day
and we were doing an event inthe same space that we typically

(13:21):
have service.
We were playing bingo and theywere winning prizes and I
mentioned to one of my othervolunteers.
I said oh, it's so funny andall of this chaos and this
loudness that not a singleperson needs their noise
cancelcanceling headphones orneeds to sit out in the hallway.
Now I jokingly say that, fullyunderstanding that by day three

(13:45):
they had started to getcomfortable with their
caregivers, who were assigned tothem through the people that
they were hanging out withthrough the week that were their
roommates.
Also, I know that they knew theschedule.
They had a visual scheduleavailable to them and also they
were doing a preferred activitywhere they were then rewarded

(14:10):
with prizes as a part of thegame.
So I say that all as a joke,but it's also a true setup of
expectation over time, right asthe church.
When we first meet someone, weneed to know that that first
meet isn't the full picture andwon't ever be the full picture

(14:32):
of that individual and we may beseeing them at their most
heightened experience becausethey don't know us, they don't
feel comfortable with us, theydon't know what the expectations
are, they aren't sure how longam I going to be here, how is
this going to work?
What do I need to do?
Will the people be nice to me?

(14:53):
What will the interactions belike?
So there's all kinds of thingsthat we have to consider as
we're serving people withdisabilities, especially those
who have a harder timeregulating those emotions, and
those who maybe have focus andattention issues, or those who

(15:15):
are going to need you know amore specific schedule and know
what the expectations are and beable to follow through with
those things so that they canfeel more comfortable.
And that's where I'm going totell you, like the sensory bags,
especially the noisecancelcanceling headphones, the

(15:37):
fidgets those are going to be anessential tool for you to use,
having patience andunderstanding and not pushing
that individual to do things sofar out of their comfort zone at
first, and giving a little bitof a step-back approach and
allowing them to kind of leadthe direction and lead the way

(16:02):
approach and allowing them tokind of lead the direction and
lead the way, and also providinglike the noise canceling
headphones, the sunglasses,different things, different
tools that will hit thosesensory needs to give them more
comfort and then down the roadthey may not need them at all
because they feel completelycomfortable.
And those are just options andavailabilities that we can make
that are super simple.

(16:23):
Super easy, but alsounderstanding that over time
someone's comfort level is goingto change and hopefully they
will become more comfortable andyou can build up layers of ways
to assist them and help themfeel more comfortable in
attending, whether it's throughthose sensory bags, the

(16:46):
noise-canceling headphones,whether it is through a
transition box of preferreditems that would help that
person enter the building andenter into the room or space
that they need to be forministry.
There are so many ways to dothat.
But knowing that that firstmeet, that first experience,

(17:07):
isn't going to be your fullpicture and hopefully not the
full story, because you will getto know that person.
When you get to know someone,then that experience, that
nervous system that is going tooverreact and decide and make
decisions, is going to changebecause it's not going to
perceive you or your volunteersor the space that they're in as

(17:31):
a threat, but as a safe spacewhere the peace of God is
overwhelming, where they canparticipate and enjoy, because
every person should have theopportunity to know Christ, to
grow in Him and to serve Himwith the gifts that he has given
them.
Do I know everything aboutdisability ministry?
Do I have all the answers?
Have I done everythingperfectly?

(17:52):
I have absolutely not, but weare going to continue this
conversation so that people ofall abilities can have the
opportunity to know Christ, growin Him and serve Him with the
gifts that he has given them.
For deeper dives into thesetopics and more, check out
indispensablepeoplecom and visitAmazon to purchase the books

(18:17):
the Indispensable Kid and Gospel, accessibility and the
Indispensable People.