Feeling Safe with Another: Co-regulation at the Intersection of Attachment Theory and Polyvagal Theory
This article advances a conceptual dialogue between Attachment Theory and Polyvagal Theory, positioning co-regulation as their central point of convergence. While Attachment Theory explains how early relational experiences shape emotional regulation and internal working models, Polyvagal Theory provides a neurophysiological framework for understanding how states of safety and threat organize affective and relational functioning. Integrating these perspectives, the paper examines how the experience of feeling safe with another constitutes a foundational condition for emotional regulation and psychotherapeutic change.
Rather than proposing a unified model, the article offers an integrative conceptual framework that preserves the specificity of each theory while highlighting their shared clinical focus on embodied relational safety. The analysis demonstrates how attachment patterns and autonomic states interact through co-regulation within therapeutic encounters, fostering emotional tolerance, relational trust, and narrative integration. This perspective contributes a refined clinical lens for understanding affective dysregulation, relational trauma, and attachment-based difficulties in contemporary psychotherapy.
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Article’s history: Received 17th of September, 2025; Revised 4th of October, 2025; Accepted for publication 22nd of October, 2025; Available online: 27th of October, 2025; Published as article in Volume III, Issue 3, 2025.
Suliani, P.R. (2025). Feeling Safe with Another: Co-regulation at the Intersection of Attachment Theory and Polyvagal Theory. Journal of Contemporary Approaches in Psychology and Psychotherapy, Volume III, Issue 3, 27 – 38. https://doi.org/10.57017/jcapp.v3.i3.02
Credit Authorship Contribution Statement: Suliani, P.R. conceived the study, developed the theoretical framework, conducted the literature review and conceptual analysis, and wrote the original manuscript. The author also contributed to manuscript revision, visualization of conceptual models, and final approval of the version to be published.
Conflict of Interest Statement: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments: N/A
Ethical Approval Statement: As this study is based exclusively on theoretical analysis and review of existing literature, it did not involve human participants or personal data. Consequently, ethical approval was not required.
Data Availability Statement: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
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