Introduction

Elaine Hicks is a licensed clinical social worker, certified substance abuse counselor, and freediving instructor who has developed a unique approach to nervous system regulation. Known as "The Underwater Therapist," she combines polyvagal theory with practical techniques that don't require any water at all. In this episode, she joins me to talk about simple tools you can use right in your living room to regulate your nervous system and manage chronic illness symptoms.

Episode Highlights

Understanding Your Nervous System Through Polyvagal Theory

Elaine breaks down the nervous system into three accessible zones that help you understand what's happening in your body.

• The Panda Zone (Ventral): Safe, connected, able to find resources and handle daily tasks
• The Lion Zone (Sympathetic): Mobilized for play, protection, wonder, or fight-or-flight
• The Dolphin Zone (Dorsal): Quiet rest and withdrawal, or shutdown and disconnection
• These zones work together in blended states throughout the day
• Learning to identify which zone you're in helps you respond instead of react

The Power of Breath Work for Chronic Conditions

Simple breathing techniques can dramatically change your physiology in just two minutes.

• 5-2-10 breathing: 5 second inhale, 2 second pause, 10 second exhale
• The exhale activates your rest and digest system because it's double the inhale
• Heart rate can drop from 120 beats per minute to the 60s in two minutes
• This technique can reduce pain scales and shorten symptom duration
• Even reducing a migraine from 8 hours to 6 hours is significant progress

The Ice Pack Protocol for Nervous System Regulation

Cold therapy activates the mammalian dive reflex, the most powerful autonomic reflex we have.

• Place ice packs on the back of neck, mid-back (thoracic spine), or face
• Start with mid-back placement as it's less intense than facial application
• Combined with breath work, this rapidly shifts you into parasympathetic state
• Elaine uses an ice pack on her mid-back for 20 minutes every night before bed
• Helps break chronic hypervigilance patterns common in trauma and chronic illness

Body Mapping and Finding Your Safety Zones

Learning to identify hot spots and cold spots in your body helps personalize your healing approach.

• Hot spots: Areas of tension, pain, or hypervigilance you're very aware of
• Cold spots: Areas you're disconnected from, often due to prolonged rest or avoidance
• Start with your zones of strength and safety (like strong quads) before addressing problem areas
• Use worksheets and body scans to map your individual nervous system patterns
• This prevents re-traumatization and builds confidence in your body's capabilities

Breath Holding as a Tool for Distress Tolerance

Learning to deliberately experience and manage distress builds resilience and control.

• Start with 30-second breath holds - you won't have brain damage
• Your body responds to rising CO2, which signals the need to breathe
• Practice choosing not to respond immediately to this natural alarm
• Gradually increase hold times by 2-4 seconds to build mastery
• This skill transfers to managing pain, anxiety, and automatic stress responses

The Healing Power of Play

Incorporating play into healing creates the neurochemical opposite of trauma.

• When you're playing, you feel safe, and safety allows nervous system change
• Try blowing bubbles while practicing 5-10 breathing patterns
• You can't be angry while blowing bubbles - it's physiologically impossible
• Play-based healing is more sustainable and enjoyable than forcing relaxation
• Simple, cost-effective tools work just as well as expensive interventions

Notable Quotes from this Episode

When you're tense and shriveled up, think about this right now with, when you've had pain, and how are you shrinking and compressing your thoracic, your stomach and your sides and your shoulders, when you're compressing and holding yourself in really tight, because maybe you're bracing yourself for bad news from the doctor or something, you can't expand your lungs.
Elaine Hicks

Each time you do that breath hold, you add two seconds, three seconds, four seconds, that's mastery. So each time you do that, you can go, hold on, I'm okay. You can opt in or opt out of the response.
Elaine Hicks

A lot of the times the people I'm working with have positive benefits in the first session, some of this stuff works right away. Here's what makes free diving so amazing as a healing modality is you are playing and when you're playing, you're in that neurobiochemical opposite of trauma.
Elaine Hicks