Window Of Tolerance
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
The ‘window of tolerance’ metaphor is particularly helpful when working with traumatized clients, or with clients who struggle to tolerate wide ranges of emotional arousal.
The window of tolerance concept was coined by Dan Siegel in his 1999 book The Developing Mind. Siegel proposes that everyone has a range of intensities of emotional experience which they can comfortably experience, process, and integrate. This is their ‘window of tolerance’ or zone of ‘optimum arousal’ (Ogden et al, 2006). Some people’s window of tolerance is relatively wide: they can feel comfortable despite relatively high degrees of emotional intensity, and a broad range of emotions (from pleasant emotions such as excitement and happiness, to unpleasant emotions such as guilt or anger) may be tolerated and available to consciousness. People with a wide window of tolerance are able to think, feel, and behave flexibly and effectively despite high degrees of arousal: Ogden et al.
Therapist Guidance
There’s an idea called the ‘window of tolerance’ which helps us to understand why people have experiences like flashbacks, numbing or dissociation. Would you be willing to have a look at this handout with me?
- Can you relate to any of the experiences described here?
- When you’re in your window of tolerance:
- How do you feel?
- What helps you to stay there?
- What kinds of experiences or triggers push you above your window of tolerance?
- What do you feel (emotionally and in your body)?
- What do you do to cope?
- What kinds of experiences or triggers push you below your window of tolerance?
- What do you feel (emotionally and in your body)?
- What do you do to cope?
References And Further Reading
- Corrigan, F. M., Fisher, J. J., & Nutt, D. J. (2011). Autonomic dysregulation and the window of tolerance model of the effects of complex emotional trauma. Journal of psychopharmacology, 25(1), 17-25.
- Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). WW Norton & Company.
- Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). WW Norton & Company.
- Murray, H., El-Leithy, S. (2022). Working with complexity in PTSD: a cognitive therapy approach. Routledge.
- Siegel, D. J. (1999). The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. Guilford Press.