Many people who’ve experienced either the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) or the Rest & Restore Protocol (RRP) notice that both help the nervous system feel calmer and more balanced. But few realize that while these two programs share the same creator — Dr. Stephen Porges — they actually work with different branches of the nervous system to bring about that calm.
Both are sound-based, Polyvagal-informed protocols, but each one supports the body in a slightly different way. Together, they form a powerful, complementary pair — helping us feel safe enough to connect outwardly with the world and steady enough to rest deeply within ourselves.
The vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) is one of the body’s most important communication highways. It connects the brain with the heart, lungs, digestive system, and other organs, constantly relaying information about safety, threat, and balance.
We often talk about the vagus nerve as one thing, but in reality, it has two main functional branches that influence how we feel and respond:
When these branches are balanced, we move fluidly between activity and rest, connection and solitude, engagement and stillness. When they’re out of balance, we can feel anxious, shut down, disconnected, or chronically tense.
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) was developed to work with the ventral branch of the vagus nerve — the part that supports our social engagement system.
The music used in SSP is strategically filtered to activate the muscles of the middle ear that help us tune in to human voice frequencies. This in turn stimulates the ventral vagus, sending a message of safety throughout the body.
As the system begins to perceive the environment as safe, the body naturally shifts away from defense states like fight, flight, or freeze. People often describe feeling calmer, more connected, and more present — both emotionally and socially.
Many clients notice improvements in:
The Rest & Restore Protocol (RRP) is newer and still being studied, but it draws on the same Polyvagal foundations.
While SSP works with the ventral vagus to help us connect outwardly, RRP works with the dorsal vagal branch — the aspect of the vagus nerve that supports rest, digestion, and internal restoration. RRP helps the body rest and heal rather than interact and engage.
The first 30 minutes of RRP are completely unfiltered, while the remaining levels use new, gentle filtering algorithms designed to support the restorative branch of the vagus nerve. The music — composed by Anthony Gorry and enhanced through Sonocea® technology — is entirely instrumental, slow, and deeply immersive.
Where SSP helps us orient outwardly and feel safe with others, RRP helps us reconnect inwardly — to our bodies, emotions, and subtle rhythms of calm.
People often describe it as feeling like their nervous system “melts” into rest — an experience of stillness that’s profoundly soothing and integrative.
In my experience, SSP and RRP complement each other beautifully.
Some people start with SSP and then move to RRP to help the body integrate and anchor the new sense of safety. Others begin with RRP if their system needs to first feel safe inside the body before engaging outwardly with others.
When combined, the two protocols offer a full-spectrum approach — helping the nervous system find both connection and calm, activation and restoration, engagement and integration.
In my work with clients across the spectrum — from trauma survivors to neurodivergent families — I’ve found that most people respond extremely well to both SSP and RRP.
For some, SSP brings the most dramatic early shifts. For others, it’s RRP that creates those first noticeable changes. In either case, many clients tell me that RRP feels like the piece that helps everything “land.” It’s often the integration phase — the exhale after the expansion.
Because what I've seen in my practice and own life, RRP continues to support regulation the longer it’s used, I include up to one year of access in my RRP fee. Most people love it so much that they choose to stay on it long-term, and renewals are available at a relatively low annual cost for those who wish to continue.
The beauty of these two approaches is that they speak directly to the nervous system — the foundation of everything we think, feel, and do.
By working with both branches of the vagus nerve — the ventral for safety and connection and the dorsal for rest and restoration — SSP and RRP help bring balance where the body has long been out of sync.
When we pair that with attuned titration, co-regulation, and support, profound healing can happen — gently, safely, and at the pace your system chooses.
If you’d like to learn more about how SSP and RRP can work together — or which might be the right place to begin — feel free to reach out or schedule a Discovery Call. I love helping people find the entry point that feels safest and most effective for their system.