The Nervous System Reset
Australian physiotherapist and online educator Jessica Maguire centers her workbook on the vagus nerve, the cranial nerve at the heart of polyvagal theory. Her thesis is that vagal tone sets the ceiling on a person's capacity for connection, calm, and recovery from stress. The book walks through breath practices, cold-exposure protocols, social-engagement exercises, and nervous-system mapping drawn from the polyvagal-theory community. Maguire built a large following teaching nervous-system literacy on social media, and the book translates her course material into a structured eight-week program a reader can run alone or with a therapist as a parallel track to weekly sessions.
What you might want to know about The Nervous System Reset
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An Australian physiotherapist centers her eight-week workbook on the vagus nerve, with breath, cold-exposure, and social-engagement practices to rebuild vagal tone.
The Nervous System Reset was written by Jessica Maguire and published in 2024. Maguire is a clinical neurophysiologist whose work focuses on polyvagal theory and somatic regulation.
The Nervous System Reset draws on contemporary trauma research, including Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory. The somatic exercises are widely used in modern body-based therapy. Some specific interventions sit at the edge of evidence-based practice.
The Nervous System Reset is 288 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Nervous System Reset takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
The Nervous System Reset is a standalone novel by Jessica Maguire, not part of a series.
The Nervous System Reset is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.