Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D., is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University and founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He has served as President of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a past recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers in a variety of disciplines, including anaesthesiology, biomedical engineering, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, paediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, psychometrics, space medicine and substance abuse. In 1994, he introduced Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the development of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behaviour and emphasises the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioural problems and psychiatric disorders. The theory leads to innovative treatments based on insights into the mechanisms mediating the symptoms of various behavioural, psychiatric and physical disorders.

He is the author of numerous books: original English titles: The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, (Norton, 2017),
Co-editor of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton, 2018) and author of Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation (Norton 2021).
Dr Porges is the developer and holds the patent for a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol ™ (SSP), which is used by therapists in the areas of trauma therapy, stress and emotion regulation, language processing and reducing auditory sensitivities.