Dr. Heather Abernethy is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin, and has been practicing anesthesiology for 20 years. She is very well trained in keeping people safe, but her expertise is helping people feel safe.  As humans, we are wired for safety and connection. As healthcare providers, it’s imperative that we understand how creating a safe space is necessary for health and vitality – for both patients and providers.

Her guiding principle is creating a safe space is good medicine and she believes this applies to both providers and patients. 

This requires us to be aware of our own nervous system and how our various autonomic states -calm and connected, fight or flight, or shut down and overwhelmed - impact how we feel and behave. Our nervous system impacts our patient’s nervous system. When we are calm and connected, we attune to our patients and help them feel calm and connected. This forms a trusting relationship where healing happens. The healthcare environment can be unrelenting, unforgiving, and often inhumane. Providers spend most of our time in a sympathetic – fight or flight - state constantly on the go, hypervigilant, overworking and overdoing. When unreasonable demands exceed our capacity, we can easily move into a state of shut down and collapse feeling hopeless or numb inside, no longer connected to our patients, our values, or ourselves. We get stuck in these survival states and experience anxiety, depression, and burnout.

Dr. Abernethy provides training in attunement and nervous system regulation. She teaches how to recognize when you’re in a threat state and build skills to find your way back to a calm, connected state. Nervous system regulation decreases provider stress, anxiety and burnout and increases connection and trust with our patients creating safety and healing for all.