The Bubble of Tolerance shows how a person can move from feeling safe and regulated to over aroused or under aroused.
The optimal “safe zone” will differ for every person and different people with have different ways of helping expand their safe zone. Many folks who have been through trauma have a smaller safe zone, which means they find themselves in the danger zone more quickly than others.
While it is optimal to be in the middle of the bubble (in the safe zone), certain careers and life circumstances demand that people stay in the danger zone or very close to the danger zone of either hypoarousal (under aroused) or hyperarousal (over aroused). People in warzones are often living in the danger zone closest to hyperarousal; whereas, people who train to be psychologists are often expected to remain closer to the danger zone of hypos arousal. The closer you are to hypo arousal the further you are from hyper arousal, which helps when you are working with clients suffering from extreme anxiety or who are in a constant state of hyper arousal.
This model is built from the Dan Siegel’s model of the Window of Tolerance.
My Bubble of Tolerance (Fillable version)
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