The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP): Clinical Insights and Provider Stories

Karen Onderko is committed to advancing the understanding of the nervous system through Polyvagal Theory to enhance therapeutic care and foster greater connection and acceptance among individuals. She was instrumental in transitioning Dr. Stephen Porges’ Safe and Sound Protocol from the laboratory into practical, widespread use as an accessible tool now available to therapists across various disciplines worldwide. Karen served as Director of Research and Education for Integrated Listening Systems and Unyte Health and is a Co-Founder and current board member of the Polyvagal Institute. 

She also serves on the Board of Directors for Developmental FX and has been a board member for the Aspen Brain Institute, Denver Film Society, Colorado Academy, and Stanley British Primary School. Earlier in her career, Karen specialized in financial risk management, teaching the use of derivatives to international and central bankers, and corporations, and managing an options business to secure retirement investments. Karen holds a degree from Georgetown University and lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and three daughters. 

Stephen Porges, PhD is a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at the Kinsey Institute. He is the author of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental and health problems. Based on this theory, Dr. Porges created the Safe and Sound Protocol™, now used by thousands of therapists around the globe.

In 1985, at 22 years of age, Tami Simon founded Sounds True, a multi-media company dedicated to disseminating spiritual wisdom. She is also the founder of the Sounds True Foundation which creates equitable access to Sounds True’s programs and the Inner MBA, an immersion learning program that teaches the inner skills of conscious business. Tami hosts a popular weekly podcast called “Insights at the Edge,” where she interviews Sounds True authors, delving deeply into their discoveries and personal experiences. With Sounds True, she has released the audio program “Being True: What Matters Most in Work, Life, and Love.”  Tami lives with her wife of twenty-three years, Julie M. Kramer, and their two spoodles, Raspberry and Bula in British Columbia.