a neurophysiological approach is all about considering autonomic state as the basis for our behavior and felt experience, including whether we feel safe or in danger within our experiences/interactions.

My scientific journey has been a personal quest for an intervening variable that would contribute to our understanding of individual differences in behavior. This journey led me to an understanding of the importance of autonomic state as a neural platform for behavior and psychological experiences, including feelings of being safe. Basically, autonomic state influence on behavior is not causal in a one-to-one manner. However, the range of emergent behavior and psychological experience is limited by autonomic state. An alternative way of viewing this relationship is to conceptualize autonomic state changes as producing shifts in the probability (and possibility) that specific behaviors and psychological feelings will occur. (Location 655)