A 2-day workshop for therapists and bodyworkers of all disciplines.

This workshop presents the newest developments in our understanding of the autonomic nervous system and how to use this new information in your practice.

• Learn how to support clients to:
• Build capacity for regulation
• Develop resilience
• Re-pattern the nervous system
• Create autonomic pathways of safety and connection

Our autonomic nervous system serves as our personal security system. It informs us of threats and responds to keep us safe in the world. All its complex reactions are completely involuntary. Some are hardwired at birth and common to us all. Some develop as we grow and encounter our environment. These involuntary nervous pathways largely determine our emotional reactions, sense of safety and response to life.

Traditionally the ANS has been described as having two branches, sympathetic and parasympathetic. These were described as working in alternation, the effects of one balancing the effects of the other. We learned about the fight or flight response and the freeze response.

In 1994, Dr. Stephen Porges, director of the Brain-Body Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago introduced the Polyvagal Theory. His research proposes that there are not 2 but 3 pathways for the ANS. This theory changes completely how we understand emotions, attachment, communications and self regulation. There are very important implications for practitioners in all disciplines.

In this workshop, we will explore the anatomy and physiology of this triune nervous system, learn ways to track our own and client’s responses and state. There will be theory as well as practical and experiential exercises.