After experiencing trauma, our clients often dissociate from their bodies aiming to escape intense sensations and emotional pain. They then increasingly react to inner and outer cues linked to behavioral patterns that are below conscious awareness.
Even after treatment, clients who have experienced severe or sustained trauma are often overwhelmed by residual symptoms and are trapped in reactivity to triggers. Safe-embodiment skills, carefully introduced, sequenced, and titrated, can move clients beyond the life-diminishing cycles of avoidance and re-traumatization.
In this live online training, you will learn an array of skills designed to create the safety needed to work with the body and with fearful parts of the self. You will learn how to help clients identify, befriend, and shift autonomic states and parts of the self that otherwise perpetuate avoidance and reactivity.
In both virtual and in-person therapy sessions, you will be able to offer clients embodied trauma-resiliency tools designed to strengthen vagal tone and the motivation to incorporate these vagal toning strategies into their daily lives. Integrate and sequence inner exploration with gentle movement and breath, increasing your client’s self-efficacy, steadiness, and ability to choose rather than react.
Join Debra, an experienced international presenter, in this day of experiential learning as she shares embodied Polyvagal Theory applications. Conclude the day with new tools for trauma recovery and vibrant resiliency.
After experiencing trauma, our clients often dissociate from their bodies aiming to escape intense sensations and emotional pain. They then increasingly react to inner and outer cues linked to behavioral patterns that are below conscious awareness.
Even after treatment, clients who have experienced severe or sustained trauma are often overwhelmed by residual symptoms and are trapped in reactivity to triggers. Safe-embodiment skills, carefully introduced, sequenced, and titrated, can move clients beyond the life-diminishing cycles of avoidance and re-traumatization.
In this live online training, you will learn an array of skills designed to create the safety needed to work with the body and with fearful parts of the self. You will learn how to help clients identify, befriend, and shift autonomic states and parts of the self that otherwise perpetuate avoidance and reactivity.
In both virtual and in-person therapy sessions, you will be able to offer clients embodied trauma-resiliency tools designed to strengthen vagal tone and the motivation to incorporate these vagal toning strategies into their daily lives. Integrate and sequence inner exploration with gentle movement and breath, increasing your client’s self-efficacy, steadiness, and ability to choose rather than react.
Join Debra, an experienced international presenter, in this day of experiential learning as she shares embodied Polyvagal Theory applications. Conclude the day with new tools for trauma recovery and vibrant resiliency.
Recorded on 21st September 2022
Learning Objectives
Analyze how the primary tenets of Polyvagal theory can be applied to trauma treatment through embodied contemplative practice.
Demonstrate how compassion-based interventions shift vagal states and shame-based trauma reactions.
Demonstrate inner dialogue with disowned aspects of the self for building a secure attachment to the self.
Demonstrate two breathing practices for calming fight/flight, energizing the body, and focusing the mind.
Integrate simple movements to relieve anxiety and shift from shut down.
Develop cultural sensitivity through individualizing treatment.
Agenda
Integrating Embodied Practices in Psychotherapy – A Polyvagal Approach (1 hour)
Ground & settle into the body
Poetry – a mother’s voice
Move gently – strengthen the vagal system
Sound & breath – stimulate the face to heart connection
Scan the body – develop interoceptive awareness
Motivate practice, build awareness of autonomic states – mindful inquiry
Apply Polyvagal Theory in Trauma Treatment (1 hour)
Vagal States & Autonomic Hierarchy
Neuroception – how the traumatized nervous system interfaces with the world
Re-establish effective co-regulation – a biological imperative
Utilize prosody or voice
Morning Break (15 minutes)
Apply Polyvagal Theory in Trauma Treatment (continued for 1 hour)
Provide trauma-informed psychoeducation on intermingled vagal states
Build Recovery & Resiliency Through Smart Vagal Activity
Subcortical resilience
Eye movements to build resiliency
Resourcing – Map vagal states and pivotal practices
Shift & Re-Shape the Traumatized Nervous System with Embodied Contemplation (30 minutes)
Energizing Breaths to Stimulate Safety in Social Connection
Skull shining breath
Ocean sounding breath
Calming breaths to stem anxiety
Three-part breath
Shining moon breath
Movements to Awaken the Shut-Down Nervous System
Gentle back-bending movements
Standing stretches to focus mind/body
Goddess posture – Breath plus movement
Lunch
Shift & Re-Shape the Traumatized Nervous System with Embodied Contemplation (continued for 30 minutes)
Movements to Calm Fight/Flight
Easy forward bending
Simple sigh & stretch
A dance with the hands – Mudras
Face-to-Heart Connection Through Sound & Movement
Call & response chant
Walking meditation to awaken compassion
Loving kindness imagery
Calm & Rewire the Traumatized Nervous System (1 hour)
Identify vagal state triggers and resets
The five senses – A return to the here and now
Deep relaxation to support safe connection
Adapt and individualize trauma treatment with cultural sensitivity
Apply Polyvagal Theory to racial healing
Extend resiliency building to implicit memory, body memory, and procedural conditioning
The Polyvagal-Wise Trauma Therapist (1 hour)
Explore ahimsa or non-violence with self and clients
Self-compassion to negotiate fight/flight from inner critic
Build safety and connection between sessions
Right action & ethics for strengthening ANS resiliency
Mirror through matching the client’s vagal states
Shift self and client back into connection
About the Speaker
Debra Alvis, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and private practitioner with over 25 years of clinical experience in supporting clients’ recovery from shame, trauma, anxiety, depression, and relational concerns. A seasoned international presenter and consultant, Dr. Alvis retired as faculty from the University of Georgia where she developed and led the Mind/Body Program. The program included a clinician training program integrating contemplative approaches in psychotherapy.
Her credentials include certification as a yoga therapist and as a mindfulness teacher trained by Jon Kabat Zinn. A thirty-five-year personal contemplative practice, research experience, and a deep understanding of applied neuroscience, Polyvagal Theory, and resiliency further enrich her presentations. She draws upon this unique background to provide effective and easily applicable skills designed for immediate integration into clinician’s practices.
CPD/CE
CPD & CE credits available: 6
How do I receive these credits?
The participant must pass the multiple-choice test with a minimum score of 80%. There is a maximum of three attempts to achieve this.
The post-test is included in the price of the training.
Does my regulatory body accept the credits?
The CPD & CE credits awarded can be used towards your declaration to any governing regulatory body in your state or country, provided the content is relevant to your discipline.
Our trainings are accredited by:
– The CPD Group, London
– Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
– Australian Counselling Association
– National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC)
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