Full Course Description

Understanding Your Nervous System

Our nervous system is always listening, always responding, always working to keep us safe. When we experience trauma, this system adapts in remarkable ways. Through a Polyvagal lens we learn how trauma interrupts our natural capacity for regulation and resilience and understand how to engage the nervous system in restoring safety and connection.

In this presentation we’ll:

Look at how our nervous system makes moment to moment assessments about safety and danger and how trauma can retune the process
See how our wise and wonderful nervous system naturally moves us out of connection into adaptive protection
Discover the autonomic pathways that lead back to regulation

Program Information

Objectives

Summarize a Polyvagal approach to understanding trauma
Identify how trauma moves the nervous system into states of protection
Apply Polyvagal-informed strategies to support autonomic regulation and reconnection.

Outline

Introduction

Nervous system as a constant safety monitor
How trauma reshapes regulation and resilience
Polyvagal perspective on safety and connection
Research limitations and potential risks

Safety and Danger Assessment

Moment-to-moment neuroception
How trauma retunes the system’s responses

Adaptive Protection

Shifts from connection to protection
Autonomic states and their purpose

Pathways to Regulation

Polyvagal-informed strategies for restoring safety
Supporting resilience and reconnection

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/11/2026

The Body as a Bridge

Trauma lives in the body—and so does healing. In this integrative online session, Stacy Ruse, LPC, RYT-500, invites participants to explore how somatic awareness deepens and accelerates Internal Family Systems therapy. Through gentle guided practice and neurobiological insight, attendees will learn how embodiment, interoception, and the language of sensation enhance the connection between Self and parts. Discover how to track sensations safely, use pendulation and titration to support unblending, and restore Self-leadership through the body—even in virtual space. This somatic-informed IFS lens offers clinicians accessible, embodied tools to support nervous system regulation, compassionate presence, and sustainable transformation.

This event is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Explain how somatic and interoceptive awareness enhances the IFS process of unblending and in accessing Self-energy.
Identify at least two somatic principles (e.g., pendulation, titration, interoceptive awareness) relevant to working with protectors and exiles.
Demonstrate one embodied micro-practice to support nervous system regulation and the Self-to-part connection.

Outline

Opening & Grounding

Welcome, disclaimers, and safety instructions for online participation.
Gentle intention setting
Research limitations and potential risks
2-minute Embodied Self Breath practice (Heart Coherence or Alternate Nostril).

The Somatic–IFS Bridge

Trauma as fragmentation of psyche and soma.
The three brains (head, heart, gut) and the IFS map of parts.
How Self-energy is a physiological and relational state (Polyvagal-informed).
Link between embodiment and Self-leadership.

Core Principles of Somatic-Informed IFS

Felt-sense, interoception, and neuroception as access points for parts.
Pendulation & titration: regulating activation with protectors.
The body as a compass for unblending.
Embodying the 8 Cs: what Self feels like in the body (brief reflection prompt).

Guided Micro-Practice

Meet a Part Through the Body experiential practice
- Guidance through gentle pendulation
- Normalize any numbness, movement, or emotion as information.
- Optional integration: draw, jot down anything, move, or notice quietly

Integration & Reflection

Reflection: "What did your body teach you today?"
Invite integration through breath and compassionate curiosity.
Offer next-step anchors (pause, movement, hydration).

Q&A / Closing

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/11/2026

Phase-Oriented Trauma Treatment

The intersection of childhood trauma, neurodivergence and truncated pediatric neurodevelopment presents complexities and challenges around interoception and grounding.

In this experiential session, Linda Thai, MSW, will guide participants through a practical, culturally attuned exploration of how the body and brain respond to traumatic stress, and how clinicians can help clients access states of safety, regulation, and connection, particularly during the early stages of the therapeutic process.

Drawing from polyvagal theory, somatic therapies, and trauma-responsive mindfulness, Linda will guide you through cutting-edge approaches to trauma treatment, blending neuroscience and sensory processing, to share interventions that can be immediately applied in clinical practice.

Program Information

Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Identify the impacts of trauma upon pediatric neurodevelopment, the sensory systems and the nervous system.
Apply the Window of Tolerance / Window of Capacity to a psychoeducation tool to empower clients to befriend and shift their autonomic states.
Demonstrate at least five somatic techniques that support nervous system regulation.
Identify the 5 main sensory systems and the 3 hidden sensory systems, and differentiate between sensory avoidance and sensory seeking behaviors.

Outline

Foundations

Overview of complex developmental trauma and its impact on neurodevelopment
Intersection of childhood trauma, neurodivergence, and truncated pediatric neurodevelopment
Challenges with interoception and grounding in trauma-affected individuals
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Neurobiological & Sensory Framework

How traumatic stress affects the brain, body, and nervous system
Sensory systems overview:
- 5 main sensory systems
- 3 hidden sensory systems
Differentiating sensory avoidance vs. sensory seeking behaviors

Phase-Oriented Treatment Approach

Early-stage priorities: safety, stabilization, and connection
Using the Window of Tolerance / Window of Capacity as a psychoeducational tool

Practical Techniques

Somatic interventions sensory strategies for nervous system regulation

Clinical Application

Clinical considerations when working at the intersection of childhood trauma, disrupted attachment and neurodivergence
Immediate, actionable interventions for clinical practice

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/11/2026

Reading Biomarkers of State-Change

It is well documented that trauma is not what happened to our clients but the ongoing impact.  Survival physiology, such as high sympathetic arousal or excitation for fight or flight, or high parasympathetic arousal such as rigid or collapsed freeze state contributes to a person “frozen in time.”  The physiology, and the state of the body and “sense” of self, is still experiencing the trauma as if it is still occurring or about to occur.  

Interoception, or conscious awareness of bodily sensation, is the scribe to our nervous system’s memoir.  In this workshop we will explore how you can locate specific biomarkers to read when a person is in high sympathetic arousal, in rigid freeze, or collapsed freeze.  We will discuss how to see this through body structure, interpret it by behavior, and hear states through your client’s interoceptive language.

Lastly we will discuss the common interoceptive experiences of state-change.  This is when a person comes out of high sympathetic tone, out of rigid freeze and out of collapsed freeze.

Identify and allowing time for physiological discharge is essential to many somatic approaches to healing trauma.  You’ll learn to re-set your clients back to, or connect them to for first time, a more continuous experience of their “sense” of self.  When clients are finally free from the onslaught of survival drive, they can live a more curious and fulfilling life.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least three observable biomarkers that indicate when a client is in high sympathetic arousal or collapsed freeze, as evidenced through interoceptive language.
Describe five interoceptive experiences related to state-change out of high sympathetic arousal 
Explain how clinicians can use interoceptive awareness to better understand a client’s survival physiology.

Outline

Introduction

Trauma as ongoing physiological impact
Survival physiology: sympathetic arousal (fight/flight) and parasympathetic arousal (rigid/collapsed freeze)
Role of interoception in trauma recovery
Research limitations and potential risks

Understanding Survival Physiology

How the body remains “frozen in time”
Connection between physiology and sense of self

Biomarkers of State

Indicators of high sympathetic arousal, rigid freeze, and collapsed freeze
Reading through body structure, behavior, and interoceptive language

Interoceptive Awareness & State-Change

Common interoceptive experiences during state-change
Using interoceptive awareness to interpret survival physiology

Facilitating Physiological Discharge

Importance of discharge in somatic approaches
Helping clients reconnect to a continuous sense of self

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/11/2026

When Trust Breaks

Betrayal trauma is a deeply painful experience caused by a violation of trust from someone or something you depend on, such as a partner, family member, caregiver, or institution. It undermines clients’ sense of safety, self‑worth, and the capacity to trust, and often produces PTSD‑like symptoms such as anxiety, dissociation, and emotional dysregulation. What makes betrayal trauma distinct is that it fractures an essential relational bond, making healing complex and requiring relationally attuned, somatic approaches.

In this workshop, mental health professionals will learn an integrative model to help clients calm and ground the nervous system when betrayal memories or triggers arise. Combining Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Psychology, attachment‑informed relational practices, and EMDR‑informed resources for stabilization, participants will learn in‑the‑moment somatic interventions, regulation exercises, and leave with a somatic boundary script and a simple stabilization routine for clients to use within sessions and in daily life. Whether your client is navigating the impact of relational betrayal, this workshop will help them process traumatic symptoms while building resilience and connection.

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate 3–5 body-based interventions (e.g., grounding, orienting, paced breath) to down-regulate overwhelm and interrupt distress or dissociation in the moment.
Practice 2–3 structured Polyvagal and somatic exercises that model attunement, repair language, and micro-co-regulation skills to rebuild relational safety and trust.
Implement EMDR-informed bilateral stimulation techniques and develop a short, repeatable stabilization plan to replace reactive shutdown or hyperarousal with intentional responses.

Outline

Welcome & Orientation

Nervous System Regulation & Grounding Skills

Short psychoeducation on Polyvagal Theory and autonomic nervous system states.
Practice 2 grounding interventions: anchor, orienting, paced breath, waves of regulation.
Reflection: noticing shifts in body state.

Relational Safety & Co‑Regulation Practices

Review how betrayal trauma is experienced as a deep violation of trust
Psycho-ed on interpersonal neurobiology and how co‑regulation supports rebuilding trust.
Demonstrate 2–3 structured somatic/attachment exercises: attunement, repair language, micro‑co‑regulation.

EMDR‑Informed Resourcing & Agency

Guided resource installation with bilateral stimulation.
Demo a short stabilization routine clients can repeat daily.
Demo a powerful somatic boundary exercise with script for agency and choice.

Integration & Closing

Reflection on key takeaways and personal applications.
Reminders on ethics around clinician self-care
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Share resource list for continued practice.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/11/2026

Using Somatic Resourcing to Enhance Self-Compassion in Trauma Survivors

Countless victims of childhood trauma are forced to use the freeze response to navigate and survive untenable experiences. When they address the sequelae of their trauma in therapy, they often reflexively recount their narratives in the same immobilized state, inadvertently exacerbating feelings of self-blame and shame. Deeper processing and healing cannot occur unless clients are encouraged to work through their pain with the accompaniment of physical self-soothing and self-compassion. In this workshop we will explore specific strategies that incorporate somatic resourcing including: empowered movement; breath work; and self-touch to help clients access self-compassion in every session.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least two challenges associated with incorporating somatic resourcing in therapy with trauma survivors.
Define self-compassion and describe how it manifests cognitively, behaviorally, and emotionally.
Describe and implement at least five somatic resourcing strategies designed to pair self-compassion with the verbal processing of traumatic memory.

Outline

Incorporating somatic resourcing into trauma treatment
Self-compassion in the treatment of trauma
Five somatic resourcing strategies
Research limitations and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/12/2026

Sociocultural Trauma

Our reliance on narrow definitions of trauma has impeded the ability of our field to fully grasp the pervasive and multitudinous ways in which trauma permeates the lives of marginalized groups. It is rare, if ever, that dimensions of socio-cultural oppression are conceptualized as a form of trauma. The failure to do has made it difficult, if not impossible, for many clinicians and other service providers to respond effectively to the complex and multifaceted needs of clients from oppressed backgrounds. Hence, they are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and ultimately underserved. The lack of attention devoted to how the invisible wounds of sociocultural trauma remain embodied in those affected often hinders effective clinical engagement and treatment.

This presentation will explore the raw realities of trauma as it intersects with race and sociocultural identity. The far-reaching consequences of oppression that linger in the mind, body, and spirit—and what it means to offer appropriate culturally-attuned care—will be explored. Strategies for delivering trauma-informed care that heals and honors the resilience and humanity of clients will be provided.

Program Information

Objectives

Participants will learn how to:

Assess the behavioral, emotional, and psychological entanglements of trauma and sociocultural oppression.
Identify and critically assess the embodiment of the invisible wounds of sociocultural trauma.
Apply tactics and strategies for providing effective racially focused, socio-culturally competent, trauma informed care.

Outline

Understanding the Dynamics of Sociocultural Trauma

How narrow definitions of trauma exclude sociocultural oppression
Systemic roots and psychological impact of oppression

The Somatization of Sociocultural Trauma

How trauma manifests in the body and affects clinical engagement
Invisible wounds and their influence on behavior and identity

Strategies for Treating the Invisible Wounds

Culturally attuned, trauma-informed approaches to care
Resilience and cultural strengths integrated into treatment strategies
Research limitations and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

You Can’t Make Me Cry

When a client says, “You can’t make me cry,” it often signals the presence of a protector part — one that locked away overwhelming pain to survive. These parts may present as numbness, dissociation, or flat affect, but beneath the surface lies a frozen moment, held in both the body and the energy field. In this session, you’ll explore how somatic and energetic tools — especially tapping and subtle somatic attunement practices — can help safely access, witness, and free the parts that froze in time. Drawing from energy psychology, parts work, and trauma-informed somatic theory, you’ll learn how to gently guide clients into relational safety, body-based presence, and achieve present time integration — without overwhelming their system.

Program Information

Objectives

After completing this program, participants will be able to:

Identify somatic and energetic indicators that a client is operating from a part that remains “frozen in time” due to unresolved trauma.
Differentiate between parts management and parts integration and articulate how somaticenergetic practices support movement toward wholeness rather than internal negotiation alone.
Demonstrate how to use energy psychology tools (e.g., EFT/tapping) and body-based awareness to guide protector or dissociated parts into present-time orientation.
Apply trauma-informed language and pacing techniques to foster safety, collaboration, and inner coherence during parts work.

Outline

Introduction & Framing

Clinical vignette: “You can’t make me cry” as a protector part
Orienting the concept of “frozen in time” as somatic dissociation
Core clinical aim: Present-time integration, not emotional catharsis
Research limitations and potential risks

Trauma Physiology & Dissociation

Polyvagal theory and the freeze response
Time distortion in trauma: why parts become "stuck" in past time
Somatic and behavioral signs of dissociation and emotional shutdown
The dissociative continuum

Parts Work and Integration Framework

Distinguishing between frozen energy and part specification
Introduction to somatic-energetic integration
- Regulation through tapping
- Present-time orientation through breath, sensation, relational attunement

Demonstration

EFT/tapping case study
Clinical language for safety and permission
Somatic tracking and present-time cues for reintegration

Q and A

Clinical Application and Safety Considerations

Pacing and containment for fragile systems
Contraindications and cautions
Integration with other modalities

Closing & Reflections

“We don’t unlock trauma with force — we unfreeze it with presence.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

The Embodied and Relational Mind in Transforming Trauma into Triumph

In this session, Dan Siegel will present a clinically grounded framework for understanding trauma by first distinguishing the mind from the brain. Building on that distinction, you will examine how trauma disrupts integration in both embodied and relational experience. Using the Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) lens, Dan will frame healing as restoring integration to support regulation, resilience, and post-traumatic growth.

When integration is impaired, experience becomes organized around chaos and rigidity—core features of post-traumatic stress. In this session, you will dive into how healing involves restoring differentiation and linkage in the body and in relationships.

You’ll learn how to:

Describe how the mind is distinct from the brain
Identify the key features of impaired integration
Name the five aspects of integrative flow

Program Information

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

Describe how the mind is distinct from the brain.
Identify the key features of impaired integration.
Name the five aspects of integrative flow.

Outline

The Embodied and Relational Mind

Seeing beyond reductionistic views of mind as “brain activity
Placing both the soma and the relational at the heart of healing
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Trauma as Impairment of Integration

Defining integration as the linkage of differentiated parts
Impaired integration is both relational and somatic
Reveals itself as chaos and rigidity

Healing is Integration in both Body and Relationships

Cultivating differentiation

Establishing linkages

Post Traumatic Growth in Body and Relationships

Interoception and Inner regulation
Mindsight and Inter regulation
Finding the MWe in the differentiated and linked Me and We

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

The Myth of Normal

World-renowned trauma and addictions specialist, physician, and author of five bestsellers, including his latest, The Myth of Normal, Gabor Maté will delve into how our work with clients is being undercut by relentless stressors in a social environment that's determined by class, gender, economic status and race; and that enjoins us to become integrators of the personal and societal in sessions. 

Our western culture may separate mind from body, but our emotions and relationships, class, and race and gender, have a greater effect on health and longevity. Dr. Maté will discuss how a society dedicated to material pursuits rather than genuine human needs and spiritual values stresses its members, undermines healthy child development and dooms many to illness.  He shares a shift in focus that will support a healthier population. 

Program Information

Objectives

Identify two separations imposed by Western Medicine on the health and well-being of the population.
Name three chronic conditions that are correlated with stressful social environments.
Determine one shift in focus that would support a healthier population.

Outline

Limitations and risks of the medical model
What we can learn from western medicine
Mind & body as separate
Individuals as separate from one another & environment
Nature of stress and its physiological consequences 
The societal epidemic of loneliness
Why stress remains hidden in our culture 
Greater impact of chronic illness
Understanding of stress can inform and enhance our work
Important trauma-Informed care

Target Audience

Counselors
Marriage and Family Therapists
Social Workers
Physicians
Psychologists
Addiction Counselors