The Neurophysiology of Relational Presence: Why Your Nervous System is Your Most Powerful Therapeutic Intervention:

As therapists, your ability to cultivate positive, trusting connection with clients is of the highest importance, perhaps even more vital than your learned knowledge and skill base. This is especially true when working with trauma.  Trauma-informed approaches are gaining wider exposure, so much so that the term “trauma-informed” has become ubiquitous and is often defined by a checklist of “Do’s and Don’ts.” But what does it mean to deliver truly trauma-informed care?  And how can you embody this awareness both in your client sessions as well as in your day-to-day life experiences?

The key to trauma-informed care rests in one’s ability to understand not only how trauma impacts your clients’ bodies, but also how to collaboratively guide clients back towards an internal experience of safety and agency through the art of relational presence and co-regulation.   In this 6-hour workshop, you will be introduced to the foundational role the nervous system plays in your ability to show up in engaged and authentic ways with your clients, thereby creating a therapeutic field of safety. This class offers a body-based, bottom-up view of the neurophysiological underpinnings that define your ability to be a safe presence:  the role of the Vagus nerve, the regulatory state of your autonomic nervous system, and its co-regulatory impact on clients. Care will be given to explore a comprehensive view of the adaptive, autonomic states of the nervous system and how these states show up in your own body as well as in the bodies of your clients. You will cultivate a deeper, practical understanding of how to work from embodied awareness as you support your clients.  In addition, you will learn practical, somatic tools and interventions that can help you navigate activation cycles while supporting you managing the impacts of secondary stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

This 6-hour workshop offers 6 CE credits for Marriage and Family Therapists, Licensed Professional Counselors, and Licensed Social Workers through workshop sponsor, Cascadia Training.

The workshop content includes a comprehensive exploration of the following:

• The key attributes of Therapeutic Presence
• The three adaptive responses of the Autonomic Nervous System
• The stress-trauma response and the stress-trauma continuum
• Neurology, biochemistry of the stress/trauma response
• Polyvagal Theory and the role of the Vagus nerve
• Co-regulation and Self-Regulation
• Adverse Childhood Experiences and the impact of Developmental Trauma
• The key attributes of Trauma-Informed care
• An understanding of how to embody trauma-informed care
• Exploration of internal safety and how to track/cultivate signals of safety in the body
• Interoception/Understanding how to track and follow body sensations
• Exploration of basic orienting and resourcing exercises
• Overview of the restorative tremor response and how it works as a regulation tool