Category: Embodied Dialogue Series

While simple body-based techniques can sometimes offer a quick fix to help us calm down, Kristen Toth, somatic educator and coach, believes strongly that somatic practices can be a doorway to much deeper healing when they’re used with mindfulness and compassion through a polyvagal lens.

What if instead of “hacking” our body to shift out of survival, we partnered *with* it to create the conditions for feeling safe? Join us for a discussion with Kristen about using somatic practices to connect with our body, our nervous system, and ourselves to support embodiment and recovery from trauma.

How lucky are we to have one hour with Dr. Stephen Porges, the creator of Polyvagal theory? In this Ask Us Anything Dialogue we invite you to bring your questions, comments, excitement, curiosity, frustrations, astonishment, joy, sorrow… we will make a space to explore and create!

The question I have for him is …”What is it like to be eighty years old? Can you describe the felt experience in your body?”

We look forward to an enriching session with Dr. Porges. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to engage with a leading figure in the field of somatic therapy. See you there!

What can the Twelve Steps learn from Polyvagal Theory’s focus on physiological triggers and trauma? How can Polyvagal-informed approaches benefit from the long-standing community and spiritual support of Twelve-step Programs?

Join us as we delve into these questions and work together to reshape the conversation around addiction treatment, emphasizing safety and emotional regulation in recovery.

With years of experience through The Trauma Therapist Project and The Trauma Therapist Podcast, Guy Macpherson has made it his mission to connect clinicians and therapists with valuable resources as they navigate their trauma-informed journeys.

In this discussion, Guy will reflect on his personal experiences that shaped his path, including the inspiration drawn from his brother’s journey as a Navy SEAL veteran facing PTSD. He will also share the transformative moments in his career that emphasized the importance of authenticity in therapeutic relationships.

Join us for an engaging discussion with renowned grief expert Julia Samuel as we examine grief in response to global trauma. In a world increasingly marked by deep divides and polarization, many people fear sharing their ideas and feelings, worried about triggering disapproval. This event will focus on how communities might collectively process loss, how grief is expressed when we don’t process it, and the emotional toll when grief goes unaddressed.

Creating a safe environment is crucial for effective therapy, as it allows individuals to express themselves openly and engage in the healing process without fear of judgment or harm. Understanding the role of regulation prior commencing trauma work is vital for a successful therapeutic journey.

Understanding the link between parent-child bonding and Porges’ polyvagal neuroscience of safety, threat, and connection can guide parents toward opportunities to deepen the parent-child bond, which in turn provides myriad developmental benefits for both the child and the parent. When a child feels that connection, it forms a foundation of love, safety, warmth, and care that lets them move into the world with confidence, wonder, awe, and joy. When the parent builds their ability to deliberately stoke such affiliation and affection, it offers them a feeling of completeness.

Therapeutic presence (TP) is a way of being that optimises the doing and techniques of therapy. Presence includes a balance between attunement with clients as well as with oneself. Therapeutic presence provides a neurophysiological sense of safety in clients that allows them to be seen, heard, understood, and “feel felt.” In this conversation, Dr. Shari Geller will introduce an empirically validated model of therapeutic presence as a map to build and strengthen the skills of presence with clients and in life. The neurophysiological principles to creating safety with therapeutic presence, based on concepts such as co-regulation and neuroception of safety stemming from Polyvagal Theory will be discussed. Shari will offer an experiential practice for cultivating presence.

Some of us are fully on board with Polyvagal Theory and ways of framing addiction through the trauma and Polyvagal Lens. However there are still many models of addiction treatment which are based on a more traditional pathologizing approach. In this discussion, Lou and Jan speak about the changing views of addiction treatment in North America and the UK. We’ll also explore the pros and cons of the 12 Step programs, Harm Reduction models, residential treatment, and both medical and learning models of addiction.