Understanding Trauma Online Series May/June 2021

This series comprises 6 sessions.

 

1.Overview of trauma, stress and anxiety and their manifestation in the body, causing symptoms. Finding health in the system through the felt sense.

 

 

2.   Explore the Polyvagal theory, and its significance in perceived threat and safety. Understand our fight/ flight and freeze responses & how we, as mammals, evolved as social beings; we are relationship seeking & need human interactions for health. Explore how we co-regulate in response to others via our social engagement system.  

3.    Neck tension, the orienting response and hypervigilance. Neck tension is endemic; some clients have heightened vigilance & startle responses that can interfere with sleep and the ability to relax. This can cycle within the nervous system, creating sensitisation and producing chronic pathologies. Explore the physiology behind this patterning and how to support change. 

 

4.    Recognise and down-regulate states of hyper-arousal (Fight or Flight). What changes do we witness in the physiology and felt sense of our clients and how can we support them to resolve these states? 

 

5.    Recognise and engage with hypo-arousal states (Freeze / dissociation). What changes do we witness in the physiology and felt sense of our clients and how can we support them to resolve these states?

 

6.    Working with the jaw, face, throat and voice. We will look at particular issues that are held in these clinically rich areas, giving therapists confidence to use their voice to facilitate trauma resolution – here we will directly work with the social engagement system and verbal skills.