Deb Dana’s

Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice Clinical Training Series

An unparalleled professional clinical training series led by Deb and her senior training team, offering practitioners a deeply immersive and interactive learning journey to becoming polyvagal-informed.

Join Deb Dana, LCSW, and her team of Polyvagal-Informed senior trainers and consultants in this unique and comprehensive training, which includes over 40 hours of live training, live Q&As, recorded webinars, demonstrations, readings, handouts, and official exercises and worksheets created by Deb to use with your clients. 
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Gain a deeper understanding of Polyvagal Theory, explore and befriend your own nervous system profile and autonomic patterns, and learn to effectively and confidently integrate a Polyvagal lens and Deb's renowned methodology and practices into your professional work with clients.

Deb’s flagship training series is unlike any other professional training focused on the application of Polyvagal Theory. ​Step into the world of Polyvagal Theory as Deb and her senior training team guide and support you through the theory, background and, most importantly, the unique framework Deb has developed to bridge the gap between theory and real-world application.

Join the Interest List for the Next Foundations Cohort

We have reached capacity for our May 2024 cohort. Click the button below to join the interest list and be notified when details for the next Foundations cohort become available.

If you are interested in being placed on the standby list for the May 2024 cohort, in addition to being added to the interest list, please email us at rorassist@gmail.com.

The Autonomic Nervous System is at the Heart of Daily Living...

...powerfully shaping experiences of safety and influencing the capacity for connection.

Through the organizing principles of hierarchy, neuroception, and co-regulation, Polyvagal Theory has offered us a new appreciation of how experience shapes the nervous system and the pathways that lead to healing.​

With this updated map of the autonomic circuits of connection, mobilization and collapse, we now have practical ways to effectively help clients identify and interrupt patterns of protection and strategies to shape their systems toward the regulated state of safety and connection necessary for successful treatment.  ​

This six-month hybrid training series empowers therapists, clinicians, and helping professionals from all backgrounds to deepen their understanding of Polyvagal Theory, gain insight into their nervous systems, and integrate the revolutionary work of Stephen Porges and Deb Dana into their professional work from the ground up.​

Participants will learn the language of the nervous system as they map their own unique autonomic pathways and discover how to become a regulated and regulating resource for their clients and communities. 

​Participants will also discover, step-by-step, how to bring the power of Polyvagal Theory into their work, with practices designed to reliably help clients reshape their systems and rewrite the stories carried in their autonomic pathways. 

Deb Dana's Flagship Training Series is Now Available

Since the publication of her seminal book, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton, 2018), Deb Dana's work has continued to transform how Polyvagal Theory can be applied in professional, therapeutic, clinical, and educational settings.

This 6-month long hybrid training series offers a comprehensive and practical guide to bringing a polyvagal lens to your client work and deepening your professional practice. 

This training is an invaluable guide to incorporating Deb's groundbreaking methods, tools, and practices in the most effective way for your clients and for your own development as a practitioner and helping professional. ​  

Open to all therapists, clinicians, and helping professionals, regardless of background or therapeutic modality, Deb's Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice takes your learning and application of Polyvagal Theory to the next level.

What You Will Learn

As you move through this training series, you will:​

  • Learn the three organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory - neuroception, hierarchy, and co-regulation - and how they impact your daily life and clinical practice.

  • Befriend your nervous system as you get to know your autonomic patterns of connection and protection.

  • Develop ways to use your autonomic state to create an environment of safety for your clients.​

  • Create autonomic maps and learn how to use them to guide clinical choices.

  • Learn techniques to effectively guide clients from a state of survival to safety, and enhance their capacity for regulation. ​

  • Practice strategies to help clients identify and interrupt their familiar patterns of protection and to find, and savor, experiences of safety.​

  • Develop skill in engaging the co-regulating pathways of the social engagement system to create safety in the therapeutic relationship.​

  • Learn how to integrate a polyvagal approach into your existing professional practice.

Training Overview and Structure

Deb created Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice to support and empower therapists, practitioners and helping professionals of all backgrounds to become Polyvagal-Informed in their work and to feel confident in applying Polyvagal Theory within their practice.​

This immersive series aims to deepen participants' understanding of Polyvagal Theory and equip them with the insights, tools, and strategies they need to enhance their work with clients, regardless of modality or setting. 

Throughout this comprehensive and interactive journey, participants will delve deeply into their own autonomic patterns and cultivate polyvagal-informed skills through personal exploration, clinical demonstrations and practical application.

Participants are taken beyond the basics of conceptual learning as this series focuses on experiential learning using recorded training videos, small group experiences and engaging live-online sessions - all designed to help participants successfully integrate a polyvagal approach into their work with clients and communities. 

This hybrid series includes over 40 hours of combined live and on-demand learning material and is divided into five comprehensive modules. 

Module 1: Getting to Know the Nervous System

Module 2: Autonomic Protection and Connection

Module 3: Resourcing Regulation

Module 4: Navigating the Hierarchy

Module 5: Integration and Ending

Each monthly training module includes on-demand self-study content, including recorded teachings from Deb, session demonstrations, detailed handouts, articles and readings, and Deb's exclusive practice exercises and worksheets for your personal and professional use.​

Then, meet with Deb's Polyvagal-informed senior trainers for the monthly live 3-hour training sessions as they guide and support you in deepening your understanding of the theory and building your skill set in the application of polyvagal-guided insights and interventions. 

To further bring the theory to life, the training includes two 90-minute experiential sessions with the senior trainers: one at the beginning of the series and one near the end. Participants rotate between the trainers so they can learn from each one's expertise and experience. 

Additionally, Deb will offer two 90-minute live Q&A sessions to answer your specific questions as you move through the modules and apply the framework with your clients. 

Deepen your Learning
with Small Group Consultations,
Live Experiential Sessions and Polyvagal Partnerships

To anchor your learning and help you stay connected with your fellow Foundations participants, small groups and partnerships are mindfully incorporated into the training experience.​

The large group of 36 is divided into three groups of 12. Each group is assigned to one of Deb's Polyvagal-informed consultants as their point person for the duration of the training. These groups will meet with their consultant for one 90-minute experiential practice session.

​Each group of 12 will also be divided into groups of four to create small consultation groups. Each consultation group will have four 1-hour consultations throughout the training series and will rotate between consultants so participants can learn from each consultant's range of experience and expertise. 

Each participant will also be paired with someone from their small consultation group to create a Polyvagal Partnership. Polyvagal Partnerships offer the opportunity to connect with someone throughout the training to discuss material, share personal and professional experiences through the polyvagal lens, practice new skills, and experiment with all things polyvagal.

FAQs

  • The Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice training series is for therapists, clinicians and helping professionals of all backgrounds and fields who are looking to gain a deeper understanding of Polyvagal Theory and how to apply it to their work with clients.

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  • The Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice takes you beyond the basics. This comprehensive training series was developed by Deb and designed specifically for therapists, clinicians and helping professionals to bring her successful methodology and clinical insights to their own practice, clients and communities. No matter what approach or modality you already use in your work, Deb's framework will integrate beautifully and add to your skills as a therapist or practitioner.

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    There is no other training program in the clinical application of Polyvagal Theory that practically and so thoroughly teaches these concepts, tools, methods and practices - that have been tried and tested in professional application - and which are a current topic in the world of trauma treatment across the globe.

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    Deb's Foundations training is also unique in that it is an immersive hybrid training model. The series combines comprehensive self-study material - over 18 hours of recorded webinars that participants have lifetime access to - as well as an array of live training and practice opportunities and two live Q&A periods with Deb where participants can ask questions specific to their learning journey and work.

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    And because of its online format, participants can join from anywhere in the world, as long as the time zones are compatible to attend the live sessions.

  • By registering for this immersive training, you are making a commitment to watch all the training videos and read the assigned material prior to each live session. You also agree to attend all live training and consultation sessions. However, if you're unable to attend a live session or need to view it after the live date, you'll have access to the recording for 30 days after the live session.

  • You'll get lifetime access to Deb's comprehensive training materials, including her recorded sessions, slides, handouts, and official exercises to add to your clinical toolbox and use with your clients. With this lifetime access you can return to the self-study materials at any time after the training ends to refresh your learning and continue building your skillset.

  • Following the completion of Foundations of Polyvagal Informed Practice, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion and may refer to themselves as Polyvagal Informed in their work with clients. Participants are encouraged to use this term and reference the completion of the Foundations training on their websites, CVs, and other relevant professional materials to convey their level of knowledge and skill with regards to the application of Polyvagal Theory.

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    Please note: There is no formal certification process in existence for becoming Polyvagal Informed or program available through any organization to become a certified polyvagal clinician.

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    As a founding member of The Polyvagal Institute, Deb adheres to the principle, supported by the Institute, that helping people deepen their learning and use of Polyvagal Theory in clinical work is an essential element in the healing process. However, there is no path to certification.

  • At this time, there are no continuing education credits available.

  • A full refund is available, minus a $100.00 cancellation service fee, for cancellations made before the training start date. For cancellations made after the training begins, a credit is available. This credit may be applied to another Rhythm of Regulation online course or training, with possible exceptions being those with prerequisites.

  • Yes. The registration fee can be paid in full at the time of enrollment or in 4 monthly installments of $500.00.

  • Yes. In acknowledging that financial and economic situations, as well as access to learning opportunities, vary across our global community, we endeavor to make the Foundations training accessible and inclusive to as many individuals as possible. Therefore, we offer a limited number of partial scholarships to those facing financial hardship or who would otherwise be deterred or unable to access the Foundations training series. Please contact us for more information on how to apply.

This is your invitation to embark on an immersive and unique learning experience like no other alongside Deb and her senior training team.

Space is limited to 36 participants.
Register for $2,000 (monthly payment plans available). 

Join the Interest List for the Next Foundations Cohort

We have reached capacity for our May 2024 cohort. Click the button below to join the interest list and be notified when details for the next Foundations cohort become available.

If you are interested in being placed on the standby list for the May 2024 cohort, in addition to being added to the interest list, please email us at rorassist@gmail.com.

We look forward to you joining us!

Have questions about the Foundations training series?

We're happy to help. Contact us at: rorassist@gmail.com