• Neuroception of danger & life threat: Animal survival responses
• The autonomic impact of trauma on physical and mental health
• The link between traumatic stress and nervous system dysregulation
• Window of capacity as a model for mapping the autonomic nervous system

• The three main branches of the autonomic nervous system
• Blended autonomic nervous system states
• Common autonomic nervous system loops
• What is Neuroception?
• Neuroception, trauma and social justice
• How the state of your autonomic nervous system drives your story of the world

• The cranial nerves that drive the social engagement system as a neurobiological imperative for survival
• How dysfunction in the social engagement system may manifest
• Co-regulation through connection and reciprocity
• In the absence of co-regulation from a self-regulated care-giver, an infant/child learns how to self-regulate from a place of fear and self-protection

• Deconstructing the trauma of class, race, sex and other -isms within the context of psychotherapy and neuroception of safety
• Fawning: giving up authenticity in order to belong
• Appeasement: self-snuffing life force energy in order to survive

• Safety is to be found in the external environment. “Safeness” is what we feel on the inside, when there is safety. For many trauma survivors, there is a “gap” between safety and safeness.
• Orienting to our environment through the eyes (and then through the body), allows the nervous system to land in safeness
• Practice a simple vagus nerve reset exercise
• Working with rising sympathetic energy of anxiousness: recognizing and releasing the fidget and find responses

• The somato-sensory neocortex of the brain has a disproportionate number of nerve endings to the hands, face, and feet.
• The fright and freeze responses can cause tension in the face, ears, jaw and neck in order to maintain a visage of unperturbed stillness in the face of possible danger
• By releasing tension in the hands, face, scalp, ears, jaw, and feet, we are able to not only come out of a low-grade dissociative response and fright-freeze response, we also able to reconnect to the vitality of our ventral vagal nervous system (social engagement system) which emotes and connects through facial expressiveness.
• Engage bilateral cross-body responses in order to help ourselves come out of low-grade dissociative responses

• One of the areas that initiates sympathetic activation is the area between the shoulder blades. Low grade sympathetic responses can manifest as chronic tension in the shoulders and neck, ears and jaw.
• The other areas that initiate sympathetic activation are the outer hips and the inner core muscles (ilia-psoas). These muscle groups not only connect the lower body to the upper body, they are also the prime movers, initiators of fight and flight.
• The diaphragm is a core stabilizer muscle that is also the engine for sympathetic activation. Gently connect to and resource diaphragm tension to restore well-being.

• The freeze response has been described as being stuck between our needs and our fears. When there has been stillness in terror, still in safety is near impossible, and the action systems of daily life is back dropped with anxiety and fear.
• We will cover some exercises to compassionately move the frozen-ness through the body.
• A truncated flight response can be experienced in the body as anxiety, easy distractibility or simply as too much energy in the body. I will share with you a simple exercise to discharge a truncated flight response which can then reset the nervous system and restore the thoracic diaphragm’s capacity for fuller, more restful breathing.
• In order to survive, many of us may have learned to suppress our anger, the life force energy underneath the fight response. Others of us may have learned to react instinctively and immediately. Either way, these habitual conditioned responses may be inhibiting aliveness and/or safety. We will learn how to safely connect to anger in order to move a truncated fight response and/or an over-active fight response gently out of the nervous system. By learning to recognize the physical tension patterns of our low-grade fight responses emotionally, mentally and somatically (e.g. irritability, wanting space), we can effectively restore the nervous system to a peaceful, embodied aliveness.

• The interactive dynamics of alcoholic, dysfunctional and/or environmentally-unsupported families which results in the formation of unmet developmental needs
• The adaptive survival strategies developed by an individual, family system or culture
• An alternative adaptive strategy

In order to survive, many of us needed to be silent. Trauma recovery involves reconnecting to our capacity for vocalization in an embodied way. This class will explore:

• Polyvagal-informed attachment theory
• A history of body-based psychotherapy
• Characterological expressions and the neuromuscular patterning of a truncated attachment cry
• Resources for individuals who identify with challenges around receiving support and nourishment

In order to maintain a connection with the caregivers in our early lives, many of us had to learn to inhibit or have fearful relationships to certain developmental actions of attachment - reaching, grasping, pulling and having.

These actions of attachment form the basis for embodied asking, receiving, giving and letting go that underscore our relationships

• Explore these truncated actions of attachment with curiosity to gain some insight into the missing relational experiences that carry forth into current relationships
• Explore with curiosity the somatization of the truncated attachment cry
• Reshape the nervous system with somatic self-gestures of support

In order to not let in unpleasant experiences and/or survive toxic environments, many of us needed to create a “nourishment barrier”. This nourishment barrier can also prevent us from letting in the good stuff: acknowledgement from others, kindness, safeness, opportunities for engagement and reciprocity.

• Discuss Pierre Janet’s psychology of action and Ron Kurtz’s barriers to action
• Appreciate the role and function of the nourishment barrier in order to survive unpleasant/unpredictable/toxic environments
• Reshape the nervous system with small sips of nourishment