The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Radical Approach for Treating Trauma and Addiction

The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Radical Approach for Treating Trauma and Addiction

This full day workshop will explore the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (FSPM), a radical approach to treating trauma and addiction that challenges the current models of treatment by deconstructing the conventional top-down, capitalistic, and white supremacy-based paradigms. Developed over forty years of clinical practice, the FSPM is rooted in five interconnected theoretical frameworks that celebrates the wisdom of the body. Participants will learn how to work with the embodied processes of interoception (felt sense) and neuroception (nervous system regulation) through practical, graphic models. The workshop will equip you with tools to teach clients how to engage their nervous systems, use the six steps of Focusing, and apply the Four-Circle Harm Reduction Practice to heal from trauma and addiction. This training includes a description of the Embodied Assessment and Treatment Tool (EATT)™, a somatic assessment method that tracks neuroception and interoception. The EATT replaces the current pathologizing paradigm, offering clinicians a sophisticated embodied assessment of client functioning based on the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model.

• OASW Members: $179 + HST (Early-Bird pricing ends February 6, 2025)
• Non-members: $299 + HST

REGISTER HERE

Presented by the Ontario Association of Social Workers and Jan Winhall, MSW, PIFOT

Jan Winhall, MSW, PIFOT is an author, teacher and seasoned trauma and addiction psychotherapist. She is an Educational Partner with the Polyvagal Institute where she offers a training program based on her book Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, Routledge 2021. Her new book 20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction: Using the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, (Norton) is due out March 2025. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto and a Certifying Co-Ordinator with the International Focusing Institute. Jan is Co-Director of the Borden Street Clinic where she supervises graduate students. She enjoys teaching all over the world. You can reach her at janwinhall.com. 

The Ontario Association of Social Workers (oasw.org) is the voice of the social work profession in Ontario. It is a voluntary, bilingual, non-profit association representing 9,500+ social workers. OASW works to actively speak on behalf of social workers on issues of interest to the profession and advocates for the improvement of social policies and programs directly affecting social work practice and client groups served. OASW also offers high-quality, free or low-cost professional development opportunities to social workers and other health and mental health care providers through our OASW Learning Centre (olc.oasw.org).