Grounding the heart, mind, and body: Helping dysregulated clients ground themselves and regain a sense of self-control and self-efficacy

Grounding the heart, mind, and body: Helping dysregulated clients ground themselves and regain a sense of self-control and self-efficacy

Presented by SickKids CCMH Learning Institute

Date: February 6, 2026
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Facilitator: Michel Jones, MSW, RSW, RP.

Description: "Clients often enter our offices unable to relieve unbearable tension and stress of a specific situation or of their daily lives. Despite our best efforts, some clients do not respond to our attempts to help them calm. Sometimes, grounding tools that have worked in the past do not seem to make any difference. We must look behind the tools to understand which approaches would best help. Understanding the different defense mechanisms in the conscious, emotional, and physical parts of the brain and body can make the difference." - Michel Jones, MSW, RSW, RP.

Dysregulated clients often struggle to calm their nervous systems, regulate emotions, and reconnect with their sense of control. This training offers practical grounding techniques for dysregulated clients alongside self-regulation strategies and trauma-informed approaches. It equips mental health and frontline professionals with evidence-based methods to help clients stabilize emotionally, physically, and cognitively. By understanding the brain’s defense mechanisms and the roots of dysregulation, clinicians can more effectively guide clients back into their window of tolerance and support meaningful therapeutic progress.

By using neurological research and proven stress reduction methods, this training will provide practical tools that front-line workers can use to help dysregulated clients ground themselves and regain a sense of self-control and self-efficacy.

Learning objectives:

• Learn how the brainstem, the limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex system work together and impact each other.
• Understand how these three systems differentially affect "fight or flight", emotional response and cognitive distortions.
• Gain different grounding techniques that work with each of the three systems.
• Learn how to bring a client back into their "window of tolerance".
• Help traumatized clients out of the "there and then" and bringing them back to the "here and now".

Whether the client is a first-time user of a service (drop-in centre, shelter, etc.) or a frequent consumer (severe and persistent mental health, residential program, etc.), this training will offer clear and straightforward strategies to help clients feel physically, emotionally and mentally stable. Reserve your spot today!

Registration fee: General - $300 | Student and group rates area available

For full program overview and registration details please visit: https://cvent.me/eWGqvV

Facilitator Bio:
Michel Jones, MSW, RSW, RP, is a registered psychotherapist in Ontario specializing in the repercussions of psychological trauma in people's lives. Her clinical background at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH) includes work with the elderly, the Indigenous population and with addictions issues.

She has developed and presented workshops throughout Ontario including workshops on grounding and on specific treatment modalities such as cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectical behavioural therapy. She has also developed mental health education for government employees who come into contact with troubled individuals.

Michel originally developed the Hero's Journey intervention to work with her male clients who presented with addiction and mental health issues. 

Continuing Education (CE) information: 6 CE hours