Course Description

We love Polyvagal Theory (PVT), but are perhaps not yet comfortable with it. This workshop will help you “get ventral” with PVT, by synthesizing it into more workable use with clients. The evolution of PVT, from its dense, difficult origins to its current accessible state can now be mirrored in our offices, as we teach it to clients and explicitly use it—Porges has bridged the gap between academia and ourselves, so we too can bridge it between ourselves and our clients. It is helpful to understand PTSD and dissociation in Polyvagal terms. Here you will be shown how to address EMDR therapy’s tasks of history-taking, case conceptualization, stabilization, and reprocessing, using the Polyvagal lens. PVT in EMDR therapy’s Phases 1-8 will be illustrated using personal and case examples and whole group exercises in this presentation by Barbara Horne, MASc, RP, RMFT.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to compare their own possible lack of comfort with PVT in terms of the evolution of Porges, in bridging between academia and the clinical world. They will identify the key principles of PVT, the concept of neuroception and the states of fight, flight & shutdown in Polyvagal terms.
2. Participants will be able to interpret clients’ symptoms in Polyvagal terms, noting how anxiety & anger express the SNS neuroception of danger, while depression & suicidality express the dorsal neuroception of life-threat. They will assess how early attachment breaks interfere with the ‘tuning of the vagal brake’ and a ventral neuroception of safety.
3. Participants will be able to “put the ‘O’ back into the S-R continuum”, recognizing the state of the ‘organism’ — the client’s and their own– in session. They will identify how, once the nervous system’s states have been recognized, dual awareness can be achieved by returning to ventral vagal regulation through top-down strategies.

Presenter(s)

Barbara Horne, MASc, RP, RMFT

Barbara Horne MASc, RP, RMFT is a founding partner of the Niagara Stress & Trauma Clinic in Niagara, providing couples therapy & EMDR therapy since 1996, when she completed her Institute trainings. She is the Director of the NSTC’s EMDR Therapy training programs conducting over 60 two-part EMDRIA-Approved Basic EMDR Therapy Trainings in Central and Eastern Canada since 2007. Barbara has made presentations on EMDR to provincial and national conferences in Canada & to the EMDRIA Conference. She is also an EMDRIA CE Credit Provider, offering refresher workshops to EMDR clinicians.