Deb DanaBefriend Your Nervous System: A Retreat in the US with Deb Dana

Class description

While you may think your brain is in charge, the heart of your experience and how you navigate the world, begins in the body, with the autonomic nervous system. This is where the stories emerge about who you are, how the world works, what you do, and how you feel. Sometimes you struggle to keep your balance; other times you move easily through the day.

The autonomic nervous system is both creator of, and witness to, your lived experience. It is an embodied, biological resource that is always present and ready to guide you. Science shows that with practice, your connection to the biological state of safety can be strengthened and new patterns of connection created. The nervous system knows the way to safety and connection, the way home to regulation and it’s ready to help you get there.

An invitation to explore

In this transformative retreat, you will join Deb Dana for a deep exploration into the landscape of your own nervous system. Ventral regulation is not simply a destination to arrive at. It is a dynamic autonomic state that can be awakened and deepened.

During our time together, you’ll learn to uncover and travel the ventral pathways that exist in every human nervous system, pathways that are always present, even when they feel out of reach.

You will have the chance to explore how the autonomic nervous system moves toward and away from connection, what pulls you out of regulation, and what makes it possible to find your way back. At the heart of it all is the essential question: how do we help the nervous system feel safe enough to change?

A meeting of nervous systems

Every therapeutic encounter is a meeting of nervous systems. Beneath the words, the autonomic nervous system – yours and your clients’ – is quietly at work: listening, shaping the stories we tell ourselves, and influencing our capacity for safety, connection, and change. Understanding this autonomic experience is at the heart of what Polyvagal Theory offers clinicians.

In this retreat, Deb Dana will help you to make the journey from personal awareness to clinical application, because as a clinician, your own autonomic regulation is essential to successful work with clients. Getting to know your autonomic patterns helps you create an environment that supports connection and lets you be present with clients in a way that invites them into the regulated state of safety that is a core element of treatment.

During this retreat, you will discover how to use the body’s regulating circuits to help clients regain a sense of safety, and gain skills to engage the nervous system’s natural pathways to regulation. You’ll learn a new way to accompany your clients on their path to healing.