Course 1:
The embodied brain: A TRauma informed guide to befriending your nervous system
The Embodied Brain: A Trauma-Informed Guide to Befriending Your Nervous System unpacks the relationship between trauma, personality and the nervous system and supports you to understand the art and science of emotional regulation. This course provides your first step in completing Life University and introduces you to the mechanics of psychophysiological coherence. Completing this workshop will help you remain centred and deepen the relationship you have with yourself, and hence also deepen your connection with others.
“This workshop opened up many more layers than I expected. It helped me identify my patterns and triggers more clearly and is still peeling back those layers days after the actual workshop.”
All powerful growth and transformation begins with what seems to be a paradox: becoming aware of the choices you make that you don’t know you are making. The insight gained through this course will be instrumental in this process. This is because you will taught the way your brain processes subconscious information about yourself (understanding is the beginning of change), you will be shown some experiential process to retrain your nervous system and you will have an opportunity to ask questions to clarify your understanding.
This course is the foundational first step in our unique model for psychophysiological coherence (e.g. living a fulfilling life steered by your own meaningful values and decisions, rather than by your old conditioning and traumas). The essence of The Embodied Brain is to rediscover and deepen your relationship with your own nervous system. As a foundational course, the gains you make from my subsequent courses will be greatly enhanced with a nuanced understanding of your own nervous system.
As a child, you were most likely not taught how to relate and express your rich emotional life in the healthiest of ways (notwithstanding most parents tend to do the best they can for their children). Most likely you worked out what worked based on what your family of origin, friends and culture indicated was appropriate. But the fact is very few families and even fewer schools and workplaces support healthy emotional expression. Moreover, you will learn about the necessary nature of developmental trauma, and how it shapes your personality. As you mature, you have probably realised that much of what you were taught growing up was incomplete (or flawed) and did not fully prepare you for the emotional complexities of adult life. Perhaps you struggle with anxiety, depression, anger, fear or other troubling emotions. Even seasoned and experienced psychotherapists, coaches and facilitators who have been through this course and derived profound benefit and fresh insight.
Unlike many other courses, this is not heavy neuroscientific and anatomical theory without any embodied, practical skills. This course blends the two; there is a robust foundation to the course content and also plenty of experiential processes.
“This workshop was a deep dive into our nervous system which was full of information but not overloaded, the right amount, with a good pace of content delivery. Interactive, engaging and in a safe and friendly environment.”
It’s hard to put into words just how profound the insight from this course can be. This is because the level to which your autonomic nervous system (ANS) underpins your lived experience is as deep as the way tectonic plates support your home to stand up. Most people experience shifts in their ANS as changes in mood and feeling that seem to ‘just happen’. But the truth is that no changes in our physiology “just happen”.
“As I try to navigate my emotions, establish a career, maintain relationships and constantly process the precarious state of the world, I often find myself in a state of anxiety, reactive or withdrawn. This workshop with Dr Amar has provided me with both the theoretical and practical knowledge to befriend my nervous system in these times of feeling unsafe, unsure or afraid. His techniques in polyvagal mapping have helped me visualise the relationship between my mind and body, to gain a clearer understanding of my emotional states and why they might arise. These lessons have given me greater love, respect and admiration for my body and its intelligence. As I listen closely to its cues, I am able to identify when I feel tense and if I should remove myself from an uncomfortable situation. This awareness has created congruence between my body + mind, allowing me to sit comfortably with my discomfort instead of rejecting or reacting to it. Dr. Amar facilitated an open and safe space, allowing me to be vulnerable and share my life experiences. It has been incredibly important to engage with other individuals on my healing journey. I realise now it is a journey that should not be taken alone.”
Run over 6-weeks, you will learn about:
The “Window of Tolerance”: A term coined by the father of Interpersonal Neurobiology, Dr Daniel Siegel to describe the way our bodies and brains respond and recover from stress along with the way your ANS operates and shapes your experience of life.
The way growing up as a human being has to create developmental trauma, and learn the way to metabolise it in adulthood.
The Polyvagal theory: Developed by Dr Stephen Porges, the polyvagal theory has had a huge impact on the delivery of clinical trauma work even though the science underneath does not have consensus in the field of social neuroscience. The essence of this theory is that you have three branches to your ANS and that each of them has a unique function and relationship with trauma and stress. You will learn about this theory and explore the insights it offers in your own life.
Map your own ANS, not as an abstract or intellectual exercise but as a personalised reflection of your own experience of each part of your nervous system.
Understand what “trauma” is, how it is formed, the way it is stored in your body and what you can do to shift it and move toward well-being.
The foundational literacy of your embodiment that prepares you for working effectively with embodied modalities such as Somatic Experiencing.
The Art and Science of Emotional Regulation
