Nervous System Education for Direct Service Providers

Our autonomic nervous system (ANS) takes care of many of our automatic human functions like heart beat, body temperature, digestion and our survival/ stress responses. The ANS also shapes how we experience safety and connection, responding from past conditioning, based on real or perceived threats. This impacts how we move through the world as humans, personally and professionally- including through all our interactions and events that happen in our work as DSP’s



Through a nervous system perspective we can compassionately understand human behavior (including our own)! from high reactivity to anxiety to complete shut down. With awareness of our different nervous systems state's and our window of tolerance, we can learn supportive tools to help move us from dysregulation to regulation.



This workshop will explore the main states of the nervous system with a focus on a direct service provider experience and environment. Guided nervous system soothers and practices will be offered as tools to utilize for regulation, and as practical low threshold examples to help build more resilient nervous systems.

After this training, you will be able to:

• Learn the basics of our autonomic nervous system (ANS), and the role of trauma’s impact on the ANS      
• Understand your window of tolerance and what factors can shrink or expand the window
• Examine different nervous system states in relation to common DSP workplace scenarios 
• Implement basic nervous system resets/soothing techniques for daily life and as a resource for post, acutely distressing or traumatic events
• Apply nervous system education to the context of your work as a direct service provider