Neuroaffective Regulation

Observation and Intervention for Systemic Regulation

Michael Shiffman, Ph.D.

September 22, 2018
10:00 am – 5:00 pm

We often hear clients say that they feel like their body was hijacked in the face of a triggering event. They can’t think, their nervous system seems to have a mind of its own. They lose their center and their sense of self is compromised. Neuroaffective regulation practices can be key factors in returning to a secure experience of their felt-sense, a return home to safety. Neuroaffective regulation is not simply grounding: It is the fluid integration of cognitive, affective, physical and neurological systems in the direction of organization and coherence.

In this workshop we will explore verbal and non-verbal markers of systemic activation and deactivation. We will explore when bringing awareness to the body is appropriate and effective and when it reinforces adaptive strategies that hinder openness and growth.

Neuroaffective interventions engage cognitive, behavioral, emotional, neurobiological and energetic systems to help clients become more organized and alive. Interventions are bi-directional, moving from cognition to neurobiology and from neurobiology to cognition.

The skills developed in this workshop can be readily integrated within any clinical model.

At the workshop:

Part 1: In the morning we will review the underlying neurobiology of emotional reactivity using both didactic and experiential activities to identify within ourselves how it feels to consciously pass through activation-deactivation cycles.

Part 2: After lunch we will use dyadic exercises to focus on the identification of non-verbal cues and the use of non-verbal and verbal interventions.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Differentiate between mindfulness and neuroaffective awareness;
2. Describe top-down and bottom-up therapeutic interventions;
3. Identify strategies for integrating neuroaffective practices into therapeutic process;
4. Identify and describe systemic activation and deactivation cycles;
5. Identify and describe verbal and non-verbal indicators of emotional dysregulation;
6. Describe how neuroaffective practices can enhance awareness of transference-countertransference processes.