EMDR Power Hour: Polyvagal Theory for EMDR Therapists

Would you like to understand polyvagal theory (PVT) and how to help your clients regulate their nervous system? My power hour explains PVT in simple terms and will give you handouts you can use in sessions with clients and specific strategies you can teach them to regulate their nervous system.

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Stephen Porges, is a groundbreaking approach to understanding our nervous system and how our brain and body work together. It describes three main systems within the nervous system, the green system, where we feel safe and can rest, digest and connect with others, the yellow system, often called fight or flight, where our body is activated to manage a perceived threat, and the red system, where we shut down, dissociate or feel numb because everything feels overwhelming.

In this webinar I will be introducing these concepts, so that you have a better knowledge of how our brain and body work together to keep us safe.

The Power Hour will cover how the nervous system can become dysregulated, leaving us in a state of ongoing anxiety and stress, where we are more sensitive to potential threats, and less able to connect with others in a helpful way. We'll cover the power of co-regulation and how to help clients who experience high levels of distress in sessions.

Clients (and therapists) often tend to address stress through cognitive strategies. This Power Hour will explain why phsyiological strategies, like movement or breathing, are often a more helpful first step.

🎯 This Power Hour is for you if:

• You want to better understand the nervous system and the stress response.
• You’d like practical strategies to help clients regulate stress with and between sessions.
• You want to integrate body-based regulation tools into your EMDR or clinical practice.
• You work with clients who get stuck in fight, flight, or freeze responses.

This Power Hour will cover:

✅ Polyvagal theory and the three systems of our nervous system.

✅How the stress response impacts on how we feel, think, interact with others and experience the world.

✅ The link between trauma and nervous system dysregulation.

✅Psychological tools to better manage the stress response, complete the stress cycle and promote feelings of safety.

Testimonials

Attendees were asked what they found helpful:

"It was immediately applicable to my clinical practice. I also loved the facts about the vagus nerve and have been sharing them with every client since! Also loved that the training was brief so easier to fit into work week"

"Traffic light analogy and techniques to move between the states"

"A great overview of polyvagal theory and how it applies to us as therapists."

"The webinar was informative and the trainer was very knowledgeable and down to earth."

"It was focused & concise & the handouts are very useful."

"I've just listened to your polyvagal webinar and wanted to let you know how helpful I found it. I had some limited knowledge and the Deb Dana text books but found it a bit too complex to hold my attention for long. I thought your presentation was really clear and the examples you included, particularly helpful. This model resonates well with me and some of the strategies are familiar from my longstanding yoga practice and with the ACT stuff. I definitely have a better understanding now and feel more confident to use this approach with some of my clients ... and on myself! Great stuff!"

Early bird price: £30.00 + booking fee before 20 September 2025.

Regular price: £37.50 + booking fee.

Dr Rachel Lee is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of NHS experience and also an EMDR Consultant. She has held various leadership roles, including service lead for an outpatient dialectical behaviour therapy service and associate non-executive director in the NHS. She is a female founder and the director of North Star Psychology Ltd. Rachel has taught on training courses for clinical psychologists and CBT therapists and has published research in peer reviewed journals. Her main passion is using EMDR therapy to help people who have experienced distressing or traumatic events, or are struggling with anxiety and low self-esteem. Rachel supervises over 15 EMDR therapists and also offers consultancy to organisations, for example she has provided trauma-informed recommendations for a psychological support scheme for people who have spoken up in the workplace.

The session will be recorded and you will have access to the recording for three months after the link is provided.

You will receive a handout, a PDF of the nervous system model that you can share with clients and also two worksheets that you can use with clients to help them understand their nervous system better and capture the strategies that work well for them.

Bookings are now open for the Autumn series of EMDR Power Hours. You can find these Power Hours via Rachel's profile.