Felt Sense Polyvagal Model:
A Certificate for Treating Trauma and Addiction. Starts September 25, 2025.
Learn with Jan
In treating trauma and addiction, specialists are realizing the importance of helping their clients connect with embodied wisdom. Many trainings emphasize the importance of this connection, but they don’t provide specifics on instructing clients to lean into their bodies.
Through this course, students will engage in their own felt sense experiencing, and learn how to share that experience and process with their clients.
Course Timing
This nine-month course begins on Thursday, September 25. The cohort will meet for a two-hour long sessions each month, live on Zoom. Live sessions will be supplemented with one-on-one focusing partner practice sessions and self-paced course content. Classes run from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET:
- September 25
- October 23
- November 20
- December 18
- January 29
- February 26
- March 26
- April 30
- May 28
Course Description
The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™, developed by instructor Jan Winhall, is a tool that helps people transition from being stressed, overwhelmed, or addicted to becoming more regulated, grounded, and calm in their bodies. The model integrates Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, alongside Gendlin’s Felt Sense Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy process, enabling us to appreciate traumatic and addictive behaviors as adaptive responses to maladaptive environments.
It shifts the current pathologizing paradigm to a strength based approach and provides a generic framework that can support any therapeutic modality. Therapists, coaches, bodyworkers can all benefit from this training.
Interested in learning more? Head to the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model page to learn more about the course and the requirements for becoming a Certified FSPM Facilitator.
Course Requirements
Attendance
100% live attendance is required. If you must miss one class, attendance in the make-up class is required in addition to viewing the recording of the first 75 minutes of the class that you missed.
One make-up class is provided after the end of the course. These are the attendance requirements for earning the two certificates and for earning CEs.
Focusing Partnerships
In addition to monthly classes, you will also pair up with a Focusing Partner. You will not meet with your partner during the weeks with classes scheduled.
In order to receive the Proficiency in Focusing Partnership (PFP) Award, you must provide documentation of 15 Partner sessions over the nine months. You will need at least 50 minutes - totaling 12.5 hours during the course. Each person gets 20 minutes of Focusing and your partner reflects back your felt sense.
Pre-Course Reading
Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, by Jan Winhall, Routledge, 2021.
Purchase now with 20% off using this code: FSPM23
International Body Psychotherapy Journal Vol. 21, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2022:
Gendlin, E. T. Focusing. (1978/1981). New York: Bantamdell.
Pricing options
Students will have access to the course for 365 days from the date of the first live session.
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Enroll Now
$1,347.00
Regular price
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Enroll Now
6 x $224.50
6 Month Payment Plan
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Enroll Now
3 x $449.00
3 Month Payment Plan
Extra Details
There are 21 hours of CE credit available with this course.
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This course is for clinicians, coaches, bodyworkers, and other healthcare providers.
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This course consists of nine two-hour Zoom classes, administered monthly, alongside nine hours of self-paced lectures by Jan Winhall. Students will also be paired up in Focusing Partnerships, and have access to recorded conversations between Jan Winhall and Stephen Porges.
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You will receive a Concentration in the Application of the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model upon completion of the course You may have the option to earn 21 hours of CE credit provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy for an additional fee of $80.
Course curriculum
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Jan Winhall's Course Intro Webinar: The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
FREE PREVIEW -
Course Welcome
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Course Schedule and Zoom Link
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Direct communication with Jan
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Submit Your Focusing Partnership Form
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Required Reading
FREE PREVIEW -
Optional Reading
FREE PREVIEW -
A Guided Felt Sense Polyvagal Grounding Practice with Jan Winhall
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FSPM Handouts
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How to Obtain CEs
FREE PREVIEW -
Planning Ahead: How to Obtain Your Proficiency in Focusing Partnership (PFP) Award
FREE PREVIEW -
Course Bibliography
FREE PREVIEW -
Other Resources for Download
FREE PREVIEW -
Some extra information on Fawning and Appeasement
FREE PREVIEW
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Zoom Live Classes & Recordings
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Module 01 An Evolving Paradigm, Part 1 (Recording)
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Slides: class 1
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Article: "What is Felt Sense?"
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Body Cards (downloadable)
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What Would You Do If You Were a Focusing Oriented Therapist?
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The Classic Six Steps
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6 Steps of Focusing
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6 Steps of Focusing Slides
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Process Recording Form
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Overview on work with addictions
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Module 02 An Evolving Paradigm, Part 2
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Live class #2 ppt slides
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Embodied Presence_Nancy Falls
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FAQs about Focusing Partnerships
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Gendlin Online Library
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Module 03 An Evolving Paradigm, Part 3
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Why addiction isn't a disease but instead the result of 'deep learning' NDARC - National Drug and
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Cross Lingual Focusing / Pertenecer y Versionar en Comunidad
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Right in Their Hands: How gestures imply the body’s next steps in Focusing-oriented therapy
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Movement Therapy, Objectification, and Focusing by Gendlin
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Jan Winhall & Marc Lewis Recording
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Module 04 The Trauma of Addiction, Part 1
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Primacy of Human Presence slides
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Experiencing Scale Reference Sheet
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EATT Download Instruction Video
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EATT Download Links
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Jan Winhall & Robert demo
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Youtube Focusing Resource
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About this course
- $1,347.00
- 65 lessons
Your Instructor
Jan Winhall
Jan Winhall, M.S.W. F.O.T. is an author, teacher and psychotherapist. She is an adjunct lecturer and practicum supervisor in the Department of Social Work, University of Toronto. Jan is director of Focusing on Borden, a psychotherapy and training center. She has built a community of people who teach and practice Focusing as a way of life. Jan presents internationally on trauma and addiction.
Her book, "Treating Addiction with The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Bottom Up Approach" is the result of rethinking the Felt Sense Experience Model that she wrote about in Emerging Practice in Focusing- Oriented Psychotherapy, 2014. Her most recent book, "20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction Using the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model" releases March 18, 2025, and will accompany her new Community Practice Groups offering.
"Reframing addiction and its treatment through the lens of Experiential Psychotherapy, Polyvagal Theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology and Imago Relationship Therapy, Jan Winhall has produced a brilliant synthesis and expansion of addiction theory and treatment that should be read by all therapists, not just addiction specialists." ―Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, authors of Doing Imago Relationship Therapy in the Space Between
"In this insightful volume Jan Winhall brings together the essence of groundbreaking modern therapeutic practices with her own decades of hard-won clinical experience to fashion a new, deeply humane and promising model of addiction treatment, illustrated by poignant clinical vignettes." ― Gabor Maté, MD, is the author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.
"In Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model Jan Winhall introduces a new strategy to treat addiction that brilliantly integrates Gendlin’s classic concept of a felt sense with Polyvagal Theory. The author shares her intellectual journey in which unique insights transform two disparate perspectives into obvious complements leading to a powerful treatment model." ―Stephen W. Porges, PhD, scientist, author, creator of Polyvagal Theory
Reviews
Deeply transformative
Inka Ticha
I feel very grateful for this wonderful journey with you. I had no idea that we could explore our depths in a very safe and supportive environment even conne...
Read MoreI feel very grateful for this wonderful journey with you. I had no idea that we could explore our depths in a very safe and supportive environment even connected online like this around the world. Thank you so much Jan, you are a great inspiration to me and thank you for all your thoughts and insights that have enriched my life and also my therapeutic practice. Thank you to everyone who participated in this wonderful training. I work as a craniosacral BCST therapist, treating trauma and any type of addiction is my mission. The Focusing method and Polyvagal approaches complement BCST treatment brilliantly. I myself have also undergone a significant self-discovery during these few months, it has changed me a lot. Thank you and I definitely recommend this training to all BCST practitioners. Warmly Inka Ticha, Czech Republic
Read LessHighly recommend!
Ragna Reiske
This course was a game changer for my work and personal development. I was new to Focusing and it is a powerful tool - especially in Jan’s combination with t...
Read MoreThis course was a game changer for my work and personal development. I was new to Focusing and it is a powerful tool - especially in Jan’s combination with the Polyvagal approach. Great additional tools are being handed out to create non-judgemental assessments of your clients, leaving the disease-driven mindset.
Read LessFelt Sense Polyvagal Model
Irene Becker
Excellent. Groundbreaking work!
Excellent. Groundbreaking work!
Read LessA very complete but complex model
Doug Chapman
Jan has brought together so many innovative ideas and models. This course was a great introduction to her exciting new approach. There are so many strands an...
Read MoreJan has brought together so many innovative ideas and models. This course was a great introduction to her exciting new approach. There are so many strands and interconnecting parts that it was overwhelming at times. But I am intrigued by the model that I am eager to go further in training so that I can become proficient in using this approach.
Read LessGreat course!
Lina Skantze
Such an important and useful course! The combination of Focusing and Polyvagal theory makes a brilliant foundation for a much needed paradigm shift in unders...
Read MoreSuch an important and useful course! The combination of Focusing and Polyvagal theory makes a brilliant foundation for a much needed paradigm shift in understanding and treating trauma and addiction. I highly recommend it!
Read Less