Learn with Jan

Participants in this course will learn how to teach polyvagal-informed focusing based on Jan Winhall’s Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, co-taught by Nancy Falls and Jan Winhall. Specific tools and strategies will be shared so that you will feel confident in teaching focusing and the basics of the FSPM. This is the last step in becoming a Certified FSPM Facilitator.
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Jan Winhall
FELT SENSE POLYVAGAL MODEL
Included in this course
Teaching Instruction

Learn how to teach Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, including Polyvagal Informed Focusing (PIF), to others in a group or individual setting.

Focusing Trainer Certification

From The International Focusing Institute upon completion of this course.

Interactive Focusing Partnerships

Bolster self-awareness through self-exploration and work with peers.

Learn More About FSPM

Course Timing

This nine-month course begins on Thursday, September 18. The cohort will meet for two-hour sessions monthly, live on Zoom. Live sessions will be supplemented with one-on-one partner practice sessions and self-paced course content.


Classes run from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET:

  • September 18
  • October 23
  • November 20
  • December 18
  • January 22
  • February 19
  • March 19
  • April 23
  • May 14

Course Description

By reflecting on learning principles, group process, and program development, participants will be prepared to integrate FSPM into any setting. Topics to be examined include how to teach the basics of Polyvagal Theory, interoception, neuroception, co-regulation, the 7-fs, felt-sense, focusing attitude, establishing focusing partnerships, the experiencing scale, and more. In this course, participants will learn specific strategies and resources to build safety while working with blocks, and inner critics. In the last two classes, students will receive feedback from both Nancy and Jan on their practice.


This course is for anyone who has completed The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Certificate for Treating Trauma and Addiction, including earning the Focusing Proficiency Award, and is interested in teaching polyvagal-informed focusing in a variety of settings.

Course Requirements

Student Expectations:

  • To attend all nine monthly 2 hour on-line sessions inclusive of lecture and participation small group breakouts (arrangements can be made for a maximum of 1 make-up session. Sessions will be recorded.)
  • To maintain a focusing partnership meeting bi-weekly (12h total) throughout the course.
  • To complete three assignments, including video recordings of themselves teaching, which directly contributes to completion of this certificate and the development of their plan to integrate FSPM.

Pricing options

Extra Details

This course prepares you to take the next step in your professional career by learning to teach the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, lead your own groups, and more.

  • This course is for clinicians, coaches, bodyworkers, and other healthcare providers.

  • Upon completion, students will earn a Focusing Trainer Certification from The International Focusing Institute & a Certificate of Completion from Polyvagal Institute.

Instructor(s)

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