Polyvagal Institute

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

Nancy Falls, Ed.D. , RP is a registered psychotherapist in private practice with over 30 years of clinical experience. She also has extensive experience working in a Children’s Mental Health environment conducting assessments and providing treatment to children and youth who have experienced child all forms of child maltreatment, especially those who have been sexually abused. Over the years, she has engaged in training in a number of modalities and approaches, as she strives to remain current in our knowledge and understanding of trauma. As a client centered therapist, her belief is that each of us has within us all that we need to move our lives forward and she brings an embodied and experiential approach to her work with clients. She has been using Focusing as a practice both personally and professionally for over 30 years. She is a certified Focusing Oriented Therapist and Coordinator with the International Focusing Institute, as well as currently serving as a member of the International Leadership Council. Nancy has been training professionals in the assessment and treatment of trauma for over 15 years and Polyvagal Theory fits perfectly with in our understanding of how trauma impacts the body. Nancy was introduced to Polyvagal Theory through her friend and colleague, Jan Winhall. After reading Jan’s book, Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model – A bottom-up approach, she described it by saying “Combining Focusing and Polyvagal theory is brilliant and Jan Winhall does an exceptional job in articulating how these two approaches work to help empower people to heal from trauma and addiction using the wisdom of their bodies”. Nancy has been assisting Jan as a Polyvagal Informed Focusing Facilitator in her certificate course through the Polyvagal Institute; Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Certificate for Treating Trauma and Addictions.