Polyvagal Institute

Frank Anderson, MD, is a world-renowned trauma expert, Harvard-trained psychiatrist and global speaker. He is the co-author of the IFS Skills Training Manual (2017), acclaimed best-selling author of Transcending Trauma (2021) and newly released memoir, To Be Loved: A Story of Truth, Trauma and Transformation (2024). Dr Anderson has a long affiliation with Bessel van der Kolk and is on the board at the Trauma Research Foundation. A former Lead Trainer with the IFS Institute, Dr. Anderson is also a member of the Clinical Advisory Board with Unyte Health. He is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with cutting edge models of therapy. Dr. Anderson believes that traumatic events can have a lasting effect on the health and well- being of individuals and that addressing these events will help lead people down a path of love, connection and unity. He is the director and cofounder of the Trauma Institute (traumainstitute.com) and Trauma-Informed Media (trauma-informedmedia.com), organizations that provide educational resources and promote trauma awareness. As a result of his early childhood experiences and personal journey transformation, he is dedicated to bringing more trauma healing to the world. He resides in Los Angeles with his husband and two sons. Follow him at FrankAndersonMD.com and on Instagram at frank_andersonmd.

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 is "20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction Using the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model". "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