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$175.00
Regular price
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Enroll Now
3 x $58.33
3 Month Payment Plan
Self-paced
Discover Your Path Back To Safety
Learn Polyvagal Theory directly from master clinician Deb Dana, LCSW. In this course, you'll explore how our nervous systems influence our behavior and emotions, and identify the pathways that lead to safety and healing.
- Beneath our differences, we share something fundamental: a nervous system shaping our moment-to-moment experience. This course helps you understand that shared human foundation.
- Learners have access to course materials for 365 days.
- This course is an accesible starting point for both personal and professional understanding of Polyvagal Theory.
Are you or your clients experiencing the following?
Polyvagal Theory provides us with a map of understanding, showing us that our behaviors and emotions are driven by adaptive survival responses rooted in the nervous system. Through this process, we begin to foster more compassion for ourselves and others.
That means your nervous system is working as it should. Shutting down is an adaptive survival response, not a character flaw or disorder.
Your Neuroception is trying to tell you something. In this course, we'll learn how to connect and read into our nervous systems.
Deb Dana calls it "the land of should," meaning your sympathetic nervous system is highly activated. In this course, we'll identify tools and practices that can help bring us back to regulation.
Our nervous systems couple with those we are sharing space with. Once you start tuning into your nervous system regularly, you can start to identify relationships and environments that you feel safe in.
Learn & Experience Six Organizing Principles
01
Neuroception
Your "autonomic intuition" that detects safety and threat before your thinking brain gets involved.
02
Autonomic Hierarchy
The nervous system organizes physiological state in response to cues of safety and threat.
03
The Vagal Brake
"Therapy is a vagal brake exercise. And daily life is a vagal brake exercise." — Deb Dana
04
Co-regulation
We're wired for connection. When we feel connected to others, we feel safer.
05
Social Engagement System
Your nervous system uses your eyes, ears, and tone of voice to send and receive safety signals in every interaction.
06
Glimmers
Glimmers are small moments of joy that gently reshape our nervous system.
This is an absolutely fabulous entry level course to learning about the polyvagal theory. Deb's teaching style is easy to follow and is pitched at just the right level for someone new to polyvagal theory.
Deb Williams
I really loved this course. The way Deb explains the material—her tone of voice, pacing, and pauses—made the concepts much easier to understand and integrate. Her delivery created a sense of clarity and safety, which I found especially supportive while learning about Polyvagal Theory.
Catalina Sánchez
I found this introduction to Polyvagal theory outstanding. It opened such a powerful way to understand a different view of my own experience and that of others beyond thinking, symptoms, judgment, shame. I am grateful. I want to learn more!
Maureen Peters
Transformative information
Linea Larsen
Frequently Asked Questions
What will I learn in this course?
This self-paced workshop presents the organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory in combination with practices that bring the theory into practical application through recorded teaching modules with master clinician Deb Dana.
Students will learn the core principles of Polyvagal Theory: neuroception, hierarchy, co-regulation, the vagal brake, the social engagement system, and more.
Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone interested in learning the basics of Polyvagal Theory. The teachings can be integrated both personally and professionally in working with clients.
Types of professions that may benefit from this training include: clinicians, psychologists, psychoanalysts, physicians, psychiatrists, social workers, MFTs, counselors, substance abuse counselors, occupational therapists, physical therapists, coaches, nurses, and other healthcare professionals or those working in areas of mind-body work.
How long will I have access to this course?
Students will have access to the course for 365 days from the date of registration.
Does this course require me to be online at a certain day or time?
No! This course is entirely self-paced. You're free to learn on your own time.
Deb Dana, LCSW
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician, consultant, author and speaker. Her work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma in our lives. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, consultant to Khiron Clinics, and advisor to Unyte.
Deb’s work shows how an understanding of Polyvagal Theory is applicable across the board to relationships, mental health, and trauma. She delves into the intricacies of how we can all use an understanding of the organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory to change the ways we navigate our daily lives.
Deb is well known for translating Polyvagal Theory into a language and application that is both clear and accessible and for pioneering Rhythm of Regulation® methodology, tools, techniques and practices which continue to open up the power of Polyvagal Theory for professionals and curious people from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life.
Deb believes that we all benefit when we have a basic understanding of the ways the nervous system works and learn how to become active operators of this essential system. Following this passion has led her to offering workshops in partnership with groups and communities outside of the clinical arena - and bringing the Polyvagal perspective to the ordinary, and sometimes extraordinary, experiences of daily living.
Deb’s clinical work published with W.W. Norton includes The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client Centered Practices, the Polyvagal Flip Chart, the Polyvagal Card Deck, and Polyvagal Practices: Anchoring the Self in Safety. She partners with Sounds True to bring her polyvagal perspective to a general audience through the audio program Befriending Your Nervous System: Looking Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory and her print book Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory.
Additional FAQs
Upon enrolling in a course, you will receive an email invite to access the course in on our learning platform - learning.polyvagal.org. This is where you'll find all of the course materials, links, and class community.
You can reset your password by going to https://learning.polyvagal.org/users/sign_in and clicking the “Forgot Password?” link. You will then enter the email address you used when creating your account to receive a one-time password reset link. Password reset emails come from [email protected] - if you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Use the instructions in that email to complete your password reset. If you have any other technical questions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
Our prices are listed in USD (United States Dollars). Your credit card or bank statement will likely reflect the price in your local currency.
Yes. For groups of five or more participants, a 15% discount is available for each participant. Please contact us at [email protected] to inquire and to enroll as a group!
PVI is the founding home of Polyvagal Theory, and we believe our courses offer the most accurate and up to date content about Polyvagal Theory and its many applications. There is no accrediting body for this type of curriculum.
Our course descriptions will list any continuing education credits (CEs/ CEUs) or other professional benefits that might be available for the course (along with any applicable restrictions). If CEs are not listed for a particular course, then none are available.
Yes. All live meetings are held on Zoom, which offers an automatic closed captioning feature. In addition, most of our pre-recorded course content is hosted on a platform that offers an automatic closed captioning feature. If you come across a video that does not have closed captioning, please send us a message at [email protected] and we will be glad to assist you.
If you are located in the US or Canada, you will be charged sales tax on the cost of your course.
We are proud to offer a 30 day Money Back Guarantee for all of our courses (from date of purchase for self-paced courses and from date of first live session for live courses). Please reach out to us at [email protected] if you'd like to inquire about a refund.
Pricing options
This course will be published on June 15, 2026. If you represent an organization interested in scheduling a private offering of this course, please contact us at [email protected].