What is this course?
The Regulated Self is a six module CPD resource designed for counsellors, coaches, and helping professionals who want to deepen their understanding of one of the most important and fascinating areas in modern psychology — the nervous system.
Everything your clients bring to you lives in the nervous system. The anxiety, the freeze, the overwhelm, the shutdown, the inability to feel safe even when they are safe. And everything you bring to the room as a counsellor — your presence, your regulation, your ability to sit with difficulty without becoming overwhelmed — lives there too.
This course gives you the knowledge, the language, and the personal insight to understand what is happening in the bodies of the people you work with — and in your own body — so that you can show up more effectively, more compassionately, and more genuinely for the people who trust you with their most difficult experiences.
Scope of course
This course is designed as an accessible introduction to polyvagal theory and nervous system awareness for counsellors working at Level 4 and above. It is not a specialist trauma therapy training. Where content touches on areas requiring specialist qualification — such as complex trauma — this is clearly signposted throughout. As always bring anything significant that arises to supervision.
CPD Hours
This course has been designed as a reflective practice resource suitable for use as Continuing Professional Development. Estimated total engagement time is 7 hours across all six modules.
Participants are responsible for recording and claiming CPD hours in line with their own professional body's requirements. A personalised certificate of completion is issued automatically upon finishing the course.
Who is this course for?
This course is for you if you are:
- A qualified or trainee counsellor or psychotherapist
- A coach or helping professional
- Someone who wants to understand anxiety, stress, and nervous system responses at a deeper level
- Someone who recognises that the most important tool they bring into the room is themselves — regulated, present, and genuinely available
Course curriculum
What will you explore?
Module 1 — Introduction to the Nervous System
What the nervous system is, why it matters for counsellors, and how the mind and body are in constant conversation. The foundation for everything that follows.
Module 2 — Polyvagal Theory
Stephen Porges' groundbreaking theory — the three states of the autonomic nervous system, the polyvagal ladder, the vagal brake, and neuroception. A completely new way of understanding human responses to safety and threat.
Module 3 — Anxiety, Fight, Flight and Freeze
A deep and honest exploration of what happens when the nervous system moves into activation or shutdown — and how it shows up in your clients and in yourself.
Module 4 — Coming Back to Safety
The practical module. Breathing techniques, grounding, movement, co-regulation, and the counsellor as a regulating presence. Evidence informed approaches that fall well within the competency of counsellors working at Level 4 and above.
Module 5 — ACT and Alternative Approaches
An accessible introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and how its ideas connect with polyvagal informed practice. Defusion, acceptance, psychological flexibility, and values based action — explored as awareness and understanding rather than clinical technique.
Module 6 — You and Your Nervous System
The most personal module in the course. A honest, compassionate examination of your own nervous system — your triggers, your regulation practice, how your state affects your clients, and what genuine self care looks like through a polyvagal lens.
-
1Module 1
-
2Module 2
-
3Module 3
-
4Module 4
-
5Module 5
-
6Module 6