Jan Winhall and the Polyvagal Paradigm for Addiction
Sep 18, 2023
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Jan Winhall, a psychotherapist and author from Toronto, discusses her expertise in trauma and addiction through the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model. She emphasizes the connection between bodily awareness and emotional healing, highlighting the roles of interoception and neuroception. Winhall advocates for integrating practical experiences in therapy to enhance understanding and recovery. She also reflects on the body's inherent wisdom in healing trauma and shares insights about her upcoming presentation at the Holistic Recovery Summit.
The podcast emphasizes the importance of integrating the felt sense polyvagal model to help clients reconnect with their physical and emotional states during trauma and addiction treatment.
It highlights the necessity of making psychological concepts more accessible through embodied practices, fostering curiosity and engagement in clients' therapeutic journeys.
Deep dives
Integration of Science and Therapy
The discussion highlights the importance of integrating various scientific insights into therapeutic practices, particularly concerning trauma and addiction treatment. The felt sense polyvagal model is emphasized as a way to connect with the body and enhance understanding of clients' experiences through interoception and neuroception. By merging knowledge from different fields, including Eugene Gendlin’s philosophy and Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory, therapists can create a more comprehensive approach to healing. This integration enables clients to explore their internal sensations and experiences, promoting a deeper connection to their physical and emotional states.
Embodiment as a Therapeutic Approach
Embodiment is presented as crucial for fostering healing, especially given the dominance of a disembodied culture that often disconnects individuals from their physical experiences. Therapists are encouraged to guide clients in recognizing their body's wisdom by facilitating awareness of bodily processes and emotions. This approach not only helps clients feel safer in their bodies, particularly those who have suffered trauma, but also aids in understanding maladaptive behaviors through a lens of necessity rather than pathology. By empowering clients to reconnect with their bodily sensations, therapists can help them discover paths to healing and self-awareness.
Client-Centric Exploration
The podcast underscores the importance of making psychological concepts accessible and relevant to clients by engaging them in embodied practices. By teaching concepts like neuroception and interoception through experiential learning, therapists can demystify these ideas and reduce any intimidation clients may feel towards science. This method fosters curiosity and encourages clients to explore their own bodies and sensations in a therapeutic context. Ultimately, this client-centric approach facilitates personal discovery and deeper integration of therapeutic principles into their lives.
We talk to Jan Winhall, MSW, FOT who is an author, teacher, and psychotherapist in Toronto, Canada. She is author of “Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model”, and will be a speaker at the upcoming Holistic Recovery Summit with Stephen Porges.
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