Polyvagal Theory Workshops
Polyvagal Theory, as created by Dr. Stephen Porges, is also known as “the science of safety”
Our nervous system plays a central role in how we respond to stress, connect with others, and experience the world. Polyvagal Theory offers a powerful framework for understanding how our bodies react to safety, danger, or life threat—and how these responses shape our emotions, behaviors, and sense of self.
At the core of this theory are three states of the autonomic nervous system:
Ventral Vagal – associated with feelings of safety, connection, and calm
Sympathetic – the fight-or-flight response, linked to alertness, anxiety, or anger
Dorsal Vagal – a shutdown or freeze response, often tied to disconnection or numbness
These states aren't just mental—they influence everything from our heart rate to our digestion, and affect how we relate to others and ourselves.
When we experience trauma, our nervous system adapts to help us survive. But even after the danger has passed, these survival patterns can remain, leaving us feeling stuck in anxiety, disconnection, or overwhelm. Healing involves re-tuning the nervous system—learning to recognize these states, respond with compassion, and build new pathways to safety, connection, and resilience.
Polyvagal Theory Workshop for Martial Arts Instructors
Join therapist Michela Farnsworth’s Polyvagal Theory workshop designed for martial arts instructors. Learn trauma-informed techniques to create safer, more responsive classes.
In addition to my day job as a therapist, I have recently begun practicing the Krav Maga form of martial arts in my spare time. I have been able to take my knowledge and training of the Polyvagal Theory and personally integrate it into my martial arts training.
I can recognize when my nervous system state has down-regulated and how it interferes with my capacity to focus, maintain control over my body, and stay present in what I am doing; and I can implement coping skills to redirect and regulate.
I have been able to look back over the course of my training and recognize where instructors and sparring partners have provided cues of safety, as well as identify experiences where I may have been triggered by cues of danger via the presence/absence of instructor cues, environmental cues, and/or internal cues (based on my own personal triggers).
I can also track improvements in my technique and skillset parallel to my increased sense of safety over the course of my ongoing training.
“As a result, I have developed a training program to introduce martial arts instructors to the Polyvagal Theory and how they can integrate it with their instruction process”
If you are interested in learning more or scheduling a training, click here .
Next steps include:
Sending a proposal outlining the objectives and training overview.
Scheduling a consultation call to discuss how the training can be adapted to fit the needs of your program and instructors.
This professional development training will address the following goals to:
Increase physical safety via increased emotional safety,
Increase capacity for learning,
Increase student resilience, and
Increase student retention
Polyvagal theory has been widely researched and adapted to a variety of contexts from the classroom to the therapy office. It has shown to be applicable to benefit all students from youth to adult.
““Indeed, martial arts are characterized by a hybrid physiological state of mobilization where there is a dynamic interaction in which the vagal brake is repeatedly inhibited to support body movement and then recovered in socially engaging behaviors, thus, exercising neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system” ”