"Fantastic. This presentation is so helpful and ON TARGET. Many years of teaching here!" --Sue McMurray, Durham, NC
Course Timing
As a self-paced course, you can begin at any time and view on your own schedule.
Course Description
This course, featuring discussions between Drs. Stephen Porges and Mona Delahooke, presents a new physiologically based view of child behaviors. For parents, teachers and school administrators engaged with both neurologically typical and atypical children, this self-paced series deconstructs behaviors through the lens of Polyvagal Theory. Includes an invitation to a live discussion with Stephen Porges, PhD or Deb Dana, LCSW exclusively for members of our PVI learning community (next date TBD).
Payment Information
Access to this course costs $99.
Your access will last for 365 days from the date of registration.
Course Requirements
There are no pre-requisites for this course.
Course Format
Course Framework
This course consists of 4 prerecorded videos, and includes an invitation to attend a live broader student community discussion with Stephen Porges, PhD or Deb Dana, LCSW (next date TBD).
Module One (40 min): Understanding Behaviors Through a Polyvagal Lens
This module presents a discussion about the larger idea underlying the paradigm shift in understanding human behaviors. Currently, in education and in all methods that focus on behaviors, everything is “outside the body”. Dr. Porges and Dr. Delahooke discuss the behavioral model vs physiological model through the polyvagal perspective. Through this lens ground zero for understanding our kids is their physiology, not their behavior.
Module Two (49 min): The Power of Respecting a Child’s (and Parent’s) Physiological State
In this module, Dr. Porges and Dr. Delahooke explore the underpinnings of physiological state, with Dr. Porges explaining how feelings, emotions and behaviors are a derivative of physiological state. Central to the conversation is the concept of neuroception, which Dr. Delahooke explains through real life examples. Neuroception is the key concept in understanding and redefining behaviors as adaptations.
Module Three (45 min): Individualizing Education and Caregiving
Now that they’ve set the groundwork, Dr. Porges reviews the way in which our emotions have come to be regarded as a brain process rather than a whole body process. Through personal stories and cases, Drs. Porges and Delahooke discuss how important it is for educators and mental health professionals to shift their thinking to a whole-body view of both emotions and intellect. Top-down methods can be very helpful, but they must be enhanced by a knowledge of our physiology and the importance of our visceral feeling.
Module Four (46 min): Real life Examples & Application
Dr. Porges and Dr. Delahooke refer to their own experiences as a father and a mother as they explore topics such as nurturing your child’s state to build resilience through non-verbal cues, understanding the unintentional nature of your child’s behavior, and, perhaps most importantly, the notion that understanding your own state is essential to giving the right cues and co-regulating your children and students. The module also includes commentary on how Covid influenced our states during 2020 and 2021 as we all tried to cope with the unnatural lack of social engagement.
This course includes an invitation to a live discussion with Stephen Porges, PhD or Deb Dana, LCSW exclusively for members of our PVI learning community; (next date TBD).
Recommended Audience
Course Outcomes
You'll be eligible to receive a Certificate of Completion upon finishing this course.
INSTRUCTOR(S)
Mona Delahooke, PhD
Mona Delahooke, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience caring for children and their families. She is a senior faculty member of the Profectum Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting families of neurodiverse children, adolescents and adults. She is a trainer for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.
Dr. Delahooke holds the highest level of endorsement in the field of infant and toddler mental health in California, as a Reflective Practice Mentor (RPM). She is a frequent speaker, trainer, and consultant to parents, organizations, schools, and public agencies. Dr. Delahooke has dedicated her career to promoting compassionate, relationship-based interventions for children and families exposed to trauma and those with developmental, behavioral, emotional, and learning differences.
She is the author of the Best-Selling Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children’s Behavioral Challenges (PESI, 2019), which won the Gold Medal 2020 Award from the Independent Book Publisher’s Association, and Social and Emotional Development in Early Intervention: A Skills Guide for Working with Children (PESI, 2017). Her popular blog http://www.monadelahooke.com covers a range of topics useful for caregivers and childhood providers.
Mona Delahooke, PhD
Stephen W. Porges, PhD
Stephen W. Porges, PhD
Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium in the Kinsey Institute. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He is the originator of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral, mental, and health problems related to traumatic experiences. He is the creator of a music-based intervention, the Safe and Sound Protocol ™ , which currently is used by approximately 4,000 therapists to improve spontaneous social engagement, to reduce hearing sensitivities, and to improve language processing, state regulation, and spontaneous social engagement. Dr. Porges is a founder of the Polyvagal Institute.
