Integrative Case Conceptualization: A Polyvagal and Parts Work Approach

Too often in clinical practice, symptoms are approached as behaviours to eliminate, manage, or correct—through willpower, reframing, or coping strategies. This training offers a different perspective, reframing symptoms as adaptive survival strategies developed in response to early environments marked by chaos, neglect, abuse, or chronic unpredictability.

This workshop introduces an integrative case conceptualization model grounded in Polyvagal Theory, Parts Work Therapy, and embodied trauma neuroscience. Participants will learn to understand client presentations through both cognitive and physiological lenses, creating a more complete and compassionate framework for clinical work across all phases of treatment.

A Dual-Lens Approach to Case Conceptualization

Participants will be introduced to a dual-lens model that integrates:

• Top-left brain processes, including executive functioning, cognitive meaning-making, and behavioural patterns
• Lower-right brain and embodied nervous system processes, including autonomic states, implicit memory, and somatic responses

Together, these perspectives form a comprehensive template for case formulation across micro (moment-to-moment), mid-level, and macro/systemic levels of clinical work.

Understanding the Deeper Drivers of Client Experience

This training explores five core human issues that often underlie clinical presentations:

• Fear of abandonment, rejection, or not belonging
• Fear of not having enough resources or support
• Fear of helplessness or powerlessness
• Fear of physical or emotional harm
• Fear of losing identity, meaning, or connection to self

These themes often shape lifelong survival patterns and help explain why symptoms can feel persistent, overwhelming, or rooted in shame.

From Symptoms to Survival Strategies

Many behaviours labeled as “symptoms” are expressions of core protection strategies:

• Fight
• Flight
• Freeze
• Submit
• Please-see-me

These strategies unfold within physiological states such as hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and the window of tolerance, which clinicians will learn to track throughout treatment.

Pacing, Capacity, and Clinical Decision-Making

Pacing is central to this model. Participants will learn to assess nervous system capacity, titrate interventions, and select strategies that align with the client’s current state. The Path Stone metaphor is introduced as a practical tool to guide the “next right step,” supporting forward movement in therapy without overwhelming or bypassing vulnerable parts of the system.

A Dynamic Framework for Ongoing Treatment

This workshop builds on foundational knowledge of Parts Work and Polyvagal Theory by positioning case conceptualization as an ongoing, evolving process. Participants will learn how to use this model as a clinical compass—guiding pacing, intervention selection, relational attunement, and the strengthening of Adult Self and Core Self capacities throughout the course of treatment.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to —

• Describe the three primary states of the nervous system and their impact on perception, communication, memory, and therapeutic capacity.
• Reframe commonly identified symptoms as adaptive protection mechanisms linked to survival strategies.
• Integrate cognitive and narrative processes with embodied and autonomic nervous system tracking in case conceptualization.
• Identify indicators of Adult Self and Core Self functioning within clinical presentations.
• Apply an integrative case conceptualization framework to guide pacing, intervention selection, and treatment progression.
• Recognize core human fears underlying nervous system activation and map these to protective strategies.

This training offers 6 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

Attendees of the original live broadcast receive instructions on how to obtain their Certificate of Participation at the end of the course and in the “recording ready” email, which is sent 1-2 days after the live course has ended.

Attendees watching the previously recorded/on-demand version must complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a passing grade of at least 80% to verify their attendance and receive their Certificate of Participation.

Note: The course recording is available only after the live broadcast has ended.

The Certificate of Participation includes:

• Name of participant.
• Title of training.
• Name of presenter plus their credentials.
• Number of hours of training.
• Date of training.
• Confirmation of 100% attendance at the original live broadcast OR a passing grade of at least 80% on the recorded on-demand version post-course quiz.

Get details about CE credits for Canadian and non-US international participants.

Get details about CE credits for US participants.

Please check with your regulatory body/organization to ensure that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CE credits.