How M-Bodied Nourishment Continuing Education Courses Can Offer Deeper Nourishment to All Clients

Are you a helping professional looking for the path to nourishment? Are you polyvagal curious?

I received a question by email the other day from a helping professional interested in the M-Bodied Nourishment series I offer with Dee Wagner. This question seemed so important that it occurred to me to share both the question and the answer in a blog post. 

Question: Are the M-Bodied Nourishment series courses specifically geared towards disordered eating, or can the skills the courses teach be applied more generally? 

Answer: M-Bodied Nourishment's 3 Courses are geared for the spectrum of disordered eating. However, the range of urges and behaviors that show up as food/eating/body-image issues can be traced to deeper roots of relational distress. Throughout all 3 Courses, we repeatedly dive deeply into polyvagal theory, trauma response and attachment. We look at how the intersection of the three can shed light on common reactions.

 The push and pull of what can get diagnosed as Borderline tendencies can be seen as coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms might include: 

· food/eating/dieting issues

· chronic emotional eating

· body disconnection or hyperfocus on body image

· movement/exercise compulsivity or avoidance

Celebration versus Shaming

What's often missing in the treatment world and our culture at large is a celebration and handling of the push and pull that helps us become our unique selves. Little by little over many generations, parents have lost the awareness of the value of these relational "dances." The nerve firing that would flex the muscles to move the bones to begin the relational "dance" has gone into what polyvagal theory identifies as dorsal vagal Shut-down. 

The push and pull moves are important for expressing preferences. When those moves have gone into Shut-down, it becomes difficult to know ourselves. It becomes difficult because we cannot sense what we do not like, and therefore what we like. When moves go into Shut-down, any expression of the moves becomes laced with shame. 

When parents and helpers know how to better handle what often feels like challenging opposition, children and clients can more easily embody. Children are able to express preference. The better children know themselves, the more they can authentically cooperate with others. 

 With the push and pull moves, infants and children experience self-discovery in various stages. These important movements become compromised when they do not receive relational support. The M-Bodied Nourishment Courses offer psychoeducation and interactive learning exercises to show:

· How infant developmental patterns serve as building blocks to one’s nervous system functioning

· How professionals can make space for clients to better recognize these shutdown moves/urges in a trauma-informed way

· How these patterns can be healthily integrated and digested 

Strengthening the Helping Relationship

In the M-Bodied Nourishment series, helping professionals learn how to use the therapeutic relationship to assist clients in retrieving and re-integrating Push and Reach/Grab/Pull. Push and Reach/Grab/Pull are Chi for Two® partner practices that help us embody polyvagal theory. They help everyone strengthen what scientist Stephen Porges—creator of the polyvagal theory—calls our Social Engagement system functioning.

 The Chi for Two partner practices shift nervous system functioning from chronic trauma response to more supportive Social Engagement functioning. With strengthened Social Engagement system functioning, one has an increased ability to honor:

· physiological rhythms (hunger, fullness, rest, work, play)

· varied emotional states

· relationship with self and others in a satisfying way

Join Us

Evolving trauma education and neuroscience research continues to shine light on the importance of healthy relationships for healing and well-being. With scientists' enthusiasm for supportive relational dances, we propose that all helping professionals can benefit from M-Bodied Nourishment training. Some professionals work specifically with identifiable disordered eating issues, and all mental health professionals are beginning to recognize an increasing need for deeper nourishment in relational ways. 

Thanks for asking!    

For detailed information about the workshops, visit https://mbodiedtherapy.com/mbodied-events, and to Register: https://www.chifortwo.com/store