- Define emotional literacy, recognize challenges in clients, and explain its development in the first six years of life
- Utilize emotional literacy and polyvagal theory as key components in trauma-informed care
- Develop therapeutic empathy to integrate across emotional literacy frameworks
- Demonstrate increased self-awareness of emotional attunement and self-reflective practice
Building Emotional Literacy in Clinical Practice
Dr. Patti Ashley, Psychologist
Master polyvagal-informed interventions for trauma, attachment wounds, and emotional dysregulation in complex cases with neuroscience-based tools.
Excerpt:
This course is not available.
Overview
Many clients arrive in our offices with profound disruptions in their capacity to recognize, name, and safely experience emotion—a legacy of early relational trauma, insecure attachment, or developmental adversity that shapes every aspect of the therapeutic encounter.
This training provides you with an integrated neuroscience-informed framework for cultivating emotional literacy as a cornerstone of trauma treatment. Drawing on polyvagal theory, attachment research, and developmental neurobiology, you will examine how emotional awareness develops through early co-regulatory experiences, how trauma disrupts this developmental trajectory, and how therapeutic relationships can serve as powerful agents of neuroplastic change. Dr. Patti Ashley guides you through the neurophysiology of shame, the autonomic foundations of emotional safety, and the clinical application of right-brain therapeutic processes that support genuine transformation.
You will gain the ability to:
- Deepen your understanding of how emotional literacy develops in the first six years of life, and recognize the neurobiological signatures of attachment trauma, shame, and autonomic dysregulation in clinical presentations
- Integrate polyvagal theory into your assessment and intervention strategies, utilizing the three organizing principles—ANS hierarchy, neuroception, and co-regulation—to create holding environments that support safe emotional exploration
- Implement attachment-style-specific interventions that honor clients' protective strategies while facilitating movement toward secure relational patterns and expanded affective tolerance
- Strengthen your own emotional attunement through right-brain therapeutic empathy, reflective practice, and embodied presence that models the co-regulatory capacity many clients never experienced in early development
This training equips you with evidence-based tools for working with alexithymia, somatization, affect dysregulation, and shame-based defenses. By refining your capacity to recognize autonomic states, respect adaptive survival responses, facilitate regulation, and support re-storying, you will enhance therapeutic alliance and create the relational conditions necessary for lasting change in clients with complex developmental and relational trauma.
Accreditation
Awaiting the OPQ accreditation number
About the expert
Dr. Patti Ashley, PhD, LPC is a renowned psychologist and trauma specialist with over 40 years of clinical experience treating complex trauma and narcissistic abuse. As founder of Authenticity Architects, she pioneered innovative approaches integrating neuroscience, attachment theory, and developmental psychology.
Her groundbreaking work on shame-informed therapy has transformed treatment protocols for survivors of narcissistic abuse. Dr. Ashley holds a PhD in Psychology from the Union Institute and University, with additional specialization in developmental psychology and trauma treatment.
A respected researcher and author, she wrote the influential text "Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self" (2020). Dr. Ashley regularly conducts advanced clinical trainings internationally, helping practitioners develop expertise in trauma-informed, attachment-based approaches to healing.
Her integrative treatment model combines:
- Neurobiological trauma processing
- Attachment-based interventions
- Somatic regulation techniques
- Identity reconstruction protocols
- Shame-informed therapeutic strategies
Learning objectives
Learning material
A theoretical course illustrated with clinical examples. This course is composed of videos of 5 to 15 minutes each. The PowerPoint of the course to download.
Syllabus
- PowerPoint
- 1. Introduction
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How Emotional Literacy Develops
- 2. What Is Emotional Literacy and Its Challenges
- 3. Attachment as the Core of Regulation
- 4. Understanding Shame
- 5. Shame, Trauma, and the Nervous System
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Emotional Literacy in Trauma-Informed Care
- 6. Repairing the Ruptures
- 7. Creating a Holding Environment in Treatment
- 8. The ANS and Polyvagal Theory
- 9. Some Defenses Against Shame
- 10. The Four Therapeutic “R” s
- 11. Attachment Styles
- 12. Therapeutic Empathy
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Naming & Regulating Emotions
- 13. List Of Emotions
- 14. Bridging Paradox
- 15. ABC exercise and Expressing Anger
- 16. Excavation Exercice- The Deep-SEA Dive
- 17. Connect The Dots- Rewiring the Story
- 18. Re-Storying
- 19. Activating the Right Brain Part I
- 20. Activating the Right Brain Part II
- 21. Therapist Emotional Attunement and Self-Reflection Practices
- 22. Conclusion
- Bibliography
CE Credits
Download a certificate of successful completion.
Audience
This course is intended for mental health professionals.
Registration
Ask a question
Do you have a question? Then email us at contact@asadis.net
Frequently asked questions
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Is there an evaluation at the end of the course?
To validate the achievement of the learning objectives, a final evaluation in the form of true/false questions is required. It must be completed in order to obtain the certificate of completion.
In addition, an optional self-assessment is offered at the beginning and end of the course, allowing you to measure your progress on the targeted skills.
These evaluations are not graded and are intended primarily to support your professional reflection.
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I have a disability. Can I receive specific support?
Yes! This training is offered as a pre-recorded video format, without subtitles. If you have a disability, we can provide an adapted alternative (technical assistance for viewing or individual supervision). For any request, please contact our disability coordinator at the following address: contact@asadis.net
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How long do I have access to the course?
After your registration, the course is accessible anytime and from anywhere with unlimited access.
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When does the course start?
That is entirely up to you! When you buy a course, you'll receive an access link that you can activate when you want.
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Is there a student rate?
Yes there is! To learn more, email us at contact@asadis.net.
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Legal notice
The courses offered by ASADIS are accredited by different professional organisations. In addition, ASADIS is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. ASADIS maintains responsibility for the program.
The CPA’s approval of an individual, group, or organization as a CE Sponsor or Provider is restricted to the activities described in the approved application or annual report form. The CPA’s approval does not extend to any other CE activity the Sponsor or Provider might offer. In granting its approval, the CPA assumes no legal or financial obligations to Sponsors, Providers, or to those individuals who might participate in a Sponsor or Provider’s CE activities or programs. Further, responsibility for the content, provision, and delivery of any CE activity approved by the CPA remains that of the CE Sponsor or Provider. The CPA disclaims all legal liability associated with the content, provision, and delivery of the approved CE activity.