- Identify the psychological factors associated with resilience after trauma exposure
- Describe how to enhance neuroplasticity within trauma treatment
- Recognize physiological markers of resilience and how is related to both physical and mental health
- Understand the markers of post-traumatic growth
Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth: An Integrative Mind-Body Approach to Trauma Recovery
Dre Arielle Schwartz, Psychologist
Master polyvagal-informed techniques to help trauma clients build resilience, regulate their nervous systems, and achieve post-traumatic growth.
Overview
Trauma reshapes the nervous system to perceive ongoing threat even when danger has passed. The very mechanisms designed for survival—heightened vigilance, defensive mobilization, protective shutdown—can trap clients in patterns that prevent recovery. This creates a clinical paradox: healing requires engaging the system that learned to stay dysregulated.
This training equips mental health professionals with an integrative framework for trauma recovery grounded in polyvagal theory, neuroplasticity research, and somatic psychology. Drawing on Dr. Arielle Schwartz's Resilience-Informed Therapy model, the course bridges neuroscience and somatic-grounded clinical practice. The focus extends beyond symptom reduction to facilitating post-traumatic growth—the capacity to find meaning, strength, and renewed purpose after adversity.
The training will help you develop applied competencies along four axes: deepening understanding of neuroception and how the autonomic nervous system detects threat below conscious awareness; assessing and strengthening vagal tone through heart rate variability as a measurable resilience marker; integrating the 6 Rs framework — relating, resourcing, repatterning, reprocessing, reflecting, and resilience building — into clinical work; and implementing evidence-based vagal stimulation techniques such as breathwork, somatic interventions, and compassion practices.
Clinical applications address both psychological and physiological dimensions of recovery. The course clarifies how narrative follows nervous system state, informing when to work with cognition versus regulation. Techniques support clients in moving from freeze, flight, or fight responses toward social engagement. Co-regulation strategies enhance therapeutic alliance, the strongest predictor of meaningful change in complex PTSD. The model integrates EMDR, parts work, and third-wave CBT approaches within a coherent treatment framework.
These skills translate directly to clinical effectiveness with trauma presentations. Practitioners gain precision in matching interventions to autonomic state. Assessment becomes more nuanced through attention to physiological markers alongside subjective report. The framework supports treatment planning that addresses both stabilization and growth, helping clients not only recover but discover capacities they didn't know they possessed.
- 3h of continuing education
- 19 lessons that last from 5 to 15 minutes each
- 1 certificate of achievement
- 1 PowerPoint
- 1 bibliography
- 1 course evaluation
- 7-day money back guarantee
- Unlimited access
Accreditation
Ordre des Psychologues du Québec
Canadian Psychological Association
Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
Collège des médecins du Québec
For physicians who practice psychotherapy, training recognized by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec is automatically considered as activities adopted by the Collège des médecins, in accordance with Article 3 of the Regulation.
For physicians who do not practice psychotherapy, the College evaluates each recognition request based on the following criteria:
- the relevance of the activity to the practice of the profession
- the skills and experience of the trainer
- the quality of the content and its adequacy with the physician's practice
- the pedagogical framework of the activity
- the quality of the documentation provided
- compliance with the training objectives set out in the regulation
- the presence of a certificate of participation or an evaluation
About the expert
Dr. Arielle Schwartz is a clinical psychologist and leading authority on integrative trauma treatment. She developed Resilience-Informed Therapy, a comprehensive model combining EMDR, somatic psychology, polyvagal theory, and mindfulness-based approaches for treating childhood trauma, PTSD, complex PTSD, and dissociation.
Dr. Schwartz has taught therapeutic yoga for trauma recovery since 2008 and authored multiple influential books including Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery, a widely referenced guide to applied polyvagal theory. Her work emphasizes strength-based, embodied approaches that facilitate post-traumatic growth rather than merely symptom reduction.
As an internationally recognized speaker and trainer, Dr. Schwartz has shaped modern trauma treatment standards across clinical settings. Her research and clinical innovations have elevated care quality by bridging neuroscience with practical therapeutic interventions. She integrates relational psychotherapy, interpersonal neurobiology, parts work, and third-wave CBT approaches within coherent treatment frameworks that address both psychological and physiological dimensions of recovery.
Dr. Schwartz's clinical approach emphasizes self-driven healing, helping clients discover capacities for meaning, strength, and renewed purpose after adversity.
Learning objectives
Learning material
A theoretical course illustrated with clinical examples. This course consists of videos of 5 to 15 minutes each. The course PowerPoint is available for download.
Syllabus
- 1. Introduction
-
Understanding Trauma and Resilience
- 2. Defining Trauma
- 3. Defining Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth
- 4. Factors of Resilience
- 5. Resilience-Informed Therapy
- 6. Neuroplasticity and the 6 Rs of Neuropsychotherapy
- 7. Applied Polyvagal Theory and Trauma Recovery
- 8. The Vagus Nerve and Polyvagal Theory
- 9. The Social Engagement System and the Tiered Response to Threat
-
The 6 Rs: A Clinical Framework for Trauma Recovery
- 10. Relating
- 11. Resourcing
- 12. Resourcing: Practice Exercises
- 13. Repatterning: Embodiment and the Body-Mind Connection
- 14. Repatterning: Fascia, the Vagus Nerve, and the Psoas
- 15. Repatterning: Posture, Movement, and Somatic Interventions
- 16. Reprocessing
- 17. Reflecting
- 18. Resilience
- 19. Conclusion
- PowerPoint
- Bibliography
CE Credits
Download a certificate of successful completion.
Audience
This course is intended for all mental health professionals.
Registration
Ask a question
Do you have a question? Then email us at contact@asadis.net
Frequently asked questions
-
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.
-
How long do I have access to the course?
After your registration, the course is accessible anytime and from anywhere with unlimited access.
-
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.
-
Is there a student rate?
Yes there is! To learn more, email us at contact@asadis.net.
You may also be interested in:
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.