Trauma & The Nervous System
A Practitioner Masterclass
How to work with trauma in a way that is safe, embodied, and sustainable – for your clients and for you
This is not another trauma training full of tools and techniques.
It’s a way of seeing. A way of listening.
A way of being in the room - that changes what happens moment to moment.
If you work with trauma, attachment wounds, or complex human suffering, this masterclass will fundamentally change how you practice.
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Why This Masterclass Exists
Many practitioners leave trauma trainings knowing more – but feeling less confident in the room.
You might recognise this:
- Clients understand their trauma perfectly but nothing changes
- Sessions feel intense but not integrate
- You’re unsure when to go deeper and when to slow down
- You worry about retraumatising without meaning to
- You go home carrying work that isn’t yours
- You love the work, but feel the cost of it in your body
This masterclass was created to address exactly that gap.
Not more theory.
Not more techniques.
But how trauma actually shows up in the nervous system – and how to work with it safely, relationally, and sustainably.
The Four Orienting Principles
Everything in this masterclass is organised around four principles that will stay with you long after the training ends.
Regulation before Revelation
Insight without regulation is flooding, not healing.
Safety before Story
The body must feel safe before the story can be integrated.
Compassion before Correction
Parts soften when they are honoured, not attacked.
Presence before Perfection
Your nervous system is the intervention.
These aren’t slogans.
They are a different orientation to trauma work.
What You Will Learn
By the end of this masterclass, you will be able to:
- Read nervous system state through breath, eyes, posture, voice, and movement
- Recognise freeze, fawn, collapse, and genuine engagement
- Pace sessions using titration and pendulation
- Use language that supports regulation rather than activation
- Understand why insight goes offline under stress
- Work compassionately with parts without fighting protectors
- Recognise when to slow down, pause, or refer on
- Protect your own nervous system while staying present and connected
What Makes This Masterclass Different
This masterclass explicitly teaches what many trainings avoid. We explore:
- Clients understand their trauma perfectly, but nothing changes
- Sessions feel intense but not integrated
- You’re unsure when to go deeper and when to slow down
- You worry about retraumatising without meaning to
- You go home carrying work that isn’t yours
- You love the work, but feel the cost of it in your body
This is trauma-informed practice as it actually happens in the room.
Enroll Now
Introducing - The Trauma & The Nervous System Masterclass
A 4.5-Hour Professional Masterclass by Lou Lebentz
This is not a dry academic lecture. This is a clinical deep dive designed to provide you with the "User Manual" for the human nervous system, which would likely have been very helpful earlier.
I’ve condensed years of clinical experience, neuroscience, and Polyvagal application into 4 high-impact modules that you can watch, digest and apply immediately.
Here is exactly what you are getting:
Module One: Mapping the Nervous System
60 minutes
The foundation. Understanding how the brain and body communicate, why trauma is physiological not just psychological, and how to see behaviour through a nervous system lens.
You'll understand:
- The 80% Rule (Body → Brain): Discover why the vast majority of vagal communication flows up from the body - and why you cannot "talk" a client out of a survival state that their physiology is dictating.
- The Anatomy of "Stuckness": How trauma bypasses narrative memory and gets stored as fragmented sensations and HPA-axis dysregulation - meaning the issue isn't in their mindset, it's in their mechanics.
- Biology, Not Behaviour: A deep-dive into the 5 Survival States (Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Flop) to help you stop viewing symptoms as "resistance" and start respecting them as brilliant, protective adaptations.
Module Two: Organised Survival
70 minutes
How the nervous system organises around trauma over time. Polyvagal theory as a useful map, neuroception, the Window of Tolerance, and understanding how survival becomes patterned.
You'll understand:
- Safety ≠ Calm: Why the nervous system prioritises safety over relaxation, and why trying to force a client to "calm down" when they feel unsafe is often a clinical error.
- The "Quiet" Trap: How to distinguish between a client who is grounded vs. one who has slipped into "Dorsal Drift" (shutdown)- because one is healing, and the other is silently retraumatising.
- Window of Tolerance & Memory: Understand why insight disappears under stress (State-Dependent Memory) and why "exposure" work without physiological safety doesn't heal fear - it reinforces it.
Module Three: The Inner World
65 minutes
How trauma shapes the inner landscape, parts, beliefs, identity, and why insight alone doesn't shift what the body still holds.
You'll understand:
- Why behind every pattern is a part, not a flaw
- The Wounded/Adapted/Adult framework
- How state creates belief — and belief maintains state (the stuck loop)
- The Five Belief Domains where trauma lands
- Meta beliefs: core conclusions that feed everything else
- Survival loyalty: why parts hold on even when it hurts
- Integration always, not elimination
Module Four: Trauma-Informed Practice
75 minutes
Bringing it all into the room. Reading state, language that heals, pacing, containment, and caring for your own nervous system so you can sustain this work.
You'll learn:
- Your nervous system as the intervention
- Reading state in real time: breath, eyes, posture, voice
- The trauma-safe language palette: pacing, permission, grounding, orienting, normalising, shame-soothing
- Titration and pendulation: pacing for integration
- Containment versus coldness
- Vicarious trauma versus secondary traumatic stress
- Your Nervous System Hygiene Plan: before, between, after work
- When to refer out, and the courage it takes
What's included
4.5 hours of in-depth teaching modules.
Four comprehensive videos you can watch at your own pace.
104 slides of visual content.
Clear, elegant visuals that support the teaching.
Certificate of completion For your CPD portfolio.
£47 — Lifetime Access.
Companion workbook.
Reflection exercises, self-assessments, practical tools, including:
- Your Window of Tolerance Self-Assessment
- The Five Belief Domains Mapping Exercise
- Trauma-Safe Language Orientations and Pacing Guidance
- Your Nervous System Hygiene Plan Template
Return and rewatch whenever you need a refresh.
An Additional Offer - Gadgets & Gizmos:
A Trauma-Informed Guide to Nervous System Technology:
An 80-page ebook covering everything practitioners need to know about regulation technology:
You might recognise this:
- Clients understand their trauma perfectly, but nothing changes
- Sessions feel intense but not integrate
- You’re unsure when to go deeper and when to slow down
- You worry about retraumatising without meaning to
- You go home carrying work that isn’t yours
- You love the work, but feel the cost of it in your body
This masterclass was created to address exactly that gap.
Not more theory.
Not more techniques.
But how trauma actually shows up in the nervous system – and how to work with it safely, relationally, and sustainably.
Examples of what's covered;
- Vagal stimulators (Sensate, Apollo, Pulsetto, and more)
- Sound-based protocols (Safe and Sound Protocol, Brain.fm, and more)
- HRV monitors and biofeedback (HeartMath, Oura, Whoop)
- Neurofeedback devices (Muse, NeoRhythm)
- Sensory tools (weighted blankets, cold exposure, compression)
- Breathwork technology
- Light and circadian tools
For each tool:
What it claims, the actual physiology, what the research shows, who it helps, who should be cautious, and my own clinical view.
Plus:
The Four Questions Framework for evaluating any tool, guidance on when tech helps versus harms, and how to talk to clients about regulation technology.
"They can support the work, but they are not the work."
Add to your order for just £7, available at checkout.
This masterclass is for you if:
A 4.5-Hour Professional Masterclass by Lou Lebentz
This is not a dry academic lecture. This is a clinical deep-dive designed to give you the "User Manual" for the human nervous system that would probably have been very helpful earlier.
I’ve condensed years of clinical experience, neuroscience, and Polyvagal application into 4 high-impact modules that you can watch, digest and apply immediately. Here is exactly what you are getting:
This masterclass is for you if:
- You're a therapist, counsellor, psychologist, coach, or helping professional
- Coaches and facilitators working in trauma-aware ways
- Clinicians in addiction, mental health or frontline settings
- You've felt frustrated when clients have insight but can't change
- You want to understand the "why" behind what you see in your clients
- You're curious about nervous system approaches but haven't had
extensive training yet - You want practical tools, not just theory
- You care about your own sustainability in this work
- You want something you can return to again and again
This masterclass might not be for you if:
- You want a certification or accredited qualification (this is CPD, not a certificate programme)
- You're looking for more rigid type scripts and protocols
- You prefer surface-level overviews to in-depth exploration
- You're not willing to reflect on your own nervous system and patterns
About Lou Lebentz
Lou Lebentz is the founder of The Voyage®, a comprehensive trauma-informed training methodology developed over 25+ years of clinical practice, supervision, and teaching.
A UKCP-registered trauma therapist, and international speaker, Lou has trained over 1,000 professionals worldwide across clinical and non-clinical settings, including corporate organisations, addiction treatment centres, and educational institutions.
Her work centres on nervous system literacy, parts-based understanding, and helping practitioners move beyond surface-level trauma awareness into work that is genuinely safe, embodied, and sustainable.
Lou created this masterclass in response to what she saw repeatedly in the field: skilled, caring practitioners leaving trainings with more information, but less confidence in the room — and very little support for the cost of holding trauma over time. Her teaching integrates contemporary trauma research while maintaining a voice that is grounded, compassionate, and refreshingly honest about what this work actually asks of those who do it.
This is the training Lou wishes had existed earlier in her own career.
FAQ
How long do I have access?
Is this accredited for CPD?
What if I'm newly qualified?
Is this suitable for coaches, not just therapists?
Do I need to watch it all in one sitting?
What's the difference between this and the free webinar?
Can I get a refund if it's not right for me?
What's the Gadgets & Gizmos ebook?
This masterclass isn’t about adding more techniques to your toolbox.
It’s about changing how you see what’s happening in the room. How you pace. How you listen.
How you work with trauma in a way that is safe, ethical, and sustainable.
It’s a foundation. An orientation.
A way of practising that stays with you long after the training ends.
If you work with trauma, attachment wounds, or complex human experience, this learning will quietly shape every session that follows.
What You’re Getting
When you enrol in Trauma & the Nervous System, you’ll receive:
- The full masterclass covering nervous system literacy, state, safety, parts, belief, and practice
- Practical guidance on pacing, containment, language, and regulation in real clinical work
- A trauma-informed framework you can apply immediately, whatever your modality
- Lifetime (or extended) access so you can return as your learning deepens
- A companion workbook to support reflection and integration
An Invitation
You don’t need to do this work perfectly.
You don’t need to have all the answers. You don't have to have it all sussed or even know everything.
You do need:
- A regulated nervous system
- A clear orientation
- And the humility to keep learning and doing the work to stay well regulated, grounded and working from integrity.
If this masterclass helps you feel more centered, more confident, and more human in your work, then it’s done its job. I created it in order to help make a difference to your day to day work and life.
At the checkout, you’ll also have the option to add:
Gadgets & Gizmos: A Trauma-Informed Regulation Toolkit (£7)
A practical, low-pressure companion offering simple, trauma-safe regulation ideas you can draw on in sessions – especially when you’re unsure what’s needed in the moment.
This isn’t about fixing or managing clients. It’s about supporting regulation gently, respectfully, and safely.
Join the Trauma & the Nervous System Masterclass
A practical, low-pressure companion offering simple, trauma-safe regulation ideas you can draw on in sessions – especially when you’re unsure what’s needed in the moment.
This isn’t about fixing or managing clients. It’s about supporting regulation gently, respectfully, and safely.
Enroll NowFinal Words!
The best trauma practitioners are not the ones who know the most.
They are the ones who:
Stay curious
Stay regulated
Stay humble
Stay connected to their own humanity
I hope this masterclass helps you do that even a little bit more!
Lou x
