Resilience From the Inside Out:

IFS & Polyvagal Theory

Saturday March 14, 2026 8:00 am-3:00 pm PST

Martina G. Williams, LCMHC, is a certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, clinical consultant, and educator with more than three decades of experience in mental health and leadership development. As the founder of The Brave Introvert, she integrates IFS, Polyvagal Theory, and other trauma-informed practices to guide individuals and groups toward resilience, empowerment, and Self-leadership.

Martina has taught and presented widely, offering workshops, keynotes, and mindfulness trainings at national conferences and universities. She is co-author of An IFS Reparenting Workbook (New Harbinger, 2026) and author of The Meditation Doctor (2003).

Her teaching emphasizes practical strategies rooted in deep clinical knowledge, designed to help students and professionals alike cultivate wellness, confidence, and resiliency. She also brings her experience as Vice-Chair of the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, where she supports initiatives in mental health, healing through the performing arts, and animal welfare, offering a unique perspective that blends clinical expertise with organizational strategy and social change.

DESCRIPTION

This immersive 5.5-hour workshop offers a compassionate and practical approach to building resilience, combining Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Polyvagal Theory to help your clients understand, regulate, and thrive within their nervous systems. As a bonus, participants can also apply their newfound knowledge to themselves, allowing them to show up in a more regulated, Self-led state with their clients.

By engaging in experiential activities and reflections to explore their own sensitivity, participants will learn how to support their clients by:

• Reviewing the basics of IFS (Internal Family Systems).
• Understanding how autonomic states (connection, mobilization, disconnection) influence emotions and the behaviors of parts, and helping clients build awareness of these states.
• Understanding the three guiding principles of Polyvagal Theory
• Reducing overwhelm by creating safe dialogues with protector parts that guard against overstimulation, proactively preventing sensory and emotional flooding.  
• Guiding clients to identify and compassionately connect with inner parts that carry stress or provide protection.
• Supporting clients in building a stronger baseline of calm social engagement through a ventral anchor.
• Assisting clients in creating compassionate pathways back to regulation after overload.
• Offering simple, effective regulation tools to help clients return to ventral vagal Self states of calm and connection more easily.
• Through guided meditation, experiential learning, dyads, and gentle journaling, participants will leave with a toolkit to help their clients explore their own systems while expanding their own capacity to meet life’s challenges with balance and self-compassion.

Level of Content: Intermediate

Course Interaction
This live webinar is fully interactive. The workshop will incorporate a variety of learning modalities, including didactic teaching, guided meditation, experiential learning, dyads, gentle journaling, and small and large group discussions. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage throughout the workshop.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe how IFS and Polyvagal Theory can work together to calm parts-driven reactivity in the nervous system.
• Learn about the three principles of Polyvagal Theory: hierarchy; neuroception; co-regulation.
• Identify autonomic nervous system states (ventral, sympathetic, dorsal) and distinguish how these states influence parts.
• Demonstrate techniques for facilitating safe dialogues with protector parts to reduce overwhelm and prevent emotional overwhelm and flooding.
• Illustrate ways to apply Polyvagal-informed interventions to help clients strengthen ventral vagal anchors and increase access to Self-energy.
• Explain how experiential and reflective practices can enhance clinician understanding of to explore their own systems as both a personal and clinical resource.
• Give examples of strategies for guiding clients back to regulation after overwhelm, combining IFS techniques with simple nervous system and somatic regulation tools.

8:00--9:15:          Review of IFS, Experientials
9:15--9:30:          15 minute break*
9:30--11:00:        Understanding the Nervous System, Dyads
11:00--12:00:      60 minute Lunch/Break*
12:00--1:00:        Practical Application of IFS with Polyvagal
1:00--1:15:          15 Minute Break*
1:15--3:00:           Interventions and Nervous System Regulation

*Two 15 minute breaks and one hour of lunch do not count towards CE time awarded

COST: $199 
REGISTER HERE TODAY

FAQs

Cancellation: Any and all deposits and/or payments for our retreats / courses are nonrefundable and non-transferable. Please note that there will be no refunds for any reason, including illness. Thank you for your understanding.

ADA Accessibility: The training site is ADA approved. If you need special accommodations or have questions, please email sioux@mcaft.com. 

Contact Information: sioux@mcaft.com | 650-297-3400 | www.mcaft.com

Grievances: To obtain our grievance policy or report a grievance, please email sioux@mcaft.com or call 650-297-3400 x 8.

Certificates: Course Completion Certificates will be awarded in exchange for a completed evaluation form.

Course meets the qualifications for 5.5 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Mindful Child & Family Therapy (Provider #1032770) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs & LPCCs. MCAFT maintains responsibility for the program and all its content.