Noticing & Nourishing Yourself in the Therapy Room: Practical Nervous System Regulation for Clinicians Training
Thursday, January 21, 2027
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Online via Zoom
Start the new year by making space for yourself. Join the Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® of Minnesota Center for Rural Behavioral Health for a practical training designed to help clinicians notice their own nervous system responses and develop strategies for regulation in the therapy room.
This training is approved for 4 CEU's by the Minnesota boards of Social Work and awaiting approval by the boards of Marriage and Family Therapy, Behavioral Health and Therapy, and Psychology.
Training Summary:
Clinicians are trained to closely attend to the experiences, emotions, and needs of their clients but in the process of doing so often disconnect from their own internal experience in order to meet the demands of the work. Over time, this can contribute to chronic stress, diminished presence, compassion fatigue, and burnout.
This experiential, introductory workshop will help clinicians understand how their own nervous system state influences attention, decision-making, boundaries, and connection in the therapy room. Through accessible education about the autonomic nervous system, guided reflection, somatic inquiry, and gentle embodied practices, participants will learn to recognize signs of under-resourcing and respond with greater awareness and choice.
Rather than adding more complicated strategies to an already-full workload, the training emphasizes small, practical pauses that can be incorporated into the clinical day. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of their own patterns and one or two tools they can begin using immediately to support both personal well-being and therapeutic presence.
Meet Your Presenters:
Jessica Dorzek, LCSW, is a clinical therapist, writer, and nervous system educator with more than 20 years of experience helping people create meaningful, sustainable change. Her work integrates clinical social work, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Polyvagal Theory, family systems, and mindfulness to explore how stress influences behavior, relationships, boundaries, and professional effectiveness. Jessica is the founder of Mindshift Counseling and co-founder of Calm & Strong, where she develops practical, accessible training for individuals, clinicians, and organizations.
Jessica is particularly interested in the gap between knowing what would help and being able to access it under stress—a challenge clinicians experience alongside their clients. Her teaching emphasizes recognizing nervous system states, interrupting patterns of over functioning and disconnection, and using small, intentional pauses to restore awareness and choice. Through storytelling, clinical examples, and practical tools, she helps participants translate complex concepts into everyday practices that support boundaries, sustainable care, and greater presence in the therapy room.
Alyssa Baker, LICSW, is a clinical social worker and advanced yoga teacher whose clinical approach is grounded at the intersection of the mind, the body, and the human experience and is informed by Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, the biopsychosocial model, Somatics by Thomas Hanna, and yoga therapy through The International SomaYoga Institute in Duluth, Mn. She holds a Bachelor of Exercise Science and Master of Social Work from Minnesota State University. Alyssa has over 15 years of experience across mental health, health and wellness, and higher education settings.
Through her private practice, Collective Remedy, Alyssa supports women in developing self-awareness, self-compassion, and choice while working to understand and change patterns that no longer serve them. She is particularly passionate about helping clinicians learn to tend to what accumulates in them due to the nature of clinical work through use of somatic inquiry. These practices include cultivating interoceptive awareness, improving breath function, regulating the nervous system, and releasing muscular tension — so that clinicians ultimately learn how to better support both their own well-being and their ability to be present with clients.
Not able to attend January 21st?
No problem. Register for the recorded session and a link to view it will be emailed to you after the September 24th training.
Registration Questions: Email workforce@mnsu.edu or call 507-389-1094
Training Questions: Email elizabeth.harstad.3@mnsu.edu
Center for Workforce Professional Education
workforce@mnsu.edu
