When Touch Meets Trauma: A Nervous System Approach to Trauma-Informed Care for Allied Health Professionals

Course overview

For physical therapists, occupational therapists, athletic trainers, massage therapists, and other allied health professionals, touch is a primary clinical tool. Yet for a significant portion of patients, physical contact carries a complex history. Trauma stored in the body does not disappear when a patient enters the treatment room. It can present as bracing, guarding, emotional flooding, dissociation, or treatment resistance. These physiological responses are frequently misread as noncompliance or anxiety, causing clinicians to overlook the underlying nervous system activity driving them. This training provides allied health professionals with the foundational science needed to understand what is happening in a patient's body during touch-based interventions, along with practical tools to respond with clinical skill and confidence. Drawing on Somatic Experiencing theory, polyvagal theory, and the neuroscience of trauma, this training moves through four integrated parts: understanding the roots of trauma and nervous system dysregulation, exploring how the body responds neurologically to touch, building a trauma-informed approach to touch in clinical practice, and developing the practitioner's own capacity for regulation and resilience. Participants will leave with a shared clinical language, discipline-specific application strategies, and practical tools for creating therapeutic environments where patients feel safe enough to heal.