Increase your knowledge of the nervous system response to trauma in the context of therapy
Presented by Margo Pumar, MD
2 CEs available
Free for Marin CAMFT members and RECAMFT reciprocal chapter members!
This training will not be recorded. Please plan to attend the "live" session on Zoom if you are interested in this learning activity.
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PLEASE NOTE: After you sign up here, you'll be sent instructions on how to complete a separate registration step with Zoom, which is how you will get your Zoom link. You can do that in advance, or right before the meeting begins. This registration step lets us more accurately track attendance in the Zoom meeting for our compliance purposes as a CE provider.
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Workshop Description
Many clients present with anxiety, depression, emotional reactivity, or shutdown that persists despite insight, effort, and prior treatment. Both clients and clinicians can be left feeling confused, discouraged, or subtly blaming themselves when familiar approaches seem insufficient. This training offers a nervous system–informed, trauma-responsive approach that helps clinicians understand why symptoms often persist, and how to conceptualize distress in ways that reduce shame and clarify treatment decisions.
Drawing from contemporary neurobiology, attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and parts-based perspectives, the presentation focuses on how autonomic nervous system states shape emotional regulation, symptom expression, and relational capacity. Participants will explore how chronic stress, relational threat, and limited recovery time constrain what clients can access in therapy, and why insight, cognitive strategies, or trauma processing may be ineffective—or even destabilizing—when the nervous system is overwhelmed. Emphasis is placed on translating neurobiological concepts into clinically usable language that supports pacing, sequencing, and attunement in psychotherapy.
The training includes a detailed clinical case illustrating how depressive “episodes” can reflect nervous system shutdown rather than mood disorder failure, and how integrating nervous system awareness can inform both psychotherapy and adjunctive treatment decisions. This is an intermediate to advanced clinical training, best suited for licensed therapists who have a foundational understanding of trauma-informed care and are interested in deepening their clinical conceptualization. Participants will leave with a cohesive approach to understanding symptoms as meaningful adaptations, supporting regulation and integration, and approaching clients—and themselves—with greater curiosity, compassion, and clinical clarity.
Educational Goals
This training presents a nervous system–informed, trauma-responsive approach to clinical conceptualization that integrates neurobiology, attachment, and relational context. Participants will explore how autonomic nervous system states shape emotional regulation, symptom expression, and relational capacity, and how this understanding can reduce client shame and guide treatment decisions. The training emphasizes clinically applicable principles that support more integrated, compassionate, and effective psychotherapy practice.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
- Describe three autonomic nervous system states (ventral vagal, sympathetic, and dorsal vagal) and identify at least one clinical presentation associated with each state.
- Explain how autonomic nervous system state influences emotional regulation and access to cognition.
- Describe the reason why insight-oriented interventions may be ineffective during periods of dysregulation.
- Apply a three-tier nervous system scaffold to clinical conceptualization using a clinical case example.
- Differentiate state-based nervous system interventions from cognitive or insight-oriented approaches by identifying at least two clinical situations in which nervous system regulation should precede cognitive work.
- Identify at least two ways cultural context and factors such as family dynamics, migration, and marginalization influence autonomic regulation and symptom expression.
Presenter Margo Pumar, MD
Margo Pumar, MD (she/her) is a board-certified psychiatrist and reproductive/perinatal mental health specialist and the Medical Director at Arbit Center for Mental Health (Washington, DC). For more than 15 years, her career has focused on the meeting point of mental and physical health—grounded in the principle that there is “no health without mental health.” She brings over six years of focused experience in perinatal and reproductive psychiatry within obstetric and hospital settings and previously served as Medical Director of Perinatal Psychiatry at UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital and Director of UCSF’s Perinatal Wellness Program. Dr. Pumar has led program development and implementation of integrated, measurement-informed, trauma-responsive systems of care, including universal screening workflows and provider training in women’s health settings. Her psychotherapy training includes Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Written Exposure Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (trained with Alec Miller), and she is currently completing Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level 1 training, with additional continuing education in polyvagal-informed practice. She identifies as Latinx and is affirming and inclusive of all races, cultures, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Learn more at https://www.arbitcounseling.com/team/drmargopumar
Registering for this Zoom training does not include access to any recording or an on-demand version.
You will be sent instructions on how to register with Zoom to get your personal Zoom link to use for attendance. Please read the email confirmation you receive after signing up on the Marin CAMFT website for these instructions.
Attendance at the live event in full and completion of the evaluation at the end qualifies for 2 hours of Continuing Education (2 CEs).
Date: Friday, February 13
Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm Pacific
Cost: Free for Marin CAMFT members and reciprocal members, $30 for non-members.
Location: Online via Zoom. Instructions for registering with Zoom, in order to receive your Personal Zoom Join Link, will be sent in your confirmation message from Marin CAMFT. You will need to complete that second Zoom-registration step in order to receive your Zoom Link by email.
Additional Information about Marin CAMFT CE Programs
For more information about the Friday Continuing Education Series or about joining the Marin CAMFT Continuing Education Committee, please contact our Director of Programs.
- Continuing Education: This workshop meets the qualifications for 2 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LEPs and/or LPCCs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. These CEs will be provided by Marin CAMFT (CAMFT Provider # 56895), which is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs. We regret that at this time we are not able to provide CE credits for Licensed Psychologists. Participants must attend the full duration of the program (on Zoom, or in person, per event details above) and complete the course evaluation to receive the CE completion certificate. Marin CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program and its contents. Contact our Director of Programs for more information.
- Continuing Education Goal: Marin CAMFT is committed to offering continuing education courses to train LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs to treat any client in an ethically and clinically sound manner based upon current accepted standards of practice.
- Refund Policy: Our refund policy requires a $20 processing fee, and we must be notified in advance of the event if you would like to cancel. We do not provide refunds in case of non-attendance by the registrant. Please contact our Director of Programs with any questions.
- Request for Accommodations: If you need accommodations for this event, please contact the Director of Programs.
- Grievance Procedure: Marin CAMFT will respond to complaints in a reasonable, ethical and timely manner, when submitted by program attendees in writing to the Director of Programs.
- Anti-Discrimination Policy: Marin CAMFT shall not discriminate against any individual or group with respect to any service, program or activity based on gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, creed, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, ability, or other prohibited basis. Marin CAMFT does not require attendees to adhere to any particular religion or creed in order to participate in training. Marin CAMFT will not promote or advocate for a single modality of treatment that is discriminatory or likely to harm clients based on current accepted standards or practice.
Continuing education credits are available for attendance in the Zoom presentation. You must stay on the Zoom meeting for the entirety of the training and complete the course evaluation afterward in order to receive a completion certificate. Because of the requirement to attend the training in full, if you attempt to log in to the Zoom late, after the training is already underway, you may not be admitted. Please log onto the event promptly at the listed start time.
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