Regulate to Relate: Embodied Awareness for Ethical Practice and Burnout Prevention
This interactive, somatic training explores how clinician burnout is not just a personal issue, but an ethical one. We’ll examine how trauma exposure, boundary erosion, and systemic pressure affect our capacity to ethically serve clients. Through embodied self-reflection, nervous system literacy, and parts mapping, participants will learn how to recognize early signs of burnout. Applying the NASW Code of Ethics, we’ll take aligned action to prevent ethical drift, vicarious trauma, and disconnection from purpose.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to identify at least three somatic or behavioral indicators of burnout and dysregulation in themselves that may compromise ethical clinical decision-making.
Participants will be able to analyze how nervous system dysregulation and internal parts dynamics can contribute to ethical drift, compassion fatigue, and boundary violations in clinical work.
Participants will be able to design a personalized, embodied sustainability plan that integrates ethical self-reflection, nervous system regulation strategies, and boundaries to prevent burnout and support long-term professional integrity.
3 hours ethics, In-person
This program is approved for three ethics contact hours by Tides Center for Wellness as authorized by the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners.
Presenter: Dr. Cat Poehling, LCSW-BACS, LCSW-S, SEP
Dr. Cat Poehling is a joyful and justice-driven trauma therapist, reproductive justice scholar, and educator. She has over 20 years of experience working alongside diverse communities in healing and transformation. With advanced Social Work and Disaster Resilience & Leadership degrees from Tulane University, she brings an expert clinical lens. She is certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), Level 2 trained Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, and Level 1 trained Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience (DARe) practitioner. Dr. Poehling’s work is rooted in compassion and curiosity, specializing in trauma psychotherapy for women and LGBTQ+ folks. She’s also a sought-after clinical supervisor, program evaluator, and researcher exploring how Somatic Experiencing can support lasting change. Whether in the therapy room, classroom, or community, Dr. Poehling brings heart, rigor, and a sense of adventure to everything she does.