Understanding the Freeze Response
in Trauma
Somatic Practices for Clinician Renewal
Can't make it live? No worries — register and receive the full recording. CEU approval is for social workers and counselors. Please confirm with your board that these CEUs are accepted in your state.
Reconnect. Regulate. Restore.
Most of us are familiar with fight or flight. But freeze? Freeze is often the most misunderstood — and the most misinterpreted — response in our clients, and even in ourselves.
When a client seems unmotivated, disengaged, or emotionally numb... when progress stalls despite genuine effort... when someone says "I don't know" and the session goes quiet — that's often freeze. And if we don't recognize it for what it is, we risk pushing our clients deeper into shutdown rather than supporting them toward regulation.
This training will change how you see your clients. And possibly how you see yourself.
June 24, 2026
Eastern
NASW-MA Approved
FREE Live Only
This training provides clinicians with a deep, body-based understanding of the freeze response — what it is, why it happens, and most importantly, how to work with it therapeutically so your clients can truly move forward.
What You'll Learn
A clear framework for understanding the autonomic nervous system and the freeze response
The ability to identify freeze states in your clients — including the subtle ones
Clinical strategies and somatic interventions you can use immediately
Body-based tools including orienting, grounding, breathwork, and micro-movements
A breakdown of tonic immobility, collapsed freeze, and the fawn response
Live Q&A to deepen learning and personalize the material
Streaming access for the live training
How You’ll Learn
This training blends didactic teaching, guided experiential practice, and reflective inquiry, allowing you to integrate the learning into both your personal and professional life.
You’ll receive:
- Access to body-based mindfulness tools
- Co-regulation practices for team and peer support
- Reflective exercises designed to explore systemic and cultural influences on care work
- Resources for personal integration and organizational advocacy
- Live Q&A session at the end of the training to deepen learning and personalize the material
Presented By:
Helen Malinowski, LICSW
Helen Malinowski is a licensed clinical social worker and somatic experiencing practitioner specializing in trauma-informed care. With a primary focus on Somatic Experiencing, Helen is passionate about guiding clinicians to deepen their clinical skills, trust their intuition, and approach trauma work with greater confidence and clarity.
The Somatic Integration Institute is an extension of this work—a place for clinicians to go deeper, reconnect with themselves, and develop care that’s as sustainable as it is effective.
Through supervision, trainings, and community, we help healing professionals embody what they teach—without burning out or becoming rigid.
Understanding the Freeze
Response in Trauma
Somatic Practices for Clinician Renewal
Let this be the moment you stop misreading freeze — and start working with it.
Freeze is not resistance. It's not laziness. It's not a lack of motivation.
It is a nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do. And once you understand that — really understand it, in your body, not just in your head — everything about how you show up for your clients will shift.
Choose Your Option
Join Us on June 24th
Free Option
Live Attendance Only
Live Training + Q&A
Live attendance only
CEU Certificate
Recording + Replay Access
CEU Option
CEU Certificate + Replay Access
Live Training + Q&A
2.0 CEUs — NASW-MA Approved
Recording + Replay Access
CEU Certificate provided after training
CEU approval is for social workers and counselors. Please confirm with your licensing board that these CEUs are accepted in your state.
