How the Autonomic Compass Works
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What is the Autonomic Compass?
How the Autonomic Compass works (see video above, and text below)
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ENGAGING WITH THE WORK OF HEARTH SCIENCE
Thank you for your interest in the work of Hearth Science!
This is an orienting document to help familiarize you with our product and service ecology, and get a sense of pathways to engagement with our work. For the past 15 years, Hearth Science has been working intensively on developing a new foundation model of autonomic physiology, Autonomics. The model is elaborated through our books, posters, and software platform: the Autonomic Compass. All of these products are available to the general public. We also offer a self-paced subscription for wellness practitioners interested in learning this work. Our practitioner subscription contains many of our specialized educational films and film series, and our advanced lecture series.
HEARTH SCIENCE DOES NOT, AT THIS TIME, HAVE A CLINIC. WE DO NOT TREAT PATIENTS. WE DO NOT WORK INDIVIDUALLY DIRECTLY WITH PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM STRESS-RELATED DISORDERS OR COMPLEX CHRONIC ILLNESS. WE TRAIN PRACTITIONERS WHO SERVE THESE POPULATIONS.
Hearth Science has a small but growing faculty. We offer a limited number of live face-to-face trainings and retreats for wellness professionals and coaches. Some face-to-face trainings have pre-requisites, others do not. In our retreats and seminars, we tend to work with a small cohort, and we are unable to accept all applicants into our programs. For all face-to-face retreats, the first step in the application process is an Expression of Interest. Those whose Expressions of Interest we find aligned, we interview. Because we have limited time and energy to invest in training, we are looking for alignment with our work, as well as several other intangibles. We are not able to provide live face-to-face training to everyone who requests it. We are not able to provide feedback to people about why they have not been accepted to a retreat or live training if they have not been accepted into a retreat or live training. This is partly why we have created a product ecology that includes self-paced online learning, books, and posters. If you are interested in our work, and our faculty is unable to train you directly, we strongly recommend that you organize a group to study our work with other interested peers.
If you are interested in learning more about our books, go here. If you are interested in learning more about our posters, go here. To learn more about the autonomic compass, which may be the world‘s most sophisticated self-healing platform, go here. To learn about our practitioner subscription, go here. And if you’d like to learn about the pedagogical pathway for practitioners, please use this link.
WHAT IS THE AUTONOMIC COMPASS?
The Autonomic Compass is a self-healing platform developed by Hearth Science. It can be used in a variety of contexts to help individuals increase the embodied experience of safety and connection and remediate adversity. It integrates cutting-edge neurophysiology, mindful awareness, anti-racist pedagogy, deep nature connection, ancestral Lifeways, and applied cultural linguistics into an emerging evidence-based practice.
The Autonomic Compass was created in response to data in the medical and mental health literature, supported by a decade of our own research, that suggests 4 out of 5 visits to primary care physicians are stress-related. Because all stress-related issues are, at a physiological level, issues of autonomic dys-regulation, which are mind-body issues, and because western medicine and mental health segregate the treatment of the body to one set of practitioners (e.g. physicians- general and specialist) and the mind to another (psychiatry, psychology) we created Autonomics to directly address mind-body issues in an extra-clinical context. The Autonomic Compass is built around a neuro-developmental model of well-being that has been field-tested over 1,000 times, and refined for more than a decade with more than 10,000 clients. Previous iterations of the curriculum were tested at Dr. Nadine Burke Harris MD MPH's clinic in San Francisco, and at a broad range of mental health, and community mental health organizations, and in functional medicine.
In post-intervention evaluations of the model, individuals who completed the intervention reported dramatically decreased perceived stress (on average 40%), enhanced connection (connection assets increase by 37% on average), self-regulation, and co-regulation abilities (self-care / collective care/ ecological care). Many of them reported experiencing levels of relaxation, and/or safety with self and others that they had never experienced before. Development of this learning platform was accelerated during COVID-19 to allow more people and organizations internationally to access the tools and resources of the model.
Hearth Science, Inc. licenses the content on this website to the Restorative Practices Alliance.
HOW THE COMPASS WORKS
The Autonomic Compass is designed to centralize autonomic physiology in the diagnosis and treatment of stress-related disorders, and in augmenting vitality and increasing enduring wellbeing. The engine of the platform is the My Dashboard page, which contains educational films, frameworks, and restorative practices. Each practice is a self-contained, activity-based practice that addresses some aspect of increasing connection or decreasing distress. Practices are arranged in categories: for example, Self-Care, or Connecting to Others. Categories are further divided into sub-categories. Self-Care, for example, contains Meditative, Movement, and Sensory practices, among others.
Depending on their preferences, users can navigate through the model themselves, or choose to be guided by our interactive tools (Start here button), or manually through our filtering systems. If, for example, a person is looking for a 'connecting to nature' practice that takes less than 20 minutes, they can select both criteria, and see what is surfaced.
Guidance is accessible on the My Dashboard page through the ‘Start here’ section on the practices page, a brief interview-based tool that asks the user a sequence of questions, and then tailors practice recommendations based on their responses. It is also accessible through a list of category filters that includes options for enhancing connection (self-care, connecting to others, connecting to nature) and decreasing distress (symptoms). There is a search function, and a duration timer, so users can choose the length of practice useful to them. To reset the filters, once applied, click on the 'reset filters' button beneath all filters.
Once users arrive at a particular practice, they have the opportunity to engage with that specific practice. Many practices have video-based instruction. The model is designed to respond to the fact that each of us experience stress in different ways, and from different sources. Some of us, when stressed, get irritated, while other get anxious. We also all have different resources for self-care and restoration. Some people like to exercise, others to spend time with friends. Some people find restoration in nature, some with pets. Our intention is to present a broad range of relevant practices, targeted to autonomic state, situation, context, and interest.
The model is woven from practices that are related, and is internally connected across all domains. That means that if you find a practice you enjoy, you can see what practices are related to it. Related practices are listed beneath the textual descriptions. In this way, each individual can move through platform content as a choose-your-own-adventure, in ways that are highly relevant to them. We are continuously adding new content to the model.
The navigation menu on the top of the screen contains the Hi, My Name menu, where users have control over their accounts, and access to a glossary of terms. Assessments are also available in the top navigation menu.
We hope that you find the site and its resources exceptionally useful. Our objective is to provide a superior adjunct wellness tool that is broadly available internationally. We are always grateful for your feedback, both things you appreciate and constructive feedback to help us better serve your particular needs.
LICENSE TYPES
We offer both individual and enterprise (organization-wide or practice-wide) licenses. If you are interested in an enterprise license, email our support team at support@restorativepractices.com
FAQs
I can't find the course I purchased. How do I access it?
Once you log in, go to the top navigation in the upper right of your screen (if on a desktop). You will see a menu item named 'My Courses'. Your classes live here.