YEARLONG AUTONOMICS PRACTICUM - AUTUMN 2026 & SPRING 2027

Please note that this practicum is by application only.
[Apply for the 2026–2027 Practicum →].

The Autonomics Practicum

A Yearlong Cohort for Serious Practitioners

The nervous system is not a mechanism to be managed. It is a living landscape — animate, relational, and far more nuanced than conventional neuroscience has mapped.

Autonomics is a new foundation model of living autonomic physiology, developed through Hearth Science's translation research with over 100 advisors spanning 25 disciplines and 24 cultures. It builds on clinically-applied neurophysiology — including Polyvagal Theory — while moving beyond it into territory that is empirically grounded and practically transformative. Peer-review validation is underway, with publication anticipated in 2026.

This yearlong practicum is where that science becomes embodied skill.

---

What you will develop

Over the course of the year, you will learn to read the autonomic nervous system the way an experienced clinician reads a patient — with depth, nuance, and the confidence to act on what you perceive.

Specifically, you will develop the ability to:

— Track your own autonomic states with granular precision, including the subtle terrain between safety, danger, and life threat
— Read the nervous system of the people you work with robustly, in real time
— Recognize when to allow an organic process to unfold and when to intervene — and to calibrate the quality of that intervention
— Work with field phenomena in group and relational contexts
— Apply a non-brain-centric worldview of the nervous system across your specific domain of practice

This is not a lecture course. Learning happens in the body first, then in application. Each seminar integrates live tracking, interoceptive practice, and supervised work with others. Between sessions, you will deepen through video study, written reflection, and daily interoceptive exercises.

---

Who this is for

This practicum is designed for practitioners who are already serious about their work and ready to go deeper. Past cohorts have included researchers, integrative and naturopathic physicians, psychologists, trauma and addiction therapists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, licensed professional clinical counselors, occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, and bodyworkers.

What matters more than your title is that you have a clear scope of practice or research in which this learning will be applied. The practicum is not an introduction to nervous system work — it is a year of immersion for people who are ready to make it central to what they do.

---

How cohorts are built

Each cohort is deliberately composed. We consider professional background, clinical orientation, and interpersonal fit — and we pass on applicants who are not right for the group, even when space is available. This is not a formality. The cohort itself is a core part of the learning environment, and we build it accordingly.

The admission process includes a written application, an individual conversation with the program director, and a group interview. Acceptance is not guaranteed.

Cohort one of our 2026–2027 program is nearly composed. If you are considering applying, now is the time.

---

Program investment

$12,000 USD

We recommend a monthly installment plan — most practitioners find that spreading payments across the program year allows them to stay fully present in the work. Payment details are provided upon acceptance.

We are unable to offer scholarships at this time.

[Apply for the 2026–2027 Practicum →].

Our autonomic physiology seminar was, in brief, and I say these words with potency, an altogether grounding reorientation of my connection to Self and my Environment which manifested itself during a period of deep and painful metabolization of emotions and nervous system states which were previously unexperienced by my physical body. Not only was it meaningful for me, but it was in fact quite necessary for me in order to remain acutely conscious, observant, and attentive to the ways in which connection and safety desired to show up for me in a life context/situation which seemingly provided very little. In this way, it meant a great deal to me - and as I've always felt, known, and seen, this connected world knows the confluences of support, required growth and stretch, invitations to expansions and safeties in contraction much better than I am necessarily consciously aware. This course provided the banks and power charge to a river of insight, of revelation, and of reorientation.

Personally, it allowed me to apply grounded theoretical learning to the movement of energy within my own body and community. In turn, it contextualized the physiological requirement of containing, of holding, and of relating in a way that illuminates the beautiful symbiosis between our unconscious lives and our automated physiology. This course brought phenomenal clarity, with neurophysiological acuity and revelational attributes, the relationships between my own fields of study - restoration, creative expression, conflict dissolution and contextualization, and the general notion that in fact all of these fields are not separate at all.

-J. Ariel Guy, Counselor, Conflict Consultant, Artist & Mental Health Eductor (presently residing in Tel Aviv)