Discover the Root Cause

Your nervous system isn't broken or oversensitive. It's sensitised. Learn how the defence cascade model explains freeze, shutdown, and functional seizures as protective responses, not personal failures

Recognize Early Warning Signs

Most people only notice a shutdown once it's already happening. Learn to read the earlier signals your body sends, sensory load, interoceptive shifts, the moments before the freeze, so you can intervene while you still have options

Build Your Personal Toolkit

Every nervous system is different. This course walks you through ACT, DBT, CFT, interoception, and physiological regulation, then helps you assemble a toolkit that actually fits your profile rather than a generic checklist.

About the Course

This course explains what's actually happening in your nervous system during functional seizures, shutdowns, and dissociative episodes, and gives you practical ways to work with it. The framing is grounded in autonomic neuroscience and the defence cascade model, the same framework now being used in peer-reviewed FND research. You'll learn how the freeze response works, why it gets triggered, and how sensory load, interoception, and emotional state all feed into it. From there, the course moves into practical territory. Physiological interventions, proprioception and grounding, sensory regulation, vocalisation, and a structured introduction to three evidence-based therapy approaches: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and Compassion-Focused Therapy.  The final chapters help you build a personalised toolkit using your own patterns rather than someone else's protocol. Sixteen chapters, fifty-seven lessons, designed to be worked through at your pace.  Built on data from over 1,700 people living with FND across 16 countries, and informed by ongoing collaborations with academic researchers in the UK and internationally. If you've been told you're "too sensitive", this course offers a different explanation. You're sensitised. There's a mechanism.  And there are things you can do about it.

Meet Your Instructor

I'm Steve Painter. I founded NeuroLog after my own diagnosis with Functional Neurological Disorder, when I realised there was no decent way to track what was actually happening to me between appointments. NeuroLog is now used by over 2,300 people across 16 countries and feeds into peer-reviewed research on FND, with active collaborations including the University of Oxford. I've published on the emotional drivers of functional movement disorder, run the ESRM continuing professional development programme for clinicians, and presented at international FND conferences. This course is the patient-facing version of work I usually do for researchers and clinicians. Same neuroscience, same framework, written for the people actually living with it.

Course Curriculum

26 Chapters · 85 Lessons

  1. 1

    How to Use This Course

    1. User Guide Free preview
    2. Meet Theo Free preview
    3. Legal Stuff Free preview
  2. 2

    Grounded in Real World Data From People Like You

    1. Welcome Free preview
  3. 3

    Sensitised, Not Sensitive: Understanding and Working With Your Freeze Response

    1. Introduction Free preview
    2. What we are going to cover Free preview
    3. Let's get started Free preview
  4. 4

    Chapter One: Why Your Nervous System Does This

    1. Your Freeze Response Free preview
    2. What Freeze Looks Like In FND Free preview
  5. 5

    Chapter Two: Physiological Interventions

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Breathing as a Signal, Not a Strategy

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Temperature and the Nervous System

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Rhythmic Bilateral Movement

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Closing Summary: Physiological Interventions

  6. 6

    Chapter Three: Proprioception and Grounding

    1. What Proprioception Is and Why Freeze Disrupts It Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Proprioceptive Input as a Return Signal

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Environment, Proprioception, and the Sensory Bridge

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Proprioception and Grounding

  7. 7

    Chapter Four: Sensory Regulation

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Your Sensory Threshold

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      How Load Accumulates

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Sensory Management in Practice

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Sensory Regulation

  8. 8

    Chapter Five: Vocalisation and Sound

    1. Why Your Voice Reaches Your Nervous System Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Humming, Toning, and Gargling

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Rhythm, Song, and Extended Vocalisation

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Vocalisation and Sound

  9. 9

    The Role of Psychology: An Explainer

    1. Psychology and FND Free preview
  10. 10

    Chapter 6: An Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

    1. An Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Free preview
    2. Defusion Free preview
    3. Acceptance Free preview
    4. Values-Based Action Free preview
    5. Closing Summary: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Free preview
  11. 11

    Chapter Seven: Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

    1. An Introduction to DBT Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Distress Tolerance and the Adapted TIPP Skills

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Radical Acceptance

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Emotion Regulation and the Hypo-Arousal Signature

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Closing Summary: Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

  12. 12

    Chapter Eight: Compassion-Focused Therapy

    1. An Introduction to CFT Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      The Physiology of Compassion

    3. Shame, Self-Criticism, and FND Free preview
    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Cultivating the Compassionate Self

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Compassion-Focused Therapy

  13. 13

    Chapter Nine: Interoception

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      An Introduction to Interoceptive Theory

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Interoception, FND, and the Disrupted Internal Signal

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Interoception and the Neurodivergent Nervous System

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Practical Interoceptive Training

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Closing Summary: Interoception

  14. 14

    Chapter Ten: Your Personal Toolkit

    1. What This Chapter Is For Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Building Your Personal Freeze Profile

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Designing Your Toolkit

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Using NeuroLog to Build Your Evidence Base

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Building the Practices Into Daily Life

    6. Finding the Right Support Free preview
  15. 15

    From the Author

    1. A Note From the Author Free preview
  16. 16

    Resources

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Course Introduction Summary

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Outside In, Not Inside Out

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      The Science of Grounding

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Sensory Regulation

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Vocalisation & Humming

    6. ACT Interventions - Part One Free preview
    7. ACT Interventions - Part Two Free preview
    8. Parasympathetic Breathing Free preview
    9. Autonomic Regulation Free preview
  17. 17

    Sensitised, Not Sensitive - Audio Introduction

    1. Welcome Free preview
    2. How To Use The Course Free preview
    3. Course Introduction Free preview
    4. Meet Theo Free preview
    5. Legal Stuff Free preview
    6. The Freeze Response Free preview
    7. What Freeze Looks Like in FND Free preview
  18. 18

    Chapter Two Audio : Physiological Interventions

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Breathing with FND

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Changing Temprature

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Rhythmic : Bilateral Movement

  19. 19

    Chapter Three Audio : Proprioception and Grounding

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Proprioception and Grounding

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Coming Back To The Body

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      The Enviroment Around You

  20. 20

    Chapter Four Audio: Sensory Regulation

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Threshold - What Moves It

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      The Container That Fills Without Warning

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Sensory Management in Practice

  21. 21

    Chapter Five Audio : Vocalisation & FND

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Vagus Nerve & The Voice

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Extended Vocalisation

  22. 22

    Psychology & FND : Audio

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Psychology Introduction

  23. 23

    Chapter Six Audio : ACT

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Freeze, FND & ACT

  24. 24

    Chapter Seven Audio : DBT

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      DBT for FND

  25. 25

    Chapter Eight Audio : CFT

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      CFT for FND

  26. 26

    Chapter Nine Audio : Interoception

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Interoception & FND

Ready to Take Control?

Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to manage Functional Neurological Disorder effectively. Enroll now and start your journey towards a healthier and more empowered life!

£10.00

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