Integrating Nervous System Knowledge into Biopsychosocial Assessment and Treatment Planning

LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP

Capability Level: Evolving & Established

What if client behaviours were understood not as resistance or challenging, but as intelligent nervous system adaptations and responses to past and present stress?

Social workers routinely use biopsychosocial assessment to understand clients’ experiences and design their treatment/case plan. However, many practitioners report feeling overwhelmed when clients’ presentations are complex and creating change feels “impossible”. Additionally, social workers often support people who tend to carry a lot of guilt, shame and self-criticism.

Research has been showing the role of the nervous system in shaping perception, behaviour, emotional regulation, and relational safety. This workshop introduces a nervous-system-informed biopsychosocial approach, supporting social workers to deepen their assessment skills and structure treatment plans by understanding how clients experience the world through their nervous system. Participants will explore how trauma, stress, and repeated experiences shape neurobiological responses that influence behaviour, self-concept, and coping strategies. The workshop will provide practical frameworks and tools to translate nervous system knowledge into assessment, formulation, and treatment planning, while also highlighting the importance of practitioner self-awareness and regulation. Through interactive activities and case discussions, participants will leave with greater confidence in applying nervous-system-informed practice in diverse social work settings.

Who should attend?

This workshop is suitable for evolving to established social workers who are working with adult clients impacted by trauma, stress, mental health challenges, or complex psychosocial presentations. It is particularly relevant for practitioners who provide counselling and already use biopsychosocial assessment in order to develop their treatment plans. This workshop is dedicated to professionals who are seeking to deepen their formulation and intervention skills through a trauma- and nervous-system-informed lens.

The content is appropriate for social workers working in mental health, community services, health, alcohol and other drugs, and related practice contexts who mostly provide counselling services. While the skills to be developed during this workshop can be transferrable to case management, this is not the primary focus of this workshop.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Identify how nervous system functioning influences behaviour, emotional regulation, and self-criticism within biopsychosocial assessment.

2. Apply a nervous-system-informed framework to assess clients’ adaptive responses to trauma and stress.

3. Develop treatment plans that prioritise regulation, safety, and compassion while recognising the impact of the practitioner’s own nervous system on practice.

Event Structure:

Introduction

Learning Session 1: Understanding Behaviour Through the Nervous System

Learning Activity 1: Interactive group discussion

Learning Session 2: Nervous-System-Informed Biopsychosocial Assessment

Learning Activity 2: Interactive group discussion and Assessment phase

Learning Session 3: Nervous-System-Informed Treatment Planning

Learning Activity 3: Open discussion and case study Treatment planning

Conclusion and Q&A

AASW Credential: Mental health (FPS) & Clinical SW

PS: Skills Training will be incorporated into a section of this workshop under e. (iii and iv) of Medicare schedule

https://www9.health.gov.au/mbs/fullDisplay.cfm?type=note&q=MN.7.4&qt=noteID&criteria=MN%2E7%2E4)

Please consider the AASW CPD Policy regarding FPS when logging your FPS hours manually: