Coercive Control - The Patterns - Whangaparaoa

It wasn't your fault. Your nervous system was conditioned.
Coercive control doesn't leave a generic imprint. It leaves one shaped by your specific history, your attachment system, and the particular ways control was built around you. The isolation that narrowed your world. The financial control that removed your ability to move. The information control that replaced your memory with someone else's version of events. The exhaustion that wasn't weakness – it was the point.
In this 3-hour workshop, Anna Roters from The Embodied Practice maps how coercive control operates – the architecture of it, the mechanisms, and what it did to your nervous system over time. You'll leave with a framework for understanding what happened, why it worked, and what your body was trying to tell you the whole time.
This workshop blends psychoeducation with somatic practice. You will leave with a clear understanding of the patterns of coercive control, awareness of how they show up in your body, and practical nervous system tools you can use immediately.
What we cover:
* The nervous system under sustained threat – why you couldn't just leave
* The architecture of control – isolation, financial control, information control
* DARVO — how your own instincts became the problem
* The fawn response – why keeping the peace felt like survival
* Your attachment system as the entry point
* What comes back – reclamation and your nervous system
What's included:
* Comprehensive workshop handout
* Body mapping exercise
* Guided somatic practices
* Integration and reflection time
* Resource sheet and referral pathways
This workshop is educational, not therapeutic. An experienced support person is present throughout. Maximum 8 participants.
No previous experience required – just a willingness to understand what happened.

👤 About Your Facilitator
Anna is a trauma-informed nervous system coach specialising in polyvagal theory and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), with a particular focus on how coercive control rewires the nervous system, shapes attachment patterns, and leaves its own architecture behind. She helps people map what happened to them, understand why it worked, and rebuild trust in their own instincts – reclaiming their voice, their boundaries, and their sense of self.
This work is deeply lived for Anna. For years, she suppressed her own voice, doubted her own perception, and made herself smaller to keep the peace — long before she had the language for what was happening or why. Finding her way back to herself is what shapes the way she holds this space now: with patience, without judgement, and with a clear understanding of how hard it is to trust yourself again after you've been taught not to.
Anna guides others through nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, and values-based action, integrating evidence-based practice with deep respect for each person's autonomy and inner knowing.
Anna holds certifications in Polyvagal Therapy, ACT, Trauma-Informed Coaching, Breathwork (NZAB 80-Hour + currently completing 400-Hour Sacred Breath Academy training), NLP, Hypnotherapy, and a Diploma in Psychology & Counselling.
Her work is grounded, compassionate, and boundaried – honouring both nervous system science and the spiritual dimensions of healing. This is a space where you're seen, believed, and supported to trust yourself again.