Module 1: Triune 2.0 

• Revisiting the Triune Brain and why the classical model no longer explains complex behaviour
• Introducing Triune 2.0: an updated understanding of brain evolution and integration
• How stress alters processing across brain systems
• Why behaviour changes under load—moving beyond choice, motivation, and willpower

Module 2: Triune and the CARE System

• Reframing the Triune Brain through a subcortical lens
• Introducing the CARE system as foundational to safety, connection, and regulation
• CARE operates below conscious thought, shaping stress responses, readiness to learn
• Calm begets calm: how CARE supports co-regulation through the Interbrain

Module 3a: Evolutionary Tinkering

• Brain evolution as adaptation rather than intelligent design
• Why no brain is “perfectly built” for modern environments and stress
• Oxytocin, connection, and survival across the lifespan
• Reimagining environments through a stress and connection lens

Module 3b: Ancient Gray Brain Neurobiology

• Introducing the Gray Brain as an ancient midbrain system
• Panksepp’s seven Primitive Emotion Circuits (PECs)
• How emotion circuits influence behaviour before conscious thought
• Understanding everyday interactions through stress and emotion systems

Module 4: The Vitalist / Mechanist Debates

• Competing philosophical views of human behaviour and control
• How mechanistic thinking shaped discipline, punishment, and compliance
• Self-control vs. self-regulation as a foundational distinction
• Rewriting our responses with a deeper understanding of stress

Module 5a: A Tangled Skein – Part 1

• Untangling behaviour, emotion, stress, and belief
• Comparing self-control and self-regulation in real-world contexts
• Why effort-based control fails under stress
• Seeing behaviour as a signal, not a problem

Module 5b: A Tangled Skein – Part 2

• Self-Reg difference makers and what they do differently
• Relational, environmental, and systemic shifts that matter
• Moving from reaction to intention
• Reflecting on one’s role in supporting regulation

Module 6a: The PAIN System

• Understanding pain as a biological and emotional experience
• How early stress and pain shape the brain
• Why the past shows up in present behaviour
• Reframing behaviour through a pain-informed lens

Module 6b: Beyond the PAIN System

• Missing internal signals and pushing past limits
• Maladaptive coping and going “past the peak”
• Stress thresholds, overload, and recovery
• Linking pain, stress, and the need for restoration

Module 7: Neurobiology of Gray Brain Sensations

• Continuity theory and what animal research teaches us about humans
• Stress sensations and survival responses
• Why lived experience matters when science lags behind
• Ethical and practical implications for supporting others

Module 8a: In Self-Control’s Court

• Stress, judgment, and moral interpretations of behaviour
• The stress cycle and spillover across life domains
• Soft eyes: understanding others without fixing or forcing
• Using the five domains of Self-Reg to deepen empathy

Module 8b: Misbelief and Confabulation

• What confabulation is—and what it is not
• Why stress distorts belief and certainty
• Reducing the stress load instead of arguing beliefs
• Seeing the person behind the position

Module 8c (Optional): Extra Webinar with Stuart Shanker – A Road to Ataraxia

• Extended philosophical reflections on calm, balance, and uncertainty
• Exploring the limits of control and the pursuit of equanimity
• Integrating course ideas through dialogue and reflection
• Sitting with complexity rather than resolving it

Module 9a: Who’s in Charge? – Part 1

• Brain–body stress states and awareness
• Reflecting on internal states without blame
• Recognizing stress in ourselves and others
• What shifts when we pause to wonder

Module 9b: Who’s in Charge? – Part 2

• What blocks the restoration of rationality
• Fear, shame, identity, and group pressure
• Sensing cracks where reflection can return
• Holding humanity in the presence of non-rational belief

Module 10a: Homo Confabuloso

• Humans as meaning-makers under stress
• How stories protect us when rationality collapses
• CARE, FEAR, and RAGE in shaping behaviour
• Restoration as a lived brain–body experience

Module 10b: Reflecting on Integrating the Gray Brain into Life and Work

• Coming full circle: revisiting early assumptions
• Noticing what has shifted in understanding behaviour and belief
• Recognizing personal patterns of stress and restoration
• Integrating learning into daily life and professional practice