BODY UP CO-REGULATION 
Core Values and Code of Ethics

The Body Up Co-Regulation (BCR) Core Values are for all BCR co-regulators, peers, and professionals. The Body Up Co-Regulation Code of Ethics applies directly to professionals who use BCR within their practice and within their scope of practice.   

CORE VALUES  OF BODY UP CO-REGULATION 

Reciprocity: We value reciprocity in our co-regulation relationships. Co-regulation is only co-regulation when it is good for both people. 

Co-regulation: We initiate and cultivate co-regulation from the body up in formal and informal ways. We bring awareness to the state of our nervous system and make healthy choices about how to regulate ourselves and encourage others to do the same.

Safety: We track and value the neuroception of safety. This supports co-regulation, learning, healing, collaboration, and peer relationships. This may mean accurately assessing your co-regulators’ ability to notice and speak up for themselves. This includes not shaming others and holding safe space for being with shame when it does arise, especially shame around embodiment or doing practices that make a person uncomfortable.  We think about and consider accommodations around whatever does cause shame for someone. We respect boundaries around shame.  

Well-being: We promote the well-being of peers, clients, and students. In our choices, words, actions, and body language, we seek to support the well-being and sense of safety of those around us. We attend to our own well-being and sense of safety, knowing that it is essential (to our success and service).   

Embodiment: We value embodiment, explicitly and implicitly. We welcome and attend to the body-up experience and wisdom of our peers, clients, and students. We cultivate embodiment in ourselves and in our interactions with colleagues, clients, and students. 

Equity, justice, and anti-oppression work: We are committed to equity, justice and anti-oppression work. We work to empower our clients by acknowledging their expertise and their authority over their own experience. We make a continual and concerted effort to relate as fellow human beings on a journey.  We work to stay conscious of our power as practitioners, and not to unconsciously default to hierarchical boundaries when they are unnecessary. 

Dismantling the internal blueprint for oppression: We work to dismantle oppression in our own internal mind-body relationship. We seek to attend to our own body awareness so that we can cultivate and model fair and attuned authentic relating. We recognize that letting our minds subjugate our bodies interferes with physical health, and authentic, peer relationships. This is an important antidote to oppression in our culture.

Collaborative peer relationships: We seek to rewire our own and each other’s nervous systems for collaborative peer relationships so that we do not default to hierarchy when it is not useful or necessary. We seek to build relationships outside of authoritarian power dynamics.

Honor capacity and limitations: We honor capacity and limitations. This includes being mindful of contraindications for co-regulation practices, be they physical, emotional, or trauma-based. We do not push ourselves or others beyond capacity at any given moment.  

THE CODE OF ETHICS  FOR BODY UP CO-REGULATION 

Adhere to the ethical codes and standards of your profession and licensure when using BCR with clients, patients, or students, AND adhere to the BCR Code of Ethics, below. Pay particular attention to functioning within your scope of practice.  

1. BCR practitioners hold their client’s safety, well-being, and benefit as the primary objective in their professional role. 
2. BCR practitioners take measures to cultivate a safe space for all participants.
3. BCR practitioners accurately represent their certifications.
4. BCR practitioners function within their scope of practice. 
5. BCR practitioners are aware of the differences between regulatory use of the exercises and therapeutic use of the exercises and refrain from psychotherapeutic interventions if they are not trained as psychotherapists.
6. BCR practitioners track attunement to self and other to deepen co-regulation. 
7. BCR practitioners track triggering in self and other to ensure safety.
8. BCR practitioners track reciprocity to ensure fairness and appropriate use of time. 
9. BCR practitioners avoid all sexual intimacy, innuendo, or sexual touch with clients or students in BCR sessions.
10. BCR practitioners avoid introducing new levels of intimate (affectionate, sensual, or sexual) touch with peers during BCR sessions.
11. BCR practitioners model self-care as part of BCR intervention as appropriate. (This helps clients trust that the practitioner is well-regulated and self-responsible.  It reassures clients that they do not have to regulate their therapist.)