More and more therapists have begun wondering how far all our impressive-sounding talk about the brain has gone in improving therapy’s effectiveness. After all, dropping stray neuroscience factoids into therapy sessions doesn’t equal “brain-based” therapy. So we’ve decided to ask some challenging questions about our profession’s infatuation with the brain: when all is said and done, has brain science actually lived up to its promise for psychotherapy? What specific clinical advances, if any, have been guided or encouraged by knowing more about neuroscience?

Labeling behavior in fancy neurophysiological terms can make what we do sound more scientifically rigorous than the notoriously fuzzy language of psychotherapy, but how clinically useful is this brain language anyway?

Most of us put much too much faith in the power of our conscious minds to bring about lasting change. Instead of looking up the higher branches of consciousness, we should be looking down into the nervous system settings that generate impulses and inclinations.

If therapists are going to bring genuine insights—not just soundbites—from neuroscience into the practice of therapy, they need the nuanced, sophisticated understanding of the brain that gifted explicators like Stephen Porges and Norman Doidge offer.

More than any other positive emotion, love resides within connections. It extends beyond personal boundaries to characterize the vibe that pulsates between and among people. It can even energize whole social networks or inspire a crowd to get up and dance.

Learning even a little about nutrition and diet can greatly enhance therapists’ ability to help clients with mood problems.

Therapists must offer abused children a different felt experience of who they are.

In Emotional First Aid, Manhattan psychologist Guy Winch provides an instructional manual for handling the bumps and bruises of life.

With his enormous success, Malcolm Gladwell has morphed from a darling underdog to a publishing juggernaut at whom it’s now trendy to sling insults.

A Bruce Springsteen song helps crack the unspoken code of father–son communication.