Brain

Getting Unhooked

Connecting with Traumatized Kids Who Push Your Buttons

Most parents “loan” children their adult regulatory system beginning at birth. But developmentally traumatized teens have missed out on this opportunity... Read more

The Downside of Happiness

Beware of What You Wish For
Todd Kashdan & Robert Biswas-Diener

Although happiness is widely beneficial, organizing one’s life around it can lead to a great deal of effort and time being spent unwisely. Trying too hard to... Read more

The Tribal Classroom

Applying attachment theory in schools

Lou Cozolino believes that attachment theory and neuroscience may offer the key to transforming our troubled educational system. Read more

VIDEO: Adjusting Lifestyle Habits for Mental Health

Connecting the Dots between Biology and Brainwork

If you’ve got a client who frequently oversleeps, binges on junk food and alcohol, and passes up fresh air for hours in front of the television, there’s a... Read more

VIDEO: Unlocking the Emotional Brain

Confronting Self-Limiting Beliefs

Bruce Ecker shows how to apply the process of memory reconsolidation to bring about transformational change and therapeutic breakthroughs. Read more

VIDEO: Helping Clients Integrate Past and Present

Bessel van der Kolk on Integration and Healing in Trauma Treatment

Imagine the helplessness of being unable to distinguish painful past experiences from present ones. According to Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps... Read more

Wired for heterosexuality or homosexuality?

The difference between the gay and straight brain

It’s a topic that has been at the center of countless debates, both rational and irrational. Is there a clear biological difference between the heterosexual... Read more

VIDEO: A New Way to Engage Teen Clients

Dan Siegel on the Power of Teenage Brain

Dan Siegel, author of Brainstorm: The Power and the Purpose of the Teenage Brain, knows that nobody—especially an angst-filled teenager—likes being told... Read more

When Talk Isn’t Enough

Easing Trauma’s Lingering Shock

Pioneering trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk shares his thoughts on the differences between public and private trauma. Read more

VIDEO: The Neurobiology of Anxiety

How to Incorporate Brain Science into Your Treatment Approach

According to Margaret Wehrenberg, when it comes to clients with panic disorders, the first thing to discern is what they’re doing to avoid panic. “The... Read more

VIDEO: What Distinguishes the Male and Female Brain?

How the Evolutionary Story Lives within Each of Us

Why do young boys tend to roughhouse while young girls lean towards relational play? According to Louann Brizendine, these and many other differences observed... Read more

VIDEO: How to Install New Mental States

What Therapists Should Know about Brain Change

Until recently, the impact of brain science on the everyday work of most therapists has been pretty limited. According to Rick Hanson, that’s because we’ve... Read more

VIDEO: How to Make Clients Feel Safe

Today's Video: Bringing Polyvagal Theory into Your Practice

How can therapists acquire neuroscientific knowledge without becoming brain scientists themselves? Even more pressing, what real-life practical therapeutic... Read more

Brain Imaging and Psychotherapy

Why is it so controversial?

For nearly 20 years, psychiatrist Daniel Amen has led a controversial crusade to make brain imaging an accepted part of psychotherapeutic practice. Read more

Putting the Pieces Together

25 Years of Learning Trauma Treatment

Twenty-five years ago, we believed that helping trauma survivors dig into dark and unspeakable horrors would set them free. But in this new age of trauma... Read more

Engaging the Emotional Brain

Highlights from Symposium 2014

To get through to clients in our increasingly ADD culture, therapists must learn to evoke a deeper, more visceral engagement with them. At this year’s... Read more

Do Brain Games Build Cognitive Muscle?

Grim Job Prospects for Mental Health Grad

Brain games and grad prospects Read more

The Case for Neurofeedback

Rewiring the brain in the consulting room

The increasing popularity of neurofeedback is based on the growing evidence that a wide variety of psychological disorders can be understood as firing mistakes... Read more

Managing Transference and Countertransference in Somatic Therapy

Does Body-Oriented Therapy Increase the Risk of Transference and Countertransference Responses?

Therapeutic skeptics still cite the possibility of stirring up intense transference and countertransference responses as a compelling reason not to use more... Read more

VIDEO: Psychotherapy as Experiential Drama

Jeffrey Zeig on Bridging the Gap between Knowing and Realizing

Jeff explains the tools he uses to make therapy a true experience—including trance, novelty, and precision in his use of language, and resonant gestures that... Read more

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: The Precursor to Mindfulness Therapy

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Brings Eastern Mindfulness Techniques to Western Medicine

In the late 1970s, before mindfulness exercises caught on in psychotherapy, mindfulness meditation was making inroads into the medical community. This was... Read more

VIDEO: What Does a Client Really Want from Therapy?

Stephen Gilligan on the First Step Toward a Creative Breakthrough

In this clip Stephen Gilligan talks about one of the techniques he employs to help new clients be more specific in setting their therapy goals. Read more

Understanding Somatic Experience: Working With the Body to Heal the Mind

How Can Therapists Overcome Fears About the Body with Clients Who Struggle to Heal from Painful Somatic Experiences?

It’s the very fact that both emotion and reasoning ability are held hostage by their body’s continuing physical reaction to trauma that makes healing so... Read more

What’s happening when a client suffering from symptoms of depression is willing to follow the therapist’s voice with eyes closed? According to Zindal Segal... Read more

Practicing Meditation Against All Odds

Zindel Segal on the Three-Minute Breathing Space

Zin Segal discusses how clients can achieve mindful awareness of their emotional states in just three minutes. Read more

Are Antidepressants the Answer?

Michael Yapko on the Safety and Effectiveness of Antidepressants

Michael Yapko lays out a variety of reasons why antidepressants are not the solution for every client suffering from depression. Read more

The Mindful Body: Communicating With the Body in Therapy

How a Transition to Mindful Body-Focused Therapy Enriched a Formerly Talk-Only Practice

It’s an article of faith among many somatically-oriented practitioners that the body knows more, knows it more directly, and expresses it more honestly than... Read more

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... Read more

The Next Big Step

What’s Ahead in Psychotherapy’s Fascination with Brain Science?

Labeling behavior in fancy neurophysiological terms can make what we do sound more scientifically rigorous than the notoriously fuzzy language of... Read more

The Great Deception

We’re Less in Control Than We Think

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... Read more