Brain Talk: Integrated therapy that includes a discussion about the brain with the client Part 6 of 8

Part 6 of 8

The Brain-Based Common Denominator

• New discoveries in neuroscience that inform psychotherapy
• Neuroplasticity – the need for a moderate degree of activation
• Neurogenesis – motivation to exercise and learn
• Affect asymmetry – establishing new set points
• The amygdala – fast and slow tracks
• Default mode network – making daydreaming useful

The Social Brain-Based Therapy

• Polyvagal Theory – social engagement system
• Mirror neurons and spindle cells – increasing empathy
  and emotional intuition
• Attachment and temperament – earning security
• Facial expressions – enhancing mood
• Attachment and transference – earning security
• Outcome management – monitoring the relationship

Maintaining Healthy Brains: Planting SEEDS

• Social support – activating and maintaining the social brain networks
• Exercise – balancing moods, boosting cognition and stimulating neurogenesis
• Education – broadening cognitive reserve and expanding adaptability
• Diet – providing the building blocks to a healthy brain
• Sleep – maintaining sleeping hygiene to keep moods balanced and cognition clear

REST from Generalised Anxiety

• Parasympathetic activation – somatic exercises
• Cognitive reframing and thinking reasonably
• Flooding the worry circuit – scheduled worrying
• GAD – The Orbital Frontal Cortex and exposure to ambiguity
• Client education: the mnemonic REST

BEAT Panic

• Desensitising the amygdala – learning to avoid avoidance
• Exposure – learning how habituation deactivates the amygdala
• Interceptive exposure exercises – teaching clients to embrace their body sensations
• Speeding up the slow track – getting the left pre-frontal cortex involved
• Client education: the mnemonic BEAT

SAFE from Posttraumatic Stress

• Phase 1 – Stabilisation
• Phase 2 – Integration
• Phase 3 – Posttraumatic Growth
• Client education: the mnemonic SAFE

Healthy ORDER

• Engaging attention – helping clients shift out of automatic behaviours
• Developing more adaptive behaviours
• Exposure – to habituate to discomfort
• Response prevention – from urges to engage in compulsive behaviours
• Client education: the mnemonic ORDER

TEAM for Depression

• Restoring physiology – sleep hygiene techniques
• The Effort-Driven Reward Circuit – Behaviour activation
• Hippocampus – Providing realistic context to break out of mood
  congruent thinking
• Kindling the left PFC – Countering negativistic thinking with inquiry and
  details, affective labelling and approach behaviours
• Mindfulness – quieting ruminations and neutralising monotony